Vol. 5 No. 1 (2019)

Readers will find three peer-reviewed articles in this issue. The first is “The Construction of a Consumable Body,” by Alison Suen, who proceeds from an analysis of attitudes regarding pregnant women’s bodies to a view of women, more generally, as made responsible for producing a consumable body. Suen argues that the default position of women as consumable is reinforced both by erasing the maternal body and by appealing to the “naturalness” of breastfeeding.

Suen's arguments are interestingly related to those of Céline Leboeuf, author of our second article, “Anatomy of the Thigh Gap.” Leboeuf argues that women seeking the idealized body in this respect manifest what she calls bodily alienation. She notes that this policing of the body is done in service of an ideal, the individual pursuit of which can constitute self-harm, and she suggests the alternative pursuit of what she calls sensualism, the capacity to enjoy one’s body “not simply by expanding one’s ideals of bodily beauty, but by developing an inner appreciation of the body through physical practices.”

In our third article, “Feminist Aims and a Trans-Inclusive Definition of ‘Woman,’” Katie L. Kirkland argues against feminist accounts of “woman” that fail to respect trans identities, and establishes “that non-passing trans women are oppressed as women through the internalization of sexual objectification.” Kirkland concludes that an account of “woman” that excludes non-passing trans women cannot successfully advance a complete understanding of women’s oppression.