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Illegitimate bodies? Turner syndrome and the silent interplay of age, gender, and generational positions

This paper focuses on the strength of social norms that define the right development of the body in time. It also analyzes how the social positions of age, gender and generation intertwine in the definition of such a legitimate body. The starting point is anthropological research carried out in Fran...

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Autor principal: Diasio, Nicoletta
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10030844/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36968511
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2023.1084707
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author Diasio, Nicoletta
author_facet Diasio, Nicoletta
author_sort Diasio, Nicoletta
collection PubMed
description This paper focuses on the strength of social norms that define the right development of the body in time. It also analyzes how the social positions of age, gender and generation intertwine in the definition of such a legitimate body. The starting point is anthropological research carried out in France between 2018 and 2020 among girls and women affected by Turner syndrome, a rare genetic condition causing small stature, ovarian insufficiency, a delay or absence of puberty, and infertility. We first explore how measuring the body has become central in the social construction of the concept of age-appropriateness. We then present four women' narratives, which express various forms of desynchronization: the gap between physical appearance, chronological age and age status; the cleft between the physical development induced by hormone therapy and being in a particular stage in life; the difference between chronological and reproductive age; and lastly, the trouble in a generational position related to infertility. For women suffering from this genetic condition, the gap between bodies, time and social statuses associated with age, gender and generation, may engender a feeling of “being out of place.” The alignment of body and time is then one of the bastions of essentialization and naturalization. Finally, we stress the complex interplay of bodily and social markers of age and gender, and their role in social relations as both a resource and a constraint. Thus, while the syndrome may cause distress and sometimes a lack of legitimacy, it also leads to a critical re-examination of hegemonic models of womanhood and their intersection with age positions.
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spelling pubmed-100308442023-03-23 Illegitimate bodies? Turner syndrome and the silent interplay of age, gender, and generational positions Diasio, Nicoletta Front Sociol Sociology This paper focuses on the strength of social norms that define the right development of the body in time. It also analyzes how the social positions of age, gender and generation intertwine in the definition of such a legitimate body. The starting point is anthropological research carried out in France between 2018 and 2020 among girls and women affected by Turner syndrome, a rare genetic condition causing small stature, ovarian insufficiency, a delay or absence of puberty, and infertility. We first explore how measuring the body has become central in the social construction of the concept of age-appropriateness. We then present four women' narratives, which express various forms of desynchronization: the gap between physical appearance, chronological age and age status; the cleft between the physical development induced by hormone therapy and being in a particular stage in life; the difference between chronological and reproductive age; and lastly, the trouble in a generational position related to infertility. For women suffering from this genetic condition, the gap between bodies, time and social statuses associated with age, gender and generation, may engender a feeling of “being out of place.” The alignment of body and time is then one of the bastions of essentialization and naturalization. Finally, we stress the complex interplay of bodily and social markers of age and gender, and their role in social relations as both a resource and a constraint. Thus, while the syndrome may cause distress and sometimes a lack of legitimacy, it also leads to a critical re-examination of hegemonic models of womanhood and their intersection with age positions. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-03-08 /pmc/articles/PMC10030844/ /pubmed/36968511 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2023.1084707 Text en Copyright © 2023 Diasio. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Sociology
Diasio, Nicoletta
Illegitimate bodies? Turner syndrome and the silent interplay of age, gender, and generational positions
title Illegitimate bodies? Turner syndrome and the silent interplay of age, gender, and generational positions
title_full Illegitimate bodies? Turner syndrome and the silent interplay of age, gender, and generational positions
title_fullStr Illegitimate bodies? Turner syndrome and the silent interplay of age, gender, and generational positions
title_full_unstemmed Illegitimate bodies? Turner syndrome and the silent interplay of age, gender, and generational positions
title_short Illegitimate bodies? Turner syndrome and the silent interplay of age, gender, and generational positions
title_sort illegitimate bodies? turner syndrome and the silent interplay of age, gender, and generational positions
topic Sociology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10030844/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36968511
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2023.1084707
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