| The experiences of carnivalesque bodies living and performing in the world show that the object of the gaze is not necessarily an inert, powerless being but is capable of exerting influence over spectators. In the first chapter of this paper, I question modern gynecology's insistence upon the passive body of the patient. In the second chapter, I examine the intersection between gynecology and film theory, two practices which are heavily invested in the passive site of the female body and the power of the gazer. In the final chapter, I argue that by turning more positively to carnivalesque body discourses and the lived experiences of aberrant bodies, we can discover a way to think beyond the female body as the passive, "abnormal" object of the gaze. |
