NEDIC Conference Journal 2018

eing. In particular, upon the onset of puberty girls’
and women’s experiences of active engagement in
the physical sphere becomes restricted due to
multiple factors, such as: the masculinization of
sports and restrictive norms of femininity, confining
and exposing clothing, the smaller allocation of
resources to girls and women’s sports, compromised
safety, and inequity in the domestic sphere [1,9]. As
Piran describes [1], living in financially challenged
circumstances or in unsafe neighborhoods further
limits opportunities for engagement in physical
activities and the freedom of movement in the
public sphere.
3. Privileges and Challenges in the Physical
Domain
Physical experiences are powerful in
shaping experiences of embodiment by affecting the
quality of connection and comfort in the body,
embodied agency, experience and expression of
desires, engagement in attuned care, and resistance
to self-objectification. The DTE highlights four key
experiences that affect embodiment in the physical
domain, that are, in turn affected by intersecting
dimensions of social privilege [1].
3.1. Safety versus violations to the
body territory
Violence takes places within the context of
inequity of power and privilege, leading to enhanced
powerlessness, shame, and multiple disruptions in
the body domain among victims. Sexual violations
are common among adolescent girls and women,
who, most commonly experience rape before age
18, with a lifetime prevalence rate of over 1 in 6
women [4]. This challenge is more severe among
specific groups of women, such as women of color
and members of indigenous communities in North
America [5], women who identify their sexual
orientation as lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, or
questioning [6] or their gender identity as
transgender [7], and women living with physical
disability [8].
3.2. Freedom versus restriction to
physical engagement and movement.
Similar to the experience of safety, freedom
to physical engagement and movement in the public
sphere is granted to privileged members of society,
enhancing their embodied agency, joy and well
3.3 Sanctioning versus Vilification of
Desire
Connection, comfort, and agency in the
practice of desire enhance positive embodiment
[1,10]. However, women go through challenging
journeys connecting with their sexual desires and
commonly report difficulties in being attuned to
their desires and communicating their preferences
and boundaries in sexual practices [1,10]. Such
challenges relate to the lack of validation, and the
common vilification, of female desire [8,10,11],
sexual objectification and performance expectations
[12,13], the range of sexual violations [10], and the
practice of sexuality within the context of
inequitable power related to gender, class,
ethnicity/race, physical disability and other social
variables [14]. The experience and practice of sexual
desire among individuals who identify their sexual
orientation as lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, or
questioning or their gender identity as transgender is
further oppressed along all these lines [8].
Connection to appetite is also commonly disrupted
among adolescent girls and women related to the
dictate that they restrict the physical space they
occupy in terms of size [1]. In homes where food
insecurity exists, connection to appetite is further
challenged [15].
3.4 The practice of care of the body
versus body neglect.
Greater opportunities to practice attuned
care of the body are more available to privileged
members of society. Adolescent girls and women
face multiple challenges in the physical care of their
bodies [1]. For example, adolescent girls and women
face little societal support in dealing with the
spectrum of sexual violations, the vilification of
female desire, menstruation, contraception,
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