“If I Were a Boy”

Phenomenological analysis traditionally focuses on the body as a phenomenon from a first person perspective. In feminist phenomenological thought, this has provoked a debate about whether only someone in the situation of being a woman can speak about a woman’s body. I want to discuss the challenges and the possibilities that a phenomenology of gendered bodies entails. A phenomenology that aims to raise awareness not only of the singularity and specificity of gendered bodies and the gender norms shaping their experiences, but also of their differences and similarities, can benefit from critically reconsidering and enhancing the first-person approach. I will claim that the phenomenological focus on first-personal investigations does not need to be abandoned entirely in order to engage with gendered bodies in a non-essentialist and critical way, but can be fulfilled byway of an aesthetically framed concept of empathy (Einfühlung).