Experiencing one's own body in a new way. Feminist approaches to body work in anti-violence, prevention and therapy work from the 1970s to the 1990s

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Karen Nolte
• Subject Area: History of Science
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 569490228

A historical reconstruction of feminist bodywork aims to contribute to the so far under-researched somatic dimension of the psychosocial field from the 1970s to 1990s in the Federal Republic of Germany. The thesis of individualization and depoliticization through left-wing alternative psycho-culture, common in previous historical research, will be reflected from a gender-/queer-historical and intersectional perspective Using the example of the emergence and development of feminist eating disorder therapy and Wendo for the prevention of violence, the practice, contexts and social significance of feminist bodywork will be examined in order to explore their transformative potential for gender history. Wendo taught women to assert themselves and protect themselves from violent assaults, while eating disorder therapy worked on changing the relationship to one's own body. In both areas, the availability of the female body was problematized as an expression of social violence and the traditional female body image was actively deconstructed by working on body perception and body language. The aim was to liberate women from normative attributions in the perception of their own bodies and thus have a preventative effect against "male violence" and its psychic consequences. According to the initial thesis of the research project, both fields of feminist bodywork were situated in the field of tension between the politicization of women against the impositions of a patriarchal society and the individualized work on one's own body and self. Nevertheless, specific starting points for feminist action can be identified in both fields of research: The treatment of eating disorders became a central area of expertise in feminist therapy in the 1980s, while Wendo was restructured as a feminist prevention program and linked to feminist therapy during the same period. Taken together, the two fields of research allow a multifaceted approach to feminist bodywork. The aim of the research project is to differentiate the thesis of therapeutisation, which is prominent in body history, through an intersectional, gender- and queer-historical approach on the one hand and a micro-historical approach on the other.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants