SHAME AS AN EMBODIED EMOTION – FACE, BODY AND SEX ROLES IN SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF SHAME

Abstract

This paper presents considerations referring to processes of how shame is constructed socially. Particular attention has been paid to the corporal dimension of the experience of shame. The author has attempted to determine the relationship between the emotion of shame and face, body and sex roles. Shame has been described as the emotion of the face – the notion of “face” is understood metaphorically, as well as literally. Both the social nature of shame and its connection to self-consciousness made it possible to explain the connections between the feeling of shame and sex roles. On the basis of empirical analysis and theoretical considerations, the author concludes that women are more prone to experience shame than men. It is because of the role that the awareness of their own bodies, connected with the process of self-objectification, plays in how women experience these emotions.