This article addresses surveillance and social judgment as mechanisms of female body production and legitimation, which play a key role in the gender socialization of middle-class women in Santiago, Chile. It is based on a critical review of the main findings of a study on the meanings produced by middle-class women about their bodies, while interviewed about their sexual practices, in particular about their use of sex toys. The socialization processes whereby women’s sexuality is regulated involve the legitimation of women’s bodies, as well as their surveillance and social judgment in everyday settings.
body; sexual control; dominant sexual system; sex toys; Chile