Identity Rooted in the Body: Generational Strategies for Women’s Leadership in a Culture of Exposure

Abstract

The article examines corporeality as a tool of communication in women’s leadership from a generational perspective. Its primary aim is to show how the female body, entangled in the norms of the culture of exposure, may be transformed into a resource
of agency, redefinition, and resistance. Through the prism of corporeality, the article analyzes transformations in the representation of women’s leadership within the context of changing visual culture. The culture of exposure, grounded in the paradoxical intertwining of eroticism and control, shapes both the representation of the female body and its social reception. In this framework, the female body is treated both as an object of visual consumption and as a space in which identity is negotiated. From this perspective, women leaders representing different generations adopt distinct strategies of corporeal communication that arise from their specific forms of social embeddedness. For representatives of Generation X, the body functions as a symbolic sign of perseverance,longevity, and resistance to cultural constraints. The example of Ruth Bader Ginsburg demonstrates that corporeality remains restrained yet meaningful, inscribed within the institutional ethos of power. Generation Y leaders, such as Jacinda
Ardern and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, deploy corporeality in ways integrated with visual storytelling. Their media presence combines embodiment with emotional authenticity, accessibility, and the breaking of stereotypes. The body thus becomes a social message, serving both to affirm femininity and to redefine leadership. In turn, representatives of Generation Z, operating in the conditions of convergent media and instantaneous visual communication, treat corporeality performatively—as a flexible tool of expression, self-irony, and activism. The body of the Generation Z leader is no longer a stable symbol; rather, it becomes movement, change, and a response to context. The article presents corporeality as a dynamic field of meaning—not merely an object of evaluation, but also a means of communication that assumes different functions depending on the generation. This approach enables a reinterpretation of female leadership as a phenomenon deeply rooted in the cultural semantics of the body. The analysis of empirical cases shows that corporeality may function both as a source of oppression and as a tool of emancipation. In this way, the article contributes to an interdisciplinary reflection on the role of the body in the social construction of women’s authority and identity within leadership culture.