Corporality asa Factor of Female Image in the Culture of Ukraine during the Independence Period

The article focuses on the image of women in the culture of Ukraine during the period of independence: on the aspects of corporeality, sexuality, and self-representation. Female body is considered as a significant factor in the structure of female identity. At the same time, attention was drawn to the interpretations of femininity through the stereotyping of women’s functions (social, reproductive, cognitive). In addition, actual representation of “feminine” mainly through biological rather than social was covered. The article focuses on popular gender patterns, such as the corpus of binary oppositions, among which the pretentious “distribution” of areas of domination: the sphere of the female is determined by visibility and material, and the male by the essential and spiritual. The current trends in the transformation of this stereotyping were described, the nature of gender hierarchy and the dynamics of changes around this issue were revealed, with the examples from the visual practices such as performance, video art, photography, painting, poster graphics. The method of studying the representations of the female body in Ukrainian visual culture involved a systematic approach that reveals in the artistically meaningful faces of the female, not only cultural and aesthetic, but also political, social components, introduced in obvious or latent form, according to the current values.