Under the light shed by contemporary feminist debates, this article inquires into the meanings of the idea that the first and foremost property that anyone can have is over his/her body. We also raise questions regarding the way in which historical and social transformations, as well as frameworks of understanding marked by languages and cultures, leave their imprint on concepts. In this endeavor, we attempt to explain why the gaze from the present, when projected back over the 17th Century and particularly toward Locke's philosophy - object of special attention here - tends to privilege certain reading traditions over others. The questions that underlie our interest in Locke's philosophy are not only linked to a concern for feminist and Latin American readings of the Western philosophical tradition, but more specifically, to the relations between the body and politics and the conditions that make it possible to return, today, to the argument on ownership of the body and some of Locke's formulations on property over one's own self, in debates on women's right to make decisions, as embodied subjects. We seek to establish conceptual precision regarding notions of property and freedom in Locke's work, as well as attempting to establish how the latter is put to use today, and what pitfalls are produced when arguments are made using the notion of ownership of the body in relation to women's rights and freedoms. This includes issues of deciding how to use one's body in the terrain of sexuality, reproductive capacity and other matters in which reference is made to the right to act in consent, such as the exercise of prostitution, surrogate pregnancy etc.
John Locke; freedom; property; liberalism; feminist theory