Body Studies: An Introduction

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Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of figures Preface Part I: Understanding the Body from a Social and Cultural Perspective 1. Introduction: Theorizing the Body An introduction to body studies Interesting issues: born this way blog Embodiment Interesting issues: apotemnophilia Inscribing the social order Theorizing the female body Counter-inscription Key terms Further reading Part II: The Scientific and Biomedical Body 2. Healthy and Diseased Bodies The social construction of health and illness Interesting issues: schizophrenia in Ireland Culturally specific illnesses and conditions Disability and the normative body Freaks, monsters, and freak shows Gender, morbidity, and mortality HIV/AIDS: a bodily, social, and cultural phenomenon Class matters: illness and inequality Interesting issues: man robs bank to get health care Key terms Further reading 3. Aging Bodies How we age The culture of youth Interesting issues: the cougar Problems facing the elderly Age norms Interesting issues: Helen Mirren’s bikini Experiences of aging The aging prison population Key terms Further reading 4. Reproducing Bodies Menstruation, fertility, and menopause Contraception, abortion, and reproductive rights Interesting issues: project prevention Population control, race, and the loss of women’s choice Interesting issues: China’s one child policy Pregnancy, childbirth, and lactation Assisted reproductive technologies Prenatal testing and the threat of the designer baby Key terms Further reading 5. Dead Bodies How and where people die Organized death Interesting issues: the killing fields of Cambodia How do we know when we’re dead? Treating the dead Burial rites Other methods of disposing of the dead Interesting isssues: Georgia Tri-State Crematory scandal Key terms Further reading Part III: Mapping Difference onto Bodies 6. Racialized and Colonized Bodies What is race? Interesting issues: the shooting of Trayvon Martin Colonialism and the emergence of race The display and eroticization of racialized bodies Interesting issues: good hair Mapping and measuring bodies in the era of biological racism Race, health, and race purity The animalization of non-white bodies Key terms Further reading 7. Gendered Bodies The gendered body Men are instrumental; women are ornamental Interesting issues: the removal of Hillary Clinton from the Situation Room photo Becoming male or female: circumcision and clitoridectomy Hair matters Women’s bodies: smaller is better Interesting issues: pens for women The problematic male body Male and female: transgendered bodies Key terms Further reading 8. Sexualized Bodies How sex is produced Intersexuality: are there just two sexes? Changing sex: transsexuality Male and female sexualities Interesting issues: Toddlers & Tiaras and the sexualization of little girls Gay, straight, bi, and ?: a diversity of sexualities Body play, bondage, and fetishes Sex as a weapon: rape and castration Interesting issues: the Toronto SlutWalk Key terms Further reading 9. Classed Bodies How does class shape the body? Dirty jobs and clean jobs Pink-collar bodies Consumption, class, and the body Adorning the classed body: sumptuary laws Interesting issues: shoes and class The invisibility of poor bodies Interesting issues: white trash Key terms Further reading Part IV: Bodies and Privilege 10. Beautiful Bodies The science of beauty Interesting issues: the Golden Ratio The importance of female beauty Beauty pays Beautiful men Racialized and classed standards of beauty Interesting issues: ulzzang Manufacturing beauty: cosmetic surgery Key terms Further reading 11. Fat and Thin Bodies The obesity epidemic Interesting issues: the fat acceptance movement and fatshion blogs The drive to lose weight Eating disorders You need some meat on your bones: a preference for fat Weight prejudice Interesting issues: Lane Bryant ad: too fat for TV Sugar, fast food, and the sweetening of the world’s food Key terms Further reading Part V: Extraordinary Bodies 12. Modified Bodies From raw to cooked Body modification in traditional cultures Body modification in states Body modification today Tattooing, gender, and sexuality Interesting issues: Jean Carroll Modern primitives and non-mainstream body modifications Interesting issues: Spanner case Subversive bodies Key terms Further reading 13. Religious Bodies The veil Pollution and the female body Interesting issues: the witch Denying the body: fasting, abstinence, and self-mortification Interesting issues: Christian weight loss programs Religion and sex The body/soul division Bodily practices Spirit possession, stigmata, and resurrection: miracles of the faithful Key terms Further reading Part VI: State and Corporate Regulation of the Body 14. Tortured, Punished, and Convict Bodies Marking deviance: branding, castration, and tattooing Interesting issues: Geneva Convention Torture, rape, and other forms of corporal punishment Capital punishment The rise of the prison and the confinement of criminals Marks of deviance: identifying criminals Interesting issues: mug shots Key terms Further reading 15. Commodified Bodies Slavery and the ownership of people Prostitution, sex trafficking, and sex tourism Interesting issues: virginity for sale Selling love: mail order brides Interesting issues: romance tourism Pornographic bodies How much are bodies, and body parts, worth? Who owns our bodies? Key terms Further reading 16. Animal Bodies Human–animal kinship: evolutionary links Interesting issues: human–animal transformation Domestication and selective breeding: the creation of animal bodies Altering the animal body Bodily control Interesting issues: the link between violence to animals and violence to humans A different kind of hybrid Human–animal kinship: coming together Key terms Further reading Part VII: Bodies of the Future 17. Conclusion: Bodies of the Future Cyborg bodies Virtual bodies Hybrid bodies Digital bodies Key terms Further readin Bibliography Index