Authors: Rose Weitz
ISBN-13: 9780195390636, ISBN-10: 0195390636
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Date Published: October 2009
Edition: 3rd Edition
Arizona State University
For nearly three decades, feminist scholars have examined how the female body and ideas about the female body affect women's lives. The Politics of Women's Bodies: Sexuality, Appearance, and Behavior, 2/e, brings together recent critical writings in this important field, covering such diverse topics as the sources of eating disorders, the nature of lesbianism, and the consequences of violence against women. With the exception of two classic articles, all pieces were published in the last decade, and one-quarter of the selections are new to the second edition.
The Politics of Women's Bodies: Sexuality, Appearance, and Behavior, 2/e, begins by looking at how ideas about women's bodies become culturally accepted. As the writings in the first section demonstrate, this is a political process that can reflect, reinforce, or challenge the distribution of power between men and women. Subsequent sections look at how, once ideas about women's bodies become accepted, they can serve as powerfuland politicaltools for controlling women's appearance, sexuality, and behavior. Articles new to this edition include "Daring to Desire: Culture and the Bodies of Adolescent Girls," by Deborah L. Tolman; "Casing My Joints: A Private and Public Story of Arthritis," by Mary Lowenthal Felstiner; and "Holding Back: Negotiating a Glass Ceiling on Women's Muscular Strength," by Shari L. Dworkin. This unique interdisciplinary anthology is ideal for undergraduate courses that cover the body and sexuality. It is also appropriate for introductory courses in women's studies and courses in the psychology, anthropology, or sociology of women; women and health; and feminist theory.
Preface | ||
Pt. 1 | The Social Construction of Women's Bodies | 1 |
1 | A History of Women's Bodies | 3 |
2 | Believing is Seeing: Biology as Ideology | 12 |
3 | Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power | 25 |
4 | Women and Medicalization: A New Perspective | 46 |
Pt. 2 | The Politics of Sexuality | 65 |
5 | From the "Muscle Moll" to the "Butch" Ballplayer: Mannishness, Lesbianism, and Homophobia in U.S. Women's Sports | 67 |
6 | Menarche and the (Hetero)sexualization of the Female Body | 82 |
7 | Daring to Desire: Culture and the Bodies of Adolescent Girls | 100 |
8 | Selling Hot Pussy: Representations of Black Female Sexuality in the Cultural Marketplace | 122 |
Pt. 3 | The Politics of Appearance | 133 |
9 | Women and Their Hair: Seeking Power Through Resistance and Accommodation | 135 |
10 | Breasted Experience: The Look and the Feeling | 152 |
11 | Women and the Knife: Cosmetic Surgery and the Colonization of Women's Bodies | 164 |
12 | Medicalization of Racial Features: Asian-American Women and Cosmetic Surgery | 184 |
13 | Mirror Mirror | 201 |
14 | Casing My Joints: A Private and Public Story of Arthritis | 206 |
Pt. 4 | Politics, Bodies, and Behavior | 217 |
15 | Becoming a Gendered Body: Practices of Preschools | 219 |
16 | "Holding Back": Negotiating a Glass Ceiling on Women's Muscular Strength | 240 |
17 | Till Death Us Do Part | 257 |
18 | Meno-Boomers and Moral Guardians: An Exploration of the Cultural Construction of Menopause | 271 |
19 | The Future of Reproductive Choice for Poor Women and Women of Color | 282 |
20 | "Fetal Rights": A New Assault on Feminism | 290 |