Gender Studies | Representation and the Body
G310 | ALL | Gremillion

Representation and the Body asks questions such as: Why has the
incidence of anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders - especially
among women and girls - increased so dramatically in recent decades
and how do competitive sports affect men's images of their bodies?
This course examines a range of bodily practices and cultural codes
that mark the body, and asks why sex-differentiated body rituals have
become salient in recent times.  The course concentrates on the
creation and institutionalization of sexual difference through
representations of the body, also examines attempts to challenge these
representations.  Topics addressed may include: chronic dieting,
sports and fitness; racially and culturally specific body alterations;
cross-dressing and transexualism; the commodification of reproduction;
and "alternative" sexualities.  Scholarly arguments representing the
body as a site of social control and political struggle receive
critical examination.