Body Battlegrounds

Description

Body Battlegrounds explores the rich and complex lives of society's body outlaws—individuals from myriad social locations who oppose hegemonic norms, customs, and conventions about the body. Original research chapters (based on textual analysis, qualitative interviews, and participant observation) along with personal narratives provide a window into the everyday lives of people rewriting the norms of embodiment in sites like schools, sporting events, and doctors' offices.



Table of Contents

Introduction | Chris Bobel and Samantha Kwan


Part I: Going "Natural"

• Body Hair Battlegrounds: The Consequences, Reverberations, and Promises of Women Growing Their Leg, Pubic, and Underarm Hair | Breanne Fahs

• Radical Doulas, Childbirth Activism, and the Politics of Embodiment | Monica Basile

• Caring for the Corpse: Embodied Transgression and Transformation in Home Funeral Advocacy | Anne Esacove

Living Resistance:

• Deconstructing Reconstructing: Challenging Medical Advice Following Mastectomy | Joanna Rankin

• My Ten-Year Dreadlock Journey: Why I Love the "Kink" in My Hair . . . Today | Cheryl Thompson

• Living My Full Life: My Rejecting Weight Loss as an Imperative for Recovery from Binge Eating Disorder | Christina Fisanick

• Pretty Brown: Encounters with My Skin Color | Praveena Lakshmanan


Part II: Representing Resistance

• Blood as Resistance: Photography as Contemporary Menstrual Activism | Shayda Kafai

• Am I Pretty Enough for You Yet?: Resistance through Parody in the Pretty or Ugly YouTube Trend | Katherine Phelps

• The Infidel in the Mirror: Mormon Women's Oppositional Embodiment | Kelly Grove and Doug Schrock

Living Resistance:

• A Cystor's Story: Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and the Disruption of Normative Femininity | Ledah McKellar

• Old Bags Take a Stand: A Face Off with Ageism in America | Faith Baum and Lori Petchers

• Making Up with My Body: Applying Cosmetics to Resist Disembodiment | Haley Gentile

• I Am a Person Now: Autism, Indistinguishability, and (Non)optimal Outcome | Alyssa Hillary


Part III: Creating Community, Disrupting Assumptions

• Yelling and Pushing on the Bus: The Complexity of Black Girls' Resistance | Stephanie D. Sears and Maxine Leeds Craig

• Big Gay Men's Performative Protest Against Body Shaming: The Case of Girth and Mirth | Jason Whitesel

• "What's Love Got to Do with It?": The Embodied Activism of Domestic Violence Survivors on Welfare | Sheila M. Katz

Living Resistance:

• "Your Signing Is So Beautiful!": The Radical Invisibility of ASL Interpreters in Public | Rachel Kolb

• Two Shakes | Rev. Adam Lawrence Dyer

• "Showing Our Muslim": Embracing the Hijab in the Era of Paradox | Sara Rehman

• "Doing Out": A Black Dandy Defies Gender Norms in the Bronx | Mark Broomfield

• Everybody: Making Fat Radio for All of Us | Cat Pausé


Part IV: Transforming Institutions and Ideologies

• Embodying Nonexistence: Encountering Mono- and Cisnormativities in Everyday Life | J. E. Sumerau

• Freeing the Nipple: Encoding the Heterosexual Male Gaze into Law | J. Shoshanna Ehrlich

• Give Us a Twirl: Male Baton Twirlers' Embodied Resistance in a Feminized Terrain | Trenton M. Haltom

• "That Gentle Somebody": Rethinking Black Female Same-Sex Practices and Heteronormativity in Contemporary South Africa | Taylor Riley

Living Resistance:

Sujets

• Gender Studies
• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Sociology
• Race

Informations

• Publié par: Vanderbilt University Press
• Date de parution: 28 mai 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9780826522351
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Body Battlegrounds
Body Battlegrounds
Transgressions, Tensions, and Transformations
Edited by Chris Bobel and Samantha Kwan
Vanderbilt University Press
Nashville
© 2019 by Vanderbilt University Press
Nashville, Tennessee 37235
All rights reserved
First printing 2019
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bobel, Chris, 1963– editor. | Kwan, Samantha, 1971– editor.
Title: Body battlegrounds: transgressions, tensions, and transformations / edited by Chris Bobel and Samantha Kwan.
Description: Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2018027236 (print) | LCCN 2018044292 (ebook) | ISBN 9780826522351 (ebook) | ISBN 9780826522337 (cloth: alk. paper) | ISBN 9780826522344 (pbk.: alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Human body—Social aspects. | Manners and customs. | Women—Psychology. | Sexual minorities—Psychology.
Classification: LCC HM636 (ebook) | LCC HM636.B5837 2019 (print) | DDC 306.4/613—dc23
LC record available at lccn.loc.gov/2018027236
ISBN 978-0-8265-2233-7 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-8265-2234-4 (paperback)
ISBN 978-0-8265-2235-1 (ebook)
For Leela, Jan, Matthew, James, Lucy, Saartje, Fiona, Francecca, Nabra, Rick, and Tilly
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chris Bobel and Samantha Kwan
Part I: Going “Natural”
1. Body Hair Battlegrounds: The Consequences, Reverberations, and Promises of Women Growing Their Leg, Pubic, and Underarm Hair
Breanne Fahs
2. Radical Doulas, Childbirth Activism, and the Politics of Embodiment
Monica Basile
3. Caring for the Corpse: Embodied Transgression and Transformation in Home Funeral Advocacy
Anne Esacove
LIVING RESISTANCE
Deconstructing Reconstructing: Challenging Medical Advice Following Mastectomy
Joanna Rankin
LIVING RESISTANCE
My Ten-Year Dreadlock Journey: Why I Love the “Kink” in My Hair…Today
Cheryl Thompson
LIVING RESISTANCE
Living My Full Life: Rejecting Weight Loss as an Imperative for Recovery from Binge Eating Disorder
Christina Fisanick
LIVING RESISTANCE
Pretty Brown: Encounters with My Skin Color
Praveena Lakshmanan
Part II: Representing Resistance
4. Blood as Resistance: Photography as Contemporary Menstrual Activism
Shayda Kafai
5. Am I Pretty Enough for You Yet?: Resistance through Parody in the Pretty or Ugly YouTube Trend
Katherine Phelps
6. The Infidel in the Mirror: Mormon Women’s Oppositional Embodiment
Kelly Grove and Doug Schrock
LIVING RESISTANCE
A Cystor’s Story: Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and the Disruption of Normative Femininity
Ledah McKellar
LIVING RESISTANCE
Old Bags Take a Stand: A Face Off with Ageism in America
Faith Baum and Lori Petchers
LIVING RESISTANCE
Making Up with My Body: Applying Cosmetics to Resist Disembodiment
Haley Gentile
LIVING RESISTANCE
I Am a Person Now: Autism, Indistinguishability, and (Non)optimal Outcome
Alyssa Hillary
Part III: Creating Community, Disrupting Assumptions
7. Yelling and Pushing on the Bus: The Complexity of Black Girls’ Resistance
Stephanie D. Sears and Maxine Leeds Craig
8. Big Gay Men’s Performative Protest against Body Shaming: The Case of Girth and Mirth
Jason Whitesel
9. “What’s Love Got to Do with It?”: The Embodied Activism of Domestic Violence Survivors on Welfare
Sheila M. Katz
LIVING RESISTANCE
“Your Signing Is So Beautiful!”: The Radical Invisibility of ASL Interpreters in Public
Rachel Kolb
LIVING RESISTANCE
Two Shakes
Rev. Adam Lawrence Dyer
LIVING RESISTANCE
“Showing Our Muslim”: Embracing the Hijab in the Era of Paradox
Sara Rehman
LIVING RESISTANCE
“Doing Out”: A Black Dandy Defies Gender Norms in the Bronx
Mark Broomfield
LIVING RESISTANCE
Everybody: Making Fat Radio for All of Us
Cat Pausé
Part IV: Transforming Institutions and Ideologies
10. Embodying Nonexistence: Encountering Mono- and Cisnormativities in Everyday Life
J. E. Sumerau
11. Freeing the Nipple: Encoding the Heterosexual Male Gaze into Law
J. Shoshanna Ehrlich
12. Give Us a Twirl: Male Baton Twirlers’ Embodied Resistance in a Feminized Terrain
Trenton M. Haltom
13. “That Gentle Somebody”: Rethinking Black Female Same-Sex Practices and Heteronormativity in Contemporary South Africa
Taylor Riley
LIVING RESISTANCE
Showing Up as Myself: Embodiment and Authenticity in the Classroom
Ryan Ambuter
LIVING RESISTANCE
Sitting and Resisting: How Using a Wheelchair Confronts Ideas of Normal
Margaret Stran
LIVING RESISTANCE
Against Diabetic Numerology in a Black Body, or, Why I Cannot Live by the Numbers
Anthony Ryan Hatch
LIVING RESISTANCE
My Women’s Studies Professor Uses Botox?
Dana Berkowitz
Afterword: Bodies of Resistance
Sonya Renee Taylor
Contributors
Index
Acknowledgments
Ours is a project that depended on countless generous, smart, creative people to bring to fruition.
We begin with our editor Michael Ames whose belief in the aim of the book and wise advice on nearly every detail served as our rudder in sometimes-rocky seas.
We were fortunate to have the handiwork of skilled and good-natured Taylor Burns who prepared the manuscript for peer review and Camille Nelson who expertly prepared the index. We deeply appreciate Meika Loe and the two anonymous reviewers who provided tremendously helpful feedback that strengthened the book. We are also grateful to Fanni Farago for her assistance supporting and supplementing our marketing efforts.
We tapped many people to help us spread word of the book. Some went out of their way to connect us with potential contributors, shining a light on the value of intellectual community (and email!). Among these good people are Abigail Brooks, Connie Chow, Michael Cottingham, Abby Ferber, Robb Hernandez, Afshan Jafar, Simi Linton, Sharon Oselin, CJ Pascoe, Abigail Saguy, Mary Nell Trautner, and Anne Zelek.
A special thanks goes out to talented Jax Gonzalez who designed our Call for Contributors flyer and the incredibly creative Elina Tuomi for sharing her beautiful artwork with us as possible cover images.
We also thank Breanne Fahs, who not only contributed a chapter, but also generously allowed us to “pinch” the title of her chapter as the title of the entire collection.
Body Battlegrounds
Introduction
Chris Bobel and Samantha Kwan
Bodies are messy. Everybody knows this, and yet we, culturally speaking, go to great lengths to conceal this basic human truth. Bodies come in an innumerable array of shapes, sizes, skin tones, and physical capacities. Everybody knows this, too, and yet we, culturally speaking, uphold a pretty narrow notion of what makes a good one, an attractive one, a desirable one. This is because every culture has an abundance of rules circumscribing what bodies should or should not do or look like. There are norms about body hair, giving birth, and treating medical diseases. There are even norms about what should happen to our bodies when we die.
Norms are complex and varied. While some are institutionalized—such as public-indecency laws that regulate women’s right to expose their breasts in public—others are subtle and threaded throughout media discourses and everyday talk. There are no formal prohibitions stating that gay men cannot be fat and desirable, or that boys cannot participate in baton twirling. However, the reactions to these embodiments suggest some compelling unwritten rules.
Norms are also contingent upon time and place. A young hijabi observes that she has lost her teachers’ smiles after 9/11. She is the same hijabi who chats comfortably with her peers at an urban college but is then subject to a physical and verbal assault in a parking lot outside a Walmart.
Norms exert tremendous pressure on us to conform. Of course, ideologies and practices of age, class, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, and ability intersect to inform expectations around accepted cultural standards. Nevertheless, to state the obvious, norms normalize. They are embedded in institutions, structures, and discourses, creating social relations of power that exert a near-magnetic force on us. These social relations can produce bodies that are disciplined and docile (Foucault 1995). Ultimately, we self-regulate. As Bartky remarks about women’s compliance with narrowly defined beauty norms, “no one is marched off for electrolysis at gunpoint” (1988, 75). At times we knowingly comply. A gay man, well aware of the norms of gender in the northeast Bronx, decides it’s easier to go outside passing as straight. By wearing loose fitting clothes and downplaying anything that might allow others to code his sexuality as gay, he’ll avoid the verbal harassment he often experiences walking down the street. Other times, we are less conscious of our compliance. For example, as part of their morning routines, many women put on makeup. They give little consideration as to how this taken-for-granted act reinforces “emphasized femininity,” a form of femininity defined around subordination and the accommodation of the interests of men (Connell 1987). Self-regulation persists even when it works against self-interest; scholarship exposes how beauty practices are harmful to girls’ and women’s physical health an