Embodied Resistance: Challenging the Norms, Breaking the Rules - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0826517870 ISBN 13: 9780826517876

Verlag: Univ of Chicago Press behalf of Vanderbilt Univ. P, 2011

Inhaltsangabe

Embodied Resistance engages the rich and complex range of society's contemporary "body outlaws"-people from many social locations who violate norms about the private, the repellent, or the forbidden. This collection ventures beyond the conventional focus on the "disciplined body" and instead, examines conformity from the perspective of resisters. By balancing accessibly written original ethnographic research with personal narratives, Embodied Resistance provides a window into the everyday lives of those who defy or violate socially constructed body rules and conventions.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Chris Bobel, Associate Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and Samantha Kwan, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Houston, are co-editors of Embodied Resistance: Challenging the Norms, Breaking the Rules and Body Battlegrounds: Transgressions, Tensions, and Transformations, both published by Vanderbilt.

Aus dem Klappentext

Ethnographies about transgressing social expectations of the body

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Embodied Resistance

Challenging the Norms, Breaking the Rules

By Chris Bobel, Samantha Kwan

Vanderbilt University Press

Copyright © 2011 Vanderbilt University Press
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-8265-1787-6

Contents

Foreword Rose Weitz, ix, 
Acknowledgments, xi, 
Introduction Chris Bobel and Samantha Kwan, 1, 
Part I Rewriting Gender Scripts, 
1 The Specter of Excess: Race, Class, and Gender in Women's Body Hair Narratives Breanne Fahs and Denise A. Delgado, 13, 
2 "Is That Any Way to Treat a Lady?": The Dominatrix's Dungeon Danielle J. Lindemann, 26, 
3 "Cruisin' for a Bruisin'": Women's Flat Track Roller Derby Natalie M. Peluso, 37, 
4 Becoming a Female-to-Male Transgender (FTM) in South Korea Tari Youngjung Na and Hae Yeon Choo, 48, 
LIVING RESISTANCE From Rapunzel to G.I. Jane Samantha Binford, 58, 
LIVING RESISTANCE Funnel as Phallus Sara L. Crawley, 61, 
Part II Challenging Marginalization, 
5 "Give Me a Boa and Some Bling!": Red Hat Society Members Commanding Visibility in the Public Sphere M. Elise Radina, Lydia K. Manning, Marybeth C. Stalp, and Annette Lynch, 67, 
6 Fat. Hairy. Sexy: Contesting Standards of Beauty and Sexuality in the Gay Community Nathaniel C. Pyle and Noa Logan Klein, 78, 
7 Belly Dancing Mommas: Challenging Cultural Discourses of Maternity Angela M. Moe, 88, 
8 "It's Important to Show Your Colors": Counter-Heteronormativity in a Metropolitan Community Church J. Edward Sumerau and Douglas P. Schrock, 99, 
LIVING RESISTANCE An Accidental Education Hanne Blank, 111, 
LIVING RESISTANCE The Pickup Catherine Bergart, 114, 
Part III Defying Authoritative Knowledges and Conventional Wisdom, 
9 Anorexia as a Choice: Constructing a New Community of Health and Beauty through Pro-Ana Websites Abigail Richardson and Elizabeth Cherry, 119, 
10 Public Mothers and Private Practices: Breastfeeding as Transgression Jennifer A. Reich, 130, 
11 "It's Hard to Say": Moving Beyond the Mystery of Female Genital Pain Christine Labuski, 143, 
12 "What I Had to Do to Survive": Self-Injurers' Bodily Emotion Work Margaret Leaf and Douglas P. Schrock, 156, 
LIVING RESISTANCE Intersex? Not My Problem Esther Morris Leidolf, 167, 
LIVING RESISTANCE Doula-Assisted Childbirth: Helping Her Birth Her Way Angela Horn, 170, 
Part IV Negotiating Boundaries and Meanings, 
13 The Politics of the Stall: Transgender and Genderqueer Workers Negotiating "the Bathroom Question" Catherine Connell, 175, 
14 The Everyday Resistance of Vegetarianism Samantha Kwan and Louise Marie Roth, 186, 
15 Menopausal and Misbehaving: When Women "Flash" in Front of Others Heather E. Dillaway, 197, 
16 The Transformation of Bodily Practices among Religious Defectors Lynn Davidman, 209, 
LIVING RESISTANCE Crossing the Menstrual Line David Linton, 220, 
LIVING RESISTANCE Myself, Covered Beverly Yuen Thompson, 222, 
Afterword Barbara Katz Rothman, 225, 
Classroom Resources, 227, 
Contributors, 251, 
Index, 257, 

CHAPTER 1

The Specter of Excess

Race, Class, and Gender in Women's Body Hair Narratives

Breanne Fahs and Denise A. Delgado

Hairy.

Manly.

Dirty.

Animal-like.

Women face these accusations when they choose not to shave, because traditional gender roles have made the body a source of political contention. One recent study states, "Far from being the inevitable outcome of a biological imperative, femininity is produced through a range of practices, including normative body-altering work such as routine hair removal. The very normativity of such practices obscures their constructive role" (Toerien and Wilkinson 2003, 334). Thus, body hair removal is one way women obey social norms dictated by patriarchal expectations. Though over 99 percent of women in the United States reported removing body hair at some point in their lives, few studies have addressed this phenomenon in detail, particularly in light of social identity categories such as race, class, and gender. The few studies conducted on body hair have found that women overwhelmingly construct body hair removal as a normative and taken-for-granted practice that produces an "acceptable" femininity (Toerien, Wilkinson, and Choi 2005). Shaving and plucking—labor women invest in their bodies—constitute practices adopted by most women in the United States, with women typically removing hair from underarms, legs, pubic area, eyebrows, and face. Departure from these norms often elicits negative affect and appraisal for those who rebel; women who do not shave or remove hair report feeling judged and negatively evaluated as "dirty," "gross," and "repulsive" (Toerien and Wilkinson 2004). Further, women rate other women who do not shave as less attractive, intelligent, sociable, happy, and positive compared with hairless women (Basow and Braman 1998).

Research on Body Hair Norms

Historically men's hair has been linked to virility and power, while women's body hair has been associated with "female wantonness" and the denial of women's sexuality (Toerien and Wilkinson 2003). Some accounts, however, eroticize hairy women as desirable, powerful, and highly sexed; for example, some tribal cultures in central Africa embrace women's body hair as a source of power. Typically, female body hair has been linked to insanity, witchcraft, and the devil, while male body hair (particularly facial hair) has been linked to power, strength, fertility, leadership, lustfulness, and masculinity. Feminist scholars have noted that women pluck and shave in order to appear more sexless and infantile and that, in cultures that feel threatened by female power, hairlessness norms have become more pervasive. Lack of pubic hair, for example, may represent the eroticization of girlhood rather than womanhood, a fact that concerns those interested in full gender equality (Toerien and Wilkinson 2003). Some prominent feminists, such as the folk singer Ani DiFranco, have resisted shaving norms publicly and defiantly.

Body hair removal is normative in a variety of cultures, including England, Australia, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Uganda, and Turkey (Cooper 1971; Tiggemann and Kenyon 1998). Within these cultures, over 80 percent of women consistently comply with hair removal, typically beginning at puberty. Before the 1920s, however, few Western women ever removed body hair. Historians suggest that U.S. advertising campaigns in the 1930s ushered in body hair removal, with advice by "beauty experts" and changes in typical fashion (e.g., outfits revealing more skin, celebration of prepubescent female bodies), helping to establish hair removal as a new social convention (Hope 1982). Body hair removal, though relatively recent as a historical development, has spanned the globe: recent studies of Australian women found that nearly 97 percent of women shave their underarms and legs (Tiggemann and Lewis 2004). Research on American women has shown that 92 percent removed their leg hair and 93 percent removed underarm hair, indicating that women comply with body hair norms at rates much higher than those for other dominant body practices (e.g., thinness, long hair, makeup, manicured nails) (Tiggemann and Kenyon 1998).

Not all women are equally eager to remove body hair. For many decades, women in Europe shaved less often than U.S. women, yet this divide is narrowing. There is some evidence that feminist identity, lesbian identity, and older age may predict decreased...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Univ of Chicago Press behalf of Vanderbilt Univ. P
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2011
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0826517870
• ISBN 13: 9780826517876
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 288
• Herausgeber: Bobel Chris
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Friedensallee 273; Hamburg; 22763; Deutschland