SOCY1089 · Sociology

Women and the Body

Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences

This course covers Western cultural pressures on women be super-slender. We analyze biological, sociological, and feminist perspectives on the body especially with regard to issues of beauty and body image and sexuality. We analyze how race, ethnicity and class intersect to create differences among womens relationship to their bodies. In what way do biological perspectives illuminate as well as cloud understanding of women's relationship to their bodies? We explore mass-mediated pressures on women's bodies through films, women's magazine, reality TV, and social networking sites. We examine the plastic surgery industry and the growing trend toward "designer bodies."