* Who can be Miss America? What are the standards of beauty and how are they set?
*Is menstruation everywhere viewed as a curse or handicap?
*Is childbirth seen universally as an illness to be medicated?
*How does reproduction regulated, governed? Who is the “ideal” reproductive subject?
This course explores these and related questions, investigating how women around the world experience their bodies through the life cycle. We'll inquire how not only social roles but also images, uses and meanings of the bodies that all women inhabit are shaped in deep, though often invisible, ways by culture and politics. We do this by comparing women's experiences of their bodies in the contemporary U.S. with those of women elsewhere around the world. Through readings, documentaries, clips, podcasts, guest speakers, the course introduces you to the gendered experience of the body as understood by cultural and medical anthropology.
- Teacher: Nilay Erten