@article{Ferguson_2010, place={Washington DC: American Sociological Association.}, title={Sociology of the Body}, url={https://trails.asanet.org/article/view/sociology-of-the-body-ferguson}, abstractNote={This course examines one of the most contested terrains of human experience, the body. In particular, the sociology of the body is a subfield of sociology that utilizes sociological inquiry and feminist scholarship to understand how bodies are socially constructed in different societies, cultures, and time periods. In this course, we examine the politics of appearance and the body, how bodies are gendered, sexualized, and racialized, and how social forces shape human bodies and bodily experience. Thus, we examine the body not merely as a physical object, but as a container and expression of the self, as an object of social control, and as a social construction with complex and shifting age, gender, race, and social class meanings. Potential topics include: aging and the body; women’s, men’s, and intersexed bodies; pregnancy and the body; body work, sports, exercise, and athleticism; sex and sexuality; disability; illness and the body; ethical dilemmas related to the body; body objectification, beautification, and mutilation; and the treatment of dead bodies. }, journal={TRAILS: Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology}, author={Ferguson, Susan}, year={2010}, month={Apr.} }