@article{Raeburn_2010, place={Washington DC: American Sociological Association.}, title={Feminism, Gender, and the Body}, url={https://trails.asanet.org/article/view/feminism-gender-and-the-body}, abstractNote={Using feminist approaches to gender, this upper-division seminar will critically analyze the body as contested terrain. We begin with theoretical approaches to the gendering of the body, namely social constructionist perspectives. We, then, apply these lenses to actual bodily matter, namely muscles, and consider the varying meanings and consequences that are attached to muscles when they reside in women’s bodies versus men’s. We, then, briefly discuss a variety of feminist theories, focusing, particularly, on their contributions to understanding and critiquing gender and the politics of the body. To further illustrate gender as a social construct, we will discuss drag queens, transsexuals, and the potential that these and other transgender categories have for disrupting versus preserving the gender order. Touching on the difference between trans and the hot new term genderqueer, we will also discuss recent calls from some activists and theorists to expand the political focus from trans rights to gender rights. We, then, turn to queer theory, postmodernism, and poststructuralist approaches to the body.}, journal={TRAILS: Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology}, author={Raeburn, Nicole}, year={2010}, month={Apr.} }