WMNST 230NDangerous Bodies

3 credits · Women's Studies · Penn State

This class will examine the ways bodies are marked as deviant, abnormal, and/or pathological by exploring processes of sexed, raced, gendered, and able-bodied normalization. Case studies range from turn-of-the-century sexology to the modern freak show, the politics of passing, the science of homosexuality, the pleasures of trans and queer embodiment, the biopolitics of AIDS, and eugenics and U.S. citizenship. Readings include theoretical, historical, social and behavioral science, and ethnographic approaches to power, difference, and the body.