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Bodies: A Digital Companion

Bodily Difference

Definition and Context
What marks a body as “different”? How do bodily differences shape perception and management of our bodies, creating and enforcing stigmas? In order to more fully understand what bodily difference means, we need to explore race, disability, and age as well as other markers of bodily difference including class, gender, and sexuality through a socio-cultural lens rather than only a biological/scientific one.

Race
Early 20th century researchers Franz Boas, a cultural anthropologist, Max Weber, a sociologist, and W.E.B. Dubois, a sociologist and activist, claimed that race was a social, not biological, construct. Furthering this research, late 20th century sociologists Michael Omi and Howard Winant argue in their seminal book Racial Formation in the United States that

once we understand that race overflows the boundaries of skin color, super-exploitation, social stratification, discrimination and prejudice, cultural domination and cultural resistance, state policy (or of any other particular social relationship we list), once we recognize the racial dimension present to some degree in every identity, institution and social practice in the United States—once we have done this, it becomes possible to speak of racial formation. This recognition is hard-won; there is a continuous temptation to think of race as an essence, as something fixed, concrete and objective, as (for example) one of the categories just enumerated. And there is also an opposite temptation: to see it as a mere illusion, which an ideal social order would eliminate. In our view it is crucial to break with these habits of thought. The effort must be made to understand race as an unstable and ‘decentered’ complex of social meanings constantly being transformed by political struggle (13).

Disability
Some bodies are born with hereditary physical impairment and some acquired through accidents, infections or diseases. Some impairment occurs naturally, through the aging process. “While impairment refers to some loss of physiological or anatomical capacity, the term disability registers the repercussions of impairment and the difficulties a person may have engaging with the physical and built environment” (Howson 29). We can examine the range of effects various disabilities present and the myriad ways people have, through activism and creativity, contended with it, from classical musicians such as Beethoven to contemporary jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. AXIS Dance Company is an especially dynamic example example of physically integrated dance.

Aging
What does it mean to grow older? How do our bodies change? How are older bodies perceived and treated? Emmanuelle Tulle-Winton, a sociologist specializing in old age, posits that “Ageing and, in particular, old age is similarly associated with changes and alternations in the shape, appearance and function of the body that may cause pain or discomfort and contribute to the social devaluation of ageing and old people” (Howson 189). As bodies grow older, they are “…defined in terms of productivity, the absence of which leads to social and economic marginalization” (Howson 190). Media unfortunately reinforce this perspective. “Hollywood has been especially unfriendly toward older people, either portraying them as comic foils or ignoring them completely. This attitude has reinforced cultural stereotypes related to aging and has lowered older peoples’ sense of self-worth” (Samuel 12).

Click on the linked sources to check out examples of bodily difference in terms of class, gender, and sexuality.

Sources and Further Reading
Howson, Alexandra. The Body in Question: An Introduction. 2nd Edition. Polity Press, 2013.

Omi, Michael and Howard Winant, Eds. Racial Formation in the United States. 2^nd Edition. NY: Routledge, 1994.

Samuel, Lawrence R. Aging in America: A Cultural History. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017.

Author Information
Kelly Thomas, MFA
Associate Professor, Core Division
Champlain College

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Because bodies are more than sacks of cells. They influence how we understand ourselves and interact with the world. Whenever you get a cold, when your hands click a keyboard, walking down Church Street, or even touching your screen as you navigate through this digital companion are only a few examples that point to the many ways your body matters in how you interact with the world. Bodies impact how we understand ourselves and how we interact with others in our communities. They inform how we understand physical difference and identity in the past and present.

Our bodies are also contested, questioned, and consumed. Some seem to matter more than others. Bodies are disciplined and controlled. They are managed and maintained. This digital companion includes a mix of scholarly articles, book chapters, online essays, videos, and images that will help you interrogate the nature of embodiment in different places and time periods. Some will be required readings or screenings while other artifacts are there for you to explore on your own.

Overview of Bodies: A Digital Companion
The digital companion will help you examine key concepts of the body and embodiment from the disciplinary perspectives of sociology, biology, philosophy, religious studies, and media studies. Studying the body is an interdisciplinary endeavor, and our goal is to offer you the opportunity to explore the body from multiple perspectives. You will learn about how different bodies are represented in different media. You will examine the representation of bodies in a variety of contexts, how they have historically been imbued with specific sets of cultural values that privilege certain viewpoints and perspectives over others. You will dig into the intersectionality of gender, race, class, sexuality, age, and ability. You will recognize how bodies—dead and alive, human and nonhuman, actual and virtual—are subject to power relations. You will become aware of myriad ways the body influences their phenomenal experience of the world, and how we understand our place within it.

As you navigate through this book, you will see that it is different from a normal textbook that summarizes (and standardizes) a particular field of study or a course reader that compiles articles you will need to read for this course in a single publication. Each chapter begins with a short essay about a key concept or theme related to body studies. Embedded in these short essays are links to articles, videos, and images cited by the author. At the conclusion of the short essay, you will also see a list of "tags" of other media artifacts connected to the key concept or theme in some way.

Organization of Bodies: A Digital Companion
This companion is more of a digital repository containing a ton of artifacts about the body and embodiment only a portion of which you will be assigned for class. Every reading and screening is tagged by or tags other readings or screenings, which helps you dig into a topic or uncover how a certain artifact connects with others in the companion. There is also a direct path leading through the five major keywords—embodiment, cultural norm, bodily difference, stigma, and intersectionality—that organize the core of this book. It concludes with a methodologies page, which will explain the different approaches you will use to analyze the body. Each focus section also has its own chapter, which includes its own unique path through the different chapters and media artifacts (articles, videos, images) collected together in this companion. To find something specific, you can also use one of the Visualizations (e.g. Connections) in the pulldown menu to the left or the search button.

Studying the body demands interdisciplinary, integrative approaches. The organization of Bodies: A Digital Companion will help you make connections between different disciplines, fields, and perspectives in order to uncover the power role the body plays in understanding the past, present, and future of nothing less than our own humanity.

Author Information
Katheryn Wright, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Core Division
Champlain College
Contents of this reply:
1. Bodily Difference Definition and Context
  What marks a body as “different”? How do bodily differences shape perception and management of our bodies, creating and enforcing stigmas? In order to more fully understand what bodily difference means, we need to explore race, disability, and age as well as other markers of bodily difference including class, gender, and sexuality through a socio-cultural lens rather than only a biological/scientific one.
  
  Race
  Early 20th century researchers Franz Boas, a cultural anthropologist, Max Weber, a sociologist, and W.E.B. Dubois, a sociologist and activist, claimed that race was a social, not biological, construct. Furthering this research, late 20th century sociologists Michael Omi and Howard Winant argue in their seminal book Racial Formation in the United States that
  once we understand that race overflows the boundaries of skin color, super-exploitation, social stratification, discrimination and prejudice, cultural domination and cultural resistance, state policy (or of any other particular social relationship we list), once we recognize the racial dimension present to some degree in every identity, institution and social practice in the United States—once we have done this, it becomes possible to speak of racial formation. This recognition is hard-won; there is a continuous temptation to think of race as an essence, as something fixed, concrete and objective, as (for example) one of the categories just enumerated. And there is also an opposite temptation: to see it as a mere illusion, which an ideal social order would eliminate. In our view it is crucial to break with these habits of thought. The effort must be made to understand race as an unstable and ‘decentered’ complex of social meanings constantly being transformed by political struggle (13).
  Disability
  Some bodies are born with hereditary physical impairment and some acquired through accidents, infections or diseases. Some impairment occurs naturally, through the aging process. “While impairment refers to some loss of physiological or anatomical capacity, the term disability registers the repercussions of impairment and the difficulties a person may have engaging with the physical and built environment” (Howson 29). We can examine the range of effects various disabilities present and the myriad ways people have, through activism and creativity, contended with it, from classical musicians such as Beethoven to contemporary jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. AXIS Dance Company is an especially dynamic example example of physically integrated dance.
  
  Aging
  What does it mean to grow older? How do our bodies change? How are older bodies perceived and treated? Emmanuelle Tulle-Winton, a sociologist specializing in old age, posits that “Ageing and, in particular, old age is similarly associated with changes and alternations in the shape, appearance and function of the body that may cause pain or discomfort and contribute to the social devaluation of ageing and old people” (Howson 189). As bodies grow older, they are “…defined in terms of productivity, the absence of which leads to social and economic marginalization” (Howson 190). Media unfortunately reinforce this perspective. “Hollywood has been especially unfriendly toward older people, either portraying them as comic foils or ignoring them completely. This attitude has reinforced cultural stereotypes related to aging and has lowered older peoples’ sense of self-worth” (Samuel 12).
  
  Click on the linked sources to check out examples of bodily difference in terms of class, gender, and sexuality.
  
  Sources and Further Reading
  Howson, Alexandra. The Body in Question: An Introduction. 2nd Edition. Polity Press, 2013.
  
  Omi, Michael and Howard Winant, Eds. Racial Formation in the United States. 2^nd Edition. NY: Routledge, 1994.
  
  Samuel, Lawrence R. Aging in America: A Cultural History. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017.
  
  Author Information
  Kelly Thomas, MFA
  Associate Professor, Core Division
  Champlain College

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