GLBT4415
GLBT 4415 - Transnational Body Politics (3 Cr.) Global Perspectives
Gender, Women and Sexuality (10963)
TCLA - College of Liberal Arts
GLBT 4415 - Transnational Body Politics (3 Cr.) Global Perspectives
Course description
Our bodies are always already modified. How we shape our bodies can express our deepest feelings about who we are. Body modification can also represent cultural and subcultural identifications or expectations based on gender, race, class, and sexuality. But what we do with our bodies is never separate from the politics of cultural difference and fluctuating ideas of what is acceptable or unacceptable, civilized or uncivilized. These ideas are historically and culturally specific. This course looks at body modification on a transnational scale to ask how we come to know what differentiates "mutilation" from "correction." We ask how feminist, queer and critical race theories illuminate these debates, reading across historical, anthropological, medical, and literary texts. Weekly topics include gender, race, and cosmetic surgery; skin whitening technologies; transnational gender reassignment; surgical tourism; female genital cutting; piercing, tattooing and scarification; the cultural politics of hair; and body modification in the context of transnational feminized labor.
Minimum credits
3
Maximum credits
3
Is this course repeatable?
No
Grading basis
A-F - A-F Grade Basis
Lecture
Credit will not be granted if credit has been received for:
02570
This course fulfills the following Liberal Education requirement(s)
Global Perspectives
Typically offered term(s)
Periodic Fall & Spring