The Politics of Women's Bodies ─ Sexuality, Appearance, and Behavior

For the past three decades, feminist scholars have examined how the female body and ideas about the female body affect women's lives. Revised and updated in its fourth edition, The Politics of Women's Bodies: Sexuality, Appearance, and Behavior brings together recent critical writings in this important field. The selections reflect three themes: how ideas about women's bodies in the United States are socially constructed, how these social constructions can be used to control women's lives, and how women attempt to resist these forces. Exceptionally well-written and edited to be accessible and pedagogically friendly, the articles in this collection cover a wide range of topics and address relevant issues of class, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.

New to this Edition

* Seven new readings on childbirth, disability, HPV vaccination, fat stigma, skin color, veiling, and intimate partner violence among undocumented immigrant women
* An increased emphasis on racial, sexual, cultural, and religious diversity and the experiences of marginalized populations
* A new appendix with discussion questions for each article
* A new editor, Samantha Kwan, brings a fresh perspective and new insights to the collection

Rose Weitz is Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. She is the author of several books, including The Sociology of Health, Illness, and Health Care: A Critical Approach (2012) and Rapunzel's Daughters: What Women's Hair Tells Us About Women's Lives (2004).

Samantha Kwan is an Associate Professor of Sociology and a Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies faculty affiliate at the University of Houston. She is coauthor, with Jennifer Graves, of Framing Fat: Competing Constructions in Contemporary Culture (2013) and coeditor, with Chris Bobel, of Embodied Resistance: Challenging the Norms, Breaking the Rules (2011).