Tomb, Temple, Machine and Self: The Social Construction of the Body

1992 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Synnott
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Social

scholarly journals On Not to be Gay: Aversion therapy and transformation of the self in Postsocialist China

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 132-149
Author(s):  
H Bao
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
South China ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
Critical Reading ◽  
Authentic Self ◽  
The Social ◽  
Affective Experiences ◽  
Self Formation

In this article, through a critical reading of the published diaries written by gay ‘patients’ who received aversion therapy in south China in the 1990s, I examine how the transformation of subjectivities from gay to straight was made possible by such ‘self-technologizing’ practices as writing and communication. I also consider the centrality of the body and affect in the process of subject (trans)formation, and ask how a new, coherent and authentic ‘self’ was fabricated through bodily and affective experiences. This discussion not only reveals the social construction of the self as central to China’s postsocialist governmentality, but also the central role that gender and sexuality play in processes of self-formation.

La medicalizzazione della riproduzione umana: il corpo e il genere

2009 ◽  
pp. 185-201
Author(s):  
Lia Lombardi
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Reproductive Technology ◽  
The Body ◽  
Human Reproduction ◽  
Western Society ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
Biomedical Technologies ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Sociology Of Health

- This article is focussed on the medicalization of human reproduction and its effects on the body and on the gender. Particularly, the analysis is carried under two perspectives. The first one is the social construction and the social control on the body in Western society. Specifically, the question is how medicine surveilles bodies and behaviors of women and men. Moreover, the first part of this article analyses sexualities, reproduction/procreation and gender relationships. The second subject regards how stereotypes on gender and parenthood are connected to the social construction of infertility and of articial reproduction. All the topics are analysed through the lences of the sociology of health and of the body, in connection with the most recent advances in biomedical technologies. The gender perspective and a critical approach are the theoretical mainframes which have driven this research.Keywords: body, Gender, medicalization, human reproduction; reproductive technology, sociology of health.Parole chiave: genere, medicalizzazione, riproduzione umana, tecnologie riproduttive, sociologia della salute.

The Medicalization of Human Reproduction: Body and Gender

2009 ◽  
pp. 172-188
Author(s):  
Lia Lombardi
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Reproductive Technology ◽  
The Body ◽  
Human Reproduction ◽  
Western Society ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
Biomedical Technologies ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Sociology Of Health

- This article is focussed on the medicalization of human reproduction and its effects on the body and on the gender. Particularly, the analysis is carried under two perspectives. The first one is the social construction and the social control on the body in Western society. Specifically, the question is how medicine surveilles bodies and behaviors of women and men. Moreover, the first part of this article analyses sexualities, reproduction/procreation and gender relationships. The second subject regards how stereotypes on gender and parenthood are connected to the social construction of infertility and of articial reproduction. All the topics are analysed through the lences of the sociology of health and of the body, in connection with the most recent advances in biomedical technologies. The gender perspective and a critical approach are the theoretical mainframes which have driven this research.Keywords: body, Gender, medicalization, human reproduction; reproductive technology, sociology of health.Parole chiave: genere, medicalizzazione, riproduzione umana, tecnologie riproduttive, sociologia della salute.

scholarly journals Ectogenesis is for Feminists

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Horn
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Good Health ◽  
The Body ◽  
New Wave ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Reproductive Freedom ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Animal Trials ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject

In this critical perspective, I call for interdisciplinary feminist research to reclaim the subject of artificial womb technology from anti-abortion discourse. In 2017, scientists announced the successful animal trials of a highly advanced incubator that replicates the conditions of the uterus and was used to gestate lamb fetuses from the equivalent of approximately 22-24 weeks human gestation through to term in good health. This technology, now being prepared for human trials, has generated a new wave of research on ectogenesis, the process of gestating a pregnancy outside the body. But while ectogenesis raises many pressing ethical concerns, the discourse has frequently reverted to one claim: that by allowing the fetus to be removed from the pregnant person’s body without causing its death, ectogenesis will “solve” abortion. I argue that authors who make these claims fail to understand why feminists fight for abortion rights, take a narrow approach to reproductive freedom, neglect the social construction of “viability”, and fail to acknowledge the dependency of the fetus on care. Finally, I identify areas for future feminist intervention.

Gender, Class and Epistolary Suffering: Narrating the Bodily Self in Women‘s Medical Consultation Letters to Samuel-Auguste Tissot

2014 ◽  
Vol 90 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-161
Author(s):  
Sonja Boon
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
The Body ◽  
Medical Consultation ◽  
Bodily Experience ◽  
Archival Collection ◽  
The Social ◽  
Construction Of Self ◽  
Autobiography Studies ◽  
Selection Of

In this article I use conceptual frames drawn from autobiography studies and feminist theory to examine the relationships between bodily experience and the social construction of sex, gender and class as they play themselves out in a selection of womens medical consultation letters written to the eminent Swiss physician, Samuel-Auguste Tissot, during the second half of the eighteenth century. My analysis of a selection of consultation letters - all of which are situated and read in the context of a rich archival collection of some 1,200 letters - considers the role that bodily experience plays in the construction of self and suggests that not only the experience, but also the textual articulation of the body, were imagined both through and against accepted understandings of sex, gender and class during this period.

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