Overview

Even though we often think of bodies as natural and given, or else as freely plastic objects, bodies are both constructed and fundamental to our sense of self. This book investigates the body as an essential vector of inequality, shaped by institutions, interaction and culture, and how in turn it contributes to partly modify them. Sassatelli and Ghigi show how the process of embodiment is at the same time naturalized and contested, particularly evident in the case of gender. Drawing on classical sociological research about modernity and contemporary studies that emphasize intersectionality, the book looks at how the gendered body has been conceptualized with special attention to body politics, the power of appearance and the representation of embodied identity. It also considers the interplay between body, sex and sexuality and the way gendered bodies intersect with other dimensions of social inequality such as race, age, class and disability. This exploration of the rich field of sociological inquiry into the gendered body will be an invaluable read for all seeking to understand gender, sexuality and embodiment in contemporary society.

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9781509550081

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Reviews

‘Body and Gender is a comprehensive feminist and sociological account of how the body is socially constructed as gendered. Informative and thoughtful, it would be a broadly useful text for gender studies and embodiment studies.’ Judith Lorber, City University of New York, author of The New Gender Paradox ‘Sensitive to the materiality of the body and its deeply constructed character, Sassatelli and Ghigi have produced a comprehensive study of the sociology of the body and the many social, political and legal complexities of gender from birth to old age.’ Bryan S. Turner, Australian Catholic University

Author Information

Roberta Sassatelli Professor of Sociology at the University of Bologna. Rossella Ghigi is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Bologna.

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