Deviant Bodies: Critical Perspectives on Difference in Science and Popular Culture

Race, Gender, and Science

by Jennifer Terry (Editor), Jacqueline L. Urla (Editor)

". . . the papers in Deviant Bodies reveal an ongoing Western preoccupation with the sources of identity and human character." ―Times Literary Supplement

"Highly recommended for cultural studies . . . " ―The Reader's Review

"It would be useful for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in the sociology of the body, the history and sociology of science and medicine, and women's studies courses, particularly those exploring the feminist critiques of science and medicine." ―Contemporary Sociology

". . . a powerful deconstruction of the scientific gaze in configuring bodily deviance as a means of legitimating the social order within multiple historical and social contexts. . . . the many excellent selections will make for compelling reading for students of medical anthropology and the history of science." American Anthropologist

Deviant Bodies reveals that the "normal," "healthy" body is a fiction of science. Modern life sciences, medicine, and the popular perceptions they create have not merely observed and reported, they have constructed the homosexual body, the HIV-infected body, the infertile body, the deaf body, the colonized body, and the criminal body.

Genres: Nonfiction, LGBT, Cultural Studies

424 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Jennifer Terry is Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of California, Irvine, the author of An American Obsession: Science, Medicine, and Homosexuality in Modern Society, and coeditor of Processed Lives: Gender and Technology in Everyday Life and Deviant Bodies: Critical Perspectives on Difference in Science and Popular Culture.

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not an easy book to read, but presents a very valuable perspective. I will use it for my class in the fall.