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Higher Education

Part IV
The Gendered Body


Content Questions

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1. Why does Bordo claim that female bodies have become docile bodies?

Answer


2. How does Bordo distinguish between female “disorders”, such as anorexia and agoraphobia, and normal feminine practices?

Answer


3. Why does Bordo say that anorexia and other eating disorders are tragic or counterproductive forms of protest?

Answer


4. According to McGarry, how has Skate Canada sought to distance itself from the “homosexual” stigma around male figure skaters?

Answer


5. How is Wakewich’s notion of “bio-logies” different from the more familiar concept of biology?

Answer


6. How did the women in Wakewich’s study define “health”?

Answer


7. How did definitions of health and being healthy vary across social class in Wakewich’s study?

Answer


8. Did the women in Wakewich’s study identify strongly with media representations of beauty and health in popular magazines and culture?

Answer


9. What problems does Atkinson identify in the current sociological study of masculinity?

Answer


10. Did the men in Atkinson’s study seek out cosmetic surgery in order to stand out from other men in terms of masculine beauty?

Answer


Flashcards

 


Multiple Choice Questions for Part IV

Instructions: For each question, click on the radio button beside your answer. When you have completed the entire quiz, click the Submit my answers button at the bottom of the page to receive your results.

Question 1:


a) Anorexia
b) Discipline
c) Hysteria
d) Agoraphobia
e) Both B and C

Question 2:


a) People unquestioningly adopt destructive social norms.
b) What we do is ultimately more important than what ideologies we profess.
c) Belief derives from daily activities.
d) In the absence of beliefs about gender, natural and effortless practices are dominant.
e) People have many different beliefs about gender, even when their practices are very similar.

Question 3:


a) The postwar era initiated a new age of feminism.
b) Hysteria was a part of most women’s experience.
c) The 1950s were a time of idealized domesticity and dependency for middle-class women.
d) New forms of psychiatry arose to treat disorders specific to women.
e) The Second World War had created a climate of insecurity and fear.

Question 4:


a) Aggression and conquest
b) Rational intellectualism
c) Financial and occupational independence
d) Assertive leadership
e) Mastery and control

Question 5:


a) The dominance of thinness as a social ideal
b) Straitlacing and corseting
c) Women-only weightlifting classes
d) Reliance on beauty magazines
e) Meekness and passivity

Question 6:


a) As a delicate and graceful beauty contest
b) As a fast-paced, masculine sport
c) As one of Canada’s distinctive national pastimes
d) As an alternative to hockey for sports fans who dislike violence
e) Both B and D

Question 7:


a) Exposure as a gay man would have a negative financial impact on his career.
b) He had previously insisted that he was actually heterosexual.
c) His ex-boyfriend was not a skater.
d) The lawsuit violated his contract with Skate Canada.
e) His career was based on the premise that he was a single, unattached man.

Question 8:


a) They were more attentive to media images.
b) They engaged in more strenuous efforts to manage weight.
c) They were less concerned with appearance and thinness and more concerned with health.
d) They compared themselves favourably to the practices of younger women and of men.
e) They were primarily concerned with their bodies’ capacity to care for others.

Question 9:


a) Men have become more feminized.
b) Homosexuality is no longer as stigmatized as it once was.
c) Men have reacted by adopting more rigid ideas of gender norms.
d) The concept of masculine dominance or superiority has been called into question.
e) Both A and B

Question 10:


a) They perceived a disconnect between their ideals of masculinity and the work they performed.
b) They believed that sedentary occupations had negative consequences for their bodies’ appearance.
c) They sought out more physically demanding jobs.
d) They felt less masculine.
e) They sought out cosmetic surgery in order to resemble masculine aesthetic ideals.