Women*s Bodies: Cultural Representation And Identity

This enlightening book presents new perspectives on how women's bodies are viewed and absorbed in popular culture, and considers some of the ways in which the body is central to questions of women's sexual and other identities.

Through an exploration of the comic body and the performance of gender, from the grotesque body and carnival to women performers in contemporary tv and stand-up, Jane Arthurs considers how Jo Brand and Absolutely Fabulous play with prevailing standards of feminine decorum and in so doing challenge the cultural construction of the female body as an object of reverence and revulsion. Julia Moszkovicz considers the relation of women's bodies to representations of new technology within cinema, while Lola Young considers ideals of beauty in relation to race. In a critical analysis of the articulation of sexualities in contemporary women's magazines, Clarissa Smith compares the soft-porn magazine For Women and its emphasis on bodily fluids and sensations, with Cosmopolitan's aspirational notions of 'good' sex and romantic love

In 'Is there life without mirrors?', Liz Frost explores the relationship between women's bodies and women's identities using the mirror as the symbol and actual site of identity construction. Through an analysis of sexual health educational materials, from the anti-VD campaign in the early 20th century to HIV/AIDS in the 1990s, Tamsin Wilton conceives of the body in time as well as space, as an event rather than an object. Finally, Mandy Kidd questions the potential of Della Grace's beard to transcend gender dualism when social and cultural power is still accorded to the masculine embodied male.