Examines ten years worth of men's and women's health and fitness magazines to determine the ways in which bodies are "made" in today's culture
Acknowledgments 1 The Nature of Body Panic Culture 2 What Kinds of Subjects and Objects? Gender, Consumer Culture, and Convergence 3 Size Matters: Male Body Panic and the Third Wave "Crisis of Masculinity" 4 "Getting Your Body Back": Postindustrial Fit Motherhood and the Merger of the Second (Household Labor/Child Care) and Third (Fitness) Shifts 5 From Women's Sports & Fitness to Self : Third Wave Feminism and the Consumption Conundrum 6 Emancipatory Potential, Social Justice, and the Consumption Imperative Appendix Notes Bibliography Index About the Authors
Shari L. Dworkin is Professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing. She is the author or editor of several books, most recently Body Panic: Gender, Health, and the Selling of Fitness and Men at Risk, both with NYU Press. Faye Linda Wachs is an Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Psychology and Sociology at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona).
Body Panic is an interesting, careful, and timely book, and my
guess is that it will be a valuable source for anyone interested in
the sport-body-gender nexus for years to come.
*American Journal of Sociology*
A terrific critique of the ways that the media create and then sell
the desire for perfect (but different) bodies to men and women.
Dworkin and Wachs beautifully weave gender theory with empirical
analyses of consumer culture for a very readable study.
*Judith Lorber,author of Gendered Bodies: Feminist Perspectives and
Breaking the Bowls: Degendering and Feminist Change*
Dworkin and Wachs have produced the best analysis we have of this
crucial moment in the history of sports and gender. They combine
real rigor with wit and perceptiveness in a book that will become a
standard reference for years to come.
*Toby Miller,author of SportSex*
In this critical cultural expose, Dworkin and Wachs peel back the
surface layers of the health and fitness craze and reveal a
festering, discomfiting malaise about gender and sexuality. If the
old feminist slogan, ‘Our Bodies, Ourselves’ helped women regain
control over their bodies, Dworkin and Sachs suggest a new slogan,
‘Our Bodies, Our Culture.’ For only when we see how our bodies have
been taken from us, repackaged and returned as deformed and puny,
can we see that we've been sold dis-ease and discomfort in the
guise of health and fitness.
*Michael Kimmel,author of The Gendered Society and editor, Men and
Masculinities*
Body Panic is an excellent media analysis for those interested in
gender, cultural, or media studies. . .a book detailing the complex
interplay of media message about health in relation to gender,
race, class, and sexuality is a welcome addition to the ongoing
dialogue on health and fitness.
*Sex Roles*
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