WGST-305

This course will engage questions of identity and sense of self as embodied, as something tied to the physical bodies we inhabit. We will look at the impact of advertising, popular culture, film, biology, and other factors on the development of the human sense of self. Other topics will include eating disorders, current insights from genetics, pcrformativity theory, and debates over essentialism and the constructed nature of gender and sexuality. We will draw on readings from such figures as Susan Bordo, Michael Kimmel, Eve Sedgwick, and Jean Kilbourne, among others.