Week 5: Emotion and the Body, EXAM 1

BB: Stearns; C&S: Waskul, Vannini, and Wiesen 95-108, Orend & Gagne 137-147

               The body is a very private and personal thing, yet we learn about it and come to understand it in public forums. Like the women in the article by Waskul, Vannini, and Wiesen, we all learn to make sense of our bodies through different types of social institutions. Biology class, health class, and peer discussions make school a place where people learn to make sense of exactly what each part of the body is. Family is another social institution where the body is discussed and taught. However, these understandings become limited by what is socially acceptable and what is appropriate speech. Many women are taught only vaguely about parts that are not seen as critical to reproduction. Thus, understanding becomes very limited and certain taboos and stigmas prevail. Other people have an effect on how we experience our bodies and conceptualize them. Not only in sex discussions, but also of things such as tattoos. Other people’s perceptions become imposed on these personal things whether we like it or not.

               My experience with institutions and discussion of the parts of the body was very similar to many of the women’s experiences. It was limited to what was ‘essential’ for reproduction. Without getting too personal, it left me quite ignorant for quite some time. Without proper language or knowledge to discuss things, society almost pretends that they don’t exist, and for some women, they might as well not exist because they don’t know about it. Here is an example of how even private matters are socially constructed. Society gives us the proper language to conceptualize and make things real or seem real. Many women didn’t know about their clitoris (or enough about it, including what it is called), and to some degree, it might as well not have existed for them. They didn’t know, and so they didn’t do much about it. Many of the testimonies showed that simply after learning it had a name, masturbation increased. The fact that there is a word for something legitimizes it and makes it more acceptable and ‘real.’ We interact with symbols, like language, to make sense of our world.

               Tattoos are also personal and have personal meanings. However, when others see them, they perceive their meaning based on their own experiences and understanding and can then recreate the meaning behind the tattoo and impress their own meanings on the person who has it. These meanings are socially constructed. While a cross has religious affiliations, tattoos have often been seen as rebellious and defiant of the beliefs associated with that same religion. Thus, how is one to make sense of a tattoo of a cross? The person who gets it may get it to show their faith or religion, but another person may perceive it as an act of rebellion against that religion. Even personal matters are socially constructed.