Chapter 12 - The body/health, disability, aging and death

Question 1

Why do you think sociologists study the human body?

Answer 1

Sociologists study human bodies to analyze them as social products, entities that bear the imprint of society.

Question 2

What is the body project?

Answer 2

An enterprise that involves people shaping their body to express their identity and meet cultural or subcultural expectations of beauty and health.

Question 3

What are the 4 activities that can characterize a body project?

Answer 3

1. Camouflaging
2. Extending
3. Adapting
4. Redesigning

Question 4

What is camouflaging?

Answer 4

Camouflaging involves temporary and non-invasive attempts to hide or mask aspects of the body that are seen as undesirable.

Question 5

What is an example of camouflaging?

Answer 5

It includes
putting on makeup and applying deodorant and perfume.

Question 6

What is extending?

Answer 6

Extending involves overcoming a
natural limitation of the body through a technological device.

Question 7

What is an example of extending?

Answer 7

It includes wearing glasses
and prosthetic limbs

Question 8

What is adapting?

Answer 8

Adapting is the effort to maintain the physical appearance of the
body by reducing or eliminating parts of the body that elicit unfavorable responses from others.

Question 9

What is an example of adapting?

Answer 9

Examples include mole removal, using dye to hide greying hair, and losing weight.

Question 10

What is redesigning?

Answer 10

involves permanently reconstructing the body, usually for purposes of
self-expression and aesthetics.

Question 11

What is an example of redesigning?

Answer 11

It includes breast augmentation surgery, hair implants, and
tattooing and piercing.

Question 12

What is a cyborg?

Answer 12

an entity that embodies elements both living
and dead, human and
machine, natural and
unnatural.

Question 13

What is biohacking?

Answer 13

a radical do-it-yourself
approach to experimenting with the
body for enhancement and augmentation.

Question 14

What is the relationship between the body and social status?

Answer 14

These relationship varies largely because of the social value we put on things like height, weight, and perceived attractiveness.

Question 15

What is Embodiment?

Answer 15

Refers to the physical and mental experience of existence.

Question 16

How do sociologists view disease?

Answer 16

Sociologists widen the gaze beyond the individual and look at the social factors that have a profound but often unacknowledged influence on disease.

Question 17

What is the socioeconomic gradient in health?

Answer 17

specifically refers to the existence of a positive correlation between socioeconomic position and health.

Question 18

Who is at a higher risk of diabetes?

Answer 18

Indigenous peoples

Question 19

What are the three main reasons for indigenous peoples having a higher risk for diabetes?

Answer 19

1. Economic deprivation
2. Discrimination
3. Historical factors

Question 20

What is “the sick role?”

Answer 20

discussed by functionalist Talcott Parsons

Question 21

What is medicalization?

Answer 21

refers to the process by which a condition or behaviors’ becomes defined as a medical problem requiring a medical solution.

Question 22

What happens when a behavior becomes defined as medical?

Answer 22

then doctors have authority and become the only experts who are legitimately able to ‘fix’ it.

Question 23

What is disability?

Answer 23

Disability is a physical or mental characteristic that keeps some people from performing within the range of normal human activity. It is also a social relationship insofar as a physical or social barrier may restrict the opportunity of some people to participate in the life of a community on a level equal to others.

Question 24

What is rehabilitation?

Answer 24

involves curing disabilities to the extent possible through medical and technological intervention; trying to improve the lives of people with disabilities by means of care, training, and education; and integrating people with disabilities into society.

Question 25

What is Ableism?

Answer 25

the prejudice and discrimination against people who have disabilities

Question 26

How do sociologists view aging?

Answer 26

Sociologists see ageing as a complex process, that is different for different societies in other words, the character of ageing varies depending on time, place and history.

Question 27

What is Ageism?

Answer 27

the prejudice and discrimination against older people.