Narrating the Body: Reshaping the

Discourse

Course Content

“There is power in looking.” bell hooks

Representations of Race

“Reviews and Reactions: A Rhetorical-Cultural Analysis of the Business of Being Born” byDr. Kim Hensley Owens

Home Birth with Midwife

“The Mirror Stage…sheds light on the formation of the ‘I’”. Jacques Lacan

The Mirror Stage

“Visibility is a trap.” Michel Foucault

Eff your beauty standards.

Adipositivity isn’t for women only.

Body Positivity Event Oct 22, 2014

Kim Brittingham, author.

Self-portrait by Substantia Jones

No ableism allowed!

Differently Abled……………………….NOT “lame”!

My 3rd grade teacher called my mother and said, “Ms. Cox, your son is going to end up in New Orleans in a dress if we don’t get him into therapy.” And wouldn’t you know, just last week I spoke at Tulane University, and I wore a lovely green and black dress!” Laverne Cox

“There’s a gender in your brain and a gender in your body.” Chaz Bono

"Getting this level of care has always been available to rich women.” Lester Minto, MD

“I do have belief in God. That's why I do this work. My belief in God tells me that the most important thing you can do for another human being is help them in their time of need.“ Willie Parker, MD

“The Big Book”Exploring the Tragi-Comic in Recovery

Narratives

“We don't say well, you have heart disease…You are morally unfit. You are weak. No. We say well, you have heart disease. But now that you know you have heart disease you have certain responsibilities. You should eat a healthy diet, and you should exercise, and you should see your cardiologist and you should take your meds…And that should be our same attitude towards addicts. We should say okay, well, you're an addict. You have something wrong with your brain the way this other guy had something wrong with his heart. But it's not a free ride.” From “The Compass of Pleasure” by David Linden

BRCA 1 Mutation

“I decided to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much I could. I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy.” Angelina Jolie

“I do not want to die. But I am dying.”Brittany Maynard

Custom casket from Ghana. Leave this world in style!

Mushroom Burial Suit

Student Topics

Transgender People in the Military

Sex Workers’ Rights

Female Genital Mutilation

Abortion Rights

Being Fat Does Not Equal Being Unhealthy

Early Puberty is Becoming the New Normal

Differently-Abled Athletes

Corporal Punishment

Aid in Dying

The Brain’s Role in Addiction

Designer Babies

The purpose of this course is to empower students with a better understanding of body autonomy.

The topic for this capstone course was inspired by my mother’s battle with ALS, a disease that robs the afflicted of their bodies leaving them unable to walk, talk, move, eat, speak, or breathe on their own, but leaves the mind sharp and the spirit intact.

This course and its poster presentations are dedicated to the 30,000 Americans currently living with ALS.