I Sing the Body Electric While Others Profit From the Body Sale

Reviews the book, Physical culture, power, and the body by Jennifer Hargreaves and Patricia Vertinsky (see record 2007-01099-000). In this review, Noach Milgram commends the editors for putting together a book that examines the ways in which the human body is perceived and "constructed" by the current social, political and economic institutions around the world, but also believes the book's contributions are marred by ideological and methodological dogmatism. For the reviewer, all of the authors seem committed to deconstructivist techniques of analysis, and appear to adhere to a Marxist orientation. The reviewer discusses in detail the highlights of particular chapters, including: the social construction of gender in totalitarian and democratic states, the female body and male chauvinism; perceived racial differences in the human body; and the overuse of the human body in professional sports. If you are not offended by ideological diatribes, the reviewer recommends this book and believes readers will gain insight into their own body-related apperceptions and behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)