66-121 DC First-Year Seminar: Body Politics: Women and Health in America

9 units, Carnegie Mellon University

This course takes a topical, intersectional approach to the history of U.S. womens health in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It is less about governmental politics, although we do some of that. Rather, it sees bodies as cultural texts through which power is built and contested. The course covers topics such as the history of anatomy, menstruation, reproductive rights, body image, mental health, sexuality, violence, childbirth, and menopause. We explore how science and American culture both have constructed these issues over time some of it is super whacky, while also examining womens organizing around them.

Prerequisites: none listed

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