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SPRING 2012 VOLUME 28:1 PROTEUS A JOURNAL OF IDEAS The Body in Culture and Society PROTEUS A J OURN A L OF I DE A S The Body in Culture and Society VOLUME 28:1 SPRING 2012 An ancient Greek sea divinity, herdsman of seals, Proteus could be elusive by changing his form at will appearing as a lion, a serpent, a boar, water, or a tall tree. However when those who caught him succeeded in holding him fast, Proteus assumed his proper shape of an old man and told the truth. PROTEUS A J O U R N A L O F I D E A S VOLUME 28 SPRING 2012 NUMBER 1 Upcoming Issues of Proteus THE BODY IN CULTURE AND SOCIETY Watch for our Call for Papers on H-Net and in the Chronicle of Higher Education among other places in the Summer of 2012. We welcome ideas for future themes! Contents Submissions, requests for further information, or orders for copies should be addressed to the Managing Editor of Proteus at [email protected]. 1 Introduction 29 The Vampires of True Blood and Beyond: Allison C. Carey Bodies, Desires, and Addictions in the Cover Art: “Frida Now!” Social Imaginary 5 Nancy Mairs: Family, Disability, Dusty Lavoie A Group Sculpture Project by Professor Steven Dolbin’s Fall 2012 9 AM Sculpture Class: and Writing Beyond the Familial Self Hayley Mitchell Haugen Katherine Bowley Dave Heiss Ashley Weston 37 Docile Choristers and the “Choir Machine”: Catherine Carroll Jessica Laughman James Whitworth A Search for Agency in “Choir” 13 Virtual Disability: A Look at Avatars Juliet Hess Jolie’ Duhon Diana Lecco Samantha Wood in Wheelchairs Shawn Gingrich Katelin Pufnock Lawrence J. Mullen 49 The Chronic Pain Conversions Christina Heineman Amanda Shortridge Zach Savich 17 Writing Women’s Bodies: Body as Text (Photo courtesy of Bill Smith) and Context to Medieval Mystical Theology 53 The Caged Bird Sings Christopher M. Flavin Hayley Hughes 23 Parsing the Body: Frederick Douglass and the Recorporealization of Self Jennifer McQuillan • Proteus is indexed in the MLA International Bibliography, PAIS International (http://www.pais.org/), America: History and Life, MEMBER ISI Web of Knowledge, Arts & Humanities Citation Index, and Historical Abstracts. • It is a member of the Council of Editors of Learned Journals (CELJ). Council of Editors • Past issues are available on microfilm from ProQuest, Information and Learning. of Learned Journals • Proteus is published annually and is funded by Shippensburg University. © 2012 by Shippensburg University, Shippensburg, Pennsylvania 17257-2299. ISSN 0889-6348. ii iii 1 EDITORIAL BOARD EDITORIAL STAFF Introduction H. James Birx Laurie J.C. Cella, editor Canisius College Richard A. Knight, editor Allison C. Carey, review editor Harry M. Buck Matthew J.C. Cella, managing editor Wilson College LLISON A REY Jessica S. Kline, publications assistant A C. C S HIPPEN S BURG U NIVER S ITY Dan T. Carter University of South Carolina ADVISORY EDITORS Until recently, the body had been naturalized, mostly and critical race studies also scrutinized the role of the understood as a biological entity without need of social body in systems of oppression. These fields opened the David Godshalk Valerie Ceddia analysis. For instance, because Descartes believed the mind doors to the study of other marginalized populations such Fayetteville, Pennsylvania Mary Stewart to be the source of self, the body was positioned simply as as sexuality and disability studies. While there are many a shell or machine housing the mind and doing its will; differences across these fields, they each participate in a O. R. Dathorne REVIEW COMMITTEE the mind was a topic worthy of philosophical musings, growing criticism of biological reductionism. Biological University of Kentucky but the body was not. In psychology, the mind emerged reductionism assumes that the motivations, identities, and William (Turi) Braun as conceptually distinct from the body, so that psycholo- behaviors of individuals are best explained by the physical gists focused on the workings and problems of the mind body and therefore do not need social analysis. In contrast, Don H. Doyle Corinne Bertram University of South Carolina distinct from the physical functioning of the brain (which scholars in these emerging fields showed that gender, race, Michael Bibby was relegated to the care of physicians/neurologists). In ability/disability, and sexual orientation were social con- Steve Burg sociological tradition, scholars explored the interaction structions largely imposed on individuals. For example, Henry Louis Gates Jr. Galen Clough between social structure and agency, but rarely brought the women were not naturally weak or passive; rather, they were Harvard University body into these discussions. Thus, in Western intellectual trained by society to fulfill these expectations and penal- Jennifer Clough thought across a range of academic fields, the body was ized when they did not. People with disabilities were not Glenda Gilmore Neil Connelly conceptualized as a natural machine, the study of which was dependent due to their biologies; instead, exclusion from Yale University Barbara Denison limited to the realm of medical doctors (Howson, 2004). the work place, politics, and other valued social roles cre- Catherine Dibello Several factors shifted our attention towards a socio- ated and enforced their dependency (Oliver, 1990; Linton, Shelley Gross-Gray political understanding of the body, including, though not 1998). Much of this work moved the focus away from the Misun Dokko Shippensburg University limited to, Foucault’s writings; the growing scholarship “natural” body towards an analysis of power, stratification, Cynthia Drenovsky in feminist, race, sexuality, and disability studies; and the and social structure. Ironically, the new “social model,” Scot Guenter Margaret Evans recent controversies and anxieties involving the body. In which situated oppression within social systems, exposed the oppressive narratives of biology while simultaneously San Jose State University Marita Flagler many ways, Foucault made the body a legitimate matter of study. Ironically, the impact of his work serves as evi- devaluing the social analysis of the body, as scholars worked Erica Galioto dence of his central thesis: that claims of scientific fact are to show the situation of oppression outside of the body. Donald L. Henry Thomas Gibbon discursive narratives expressing the hierarchies of social The body typically came to be seen only as a discursive Shepherd University Shari Horner and political power of the day. The body is both a mat- tool to legitimize oppression rather than as central to the experience of individuals. More recently, though, schol- Karen Johnson ter of knowledge and impacted by knowledge. Madness, Stephen Kantrowitz sexuality, health, and disease all serve as discursive strate- ars have brought the body back into a social analysis by University of Wisconsin–Madison Carla Kungl gies to impose disciplinary power; through the narratives focusing on the ways in which embodiment shapes our Mary Libertin of madness and rationality, for example, we legitimatize experience and the ways in which the social world shapes Mary Karasch Misty Knight the development of techniques of surveillance and regula- our bodies, a theme developed later in this essay. tion that enforce subtle control upon the body in order to A third factor related to the increasing attention given Oakland University Deborah Montuori persuade, rather than force, people to participate in social to the body in scholarship is the heightened social, political, Suzanne Morin Judy Ruud norms (e.g., Foucault, 1973, 1979, 1990). As a result of and moral concern related to the body that has emerged Shippensburg University Shannon Mortimore-Smith persuasive external control and, more importantly, self- as new technologies and rights offer us more opportuni- Sally Paulson control, we come to manage our bodies and transform ties and freedom with regard to the body. Matters of life, them into fit, disciplined bodies appropriate for the capi- death, sexuality, and the body broadly are increasingly Linda Smosky Katie Peel talist marketplace, while marking and restraining those subject to technological interventions, raising a range of Wingate, North Carolina Paris Peet deemed unfit. Not only is the personal political, to quote new individual and social questions. For example, in recent Blyden Potts a common feminist mantra, but the body is political, the news we see a court deciding whether a child conceived Marjorie J. Spruill Michael Pressler object and product of systems of power. using in vitro fertilization after the father had died can University of South Carolina As Foucault’s work gained popularity in American intel- claim social security survivor’s benefits (Tottenburg and Christine Senecal lectual circles, scholars in the emerging fields of feminist Chen, 2012); another court is considering the extent and Rebecca Steinberger Kim Van Alkamade Misericordia University Stephanie Witmer Cheryl Zaccagnini Allison C. Carey is an associate professor of sociology at Shippensburg University. She is author of the book On the Margins of Citizenship: Intellectual Disability and Civil Rights in Twentieth-Century America (Temple UP, 2009) and a Rich Zumkwhala-Cook range of articles on disability history, policy, and citizenship. iv 2 PROTEUS: A Journal of Ideas Allison C. Carey: Introduction 3 conditions under which patients should have access to that citizens must be rational and autonomous; as stated order to alter the spatial dynamics of inclusion/exclusion, certainly impact the health of a nation’s population. War physician-assisted suicide (Coleman, 2012); and another by Anne Phillips, “The individual had become the key to yet its mandates are often reduced to a ramp at the back has a particularly devastating effect; for every child killed news story tells of how multiple families are using “the legitimate government—but not of course any old indi- of a building or other minimalistic attempts to meet the in warfare, three are injured and acquire a permanent form Ashley treatment”—medical treatments designed to pre- vidual” (1991, 24-25).

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