The Body in Revolt: The Impact and Legacy of Second Wave Corporeal Embodiment

Tensions between second and third wave understandings of the body and embodiment have led to disagreements about whether to situate the body as corporeal and concrete or theoretical, diverse, and complex. Drawing from key tactics of the second wave women's health movement, including cervical viewing, menstrual extraction, genital diversity work, orgasm training, and self-defense classes, I first trace the political framing of the body in second wave feminism, followed by a consideration of third wave pedagogies transmitted through teaching the psychology of women. After analyzing the five most popular textbooks and ten syllabi for the psychology of women, I trace the stories about embodiment that have continued across waves and the stories that have shifted over time. I ultimately argue for a renewed consideration of how to merge the priorities of each wave into a new policy-driven and activist-centered understanding of corporeal embodiment both within and outside of the university.