Using Judith Ortiz Cofers The Story of My Body and Alice Walkers Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self as a guide and a model (but not a recipe!), write your own autobiography of your body situated in social context.
You may approach this assignment in a number of ways, but be sure to engage in an honest and critical discussion that explores how your body is more than a strict biological given, but is a socially constructed and dynamic entity.
Questions you might entertain include:
At what point did you become aware that features of your body were different than features of others bodies?
How has your assessment of your body changed over time and place? What factors and forces shaped that assessment?
What sorts of measures, if any, have you taken to change your body in some way? Consider things like working out, dieting, plastic surgery, special haircuts, etc. What motivated your decisions? What were the outcomes of your efforts?
It is your job to integrate relevant readings to extend your personal discussion. That is, you are expected to make connections between your story, Cofers and Walkers personal narratives, and assigned readings. You may use any reading we have had so far, so consider looking back at Modules 1 and 2 in addition to the readings in this module.
As you reread Walker and Cofer, note when something resonates for you personally. Listen to yourself and record when you find a personal connection that helps you make sense of your own experience, such as:
Yes, that happened to me.
Oh, that explains that experience/opinion/concern/observation I had.
Hmm, that doesnt describe my experience at all. What might explain the difference(s)?
When you write the autobiography of your body, pull in these references. Doing so will produce a richer, deeper assignment that will begin with the personal and transcend it to say something beyond yourself.
