This course will analyze the ways the body is portrayed, described and represented in culture, particularly contemporary pop culture. What is the body? What kind of bodies are favored in popular culture? How is the body shaped by such factors as sex, gender, class, ethnicity and race? Topics to be covered in this course include the relationship between body ideals and cultural norms, body in different genres of mass media (TV, magazines, advertising, music, etc.), body and sports, the commodification of the body in pop culture, body modification (cosmetic surgery, tattoo, piercing, etc.), body and sexuality, body and food (anorexia and bulimia), body and electronic technologies (virtual bodies), etc.