A Penile Implant: Embodying Medical Technology

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.17.2.05

Keywords:

Penile Implant, Habitus, Embodiment, Looking Glass Body

Abstract

This article situates the experiences of having penile implant surgery between medical interventions and privately understood meanings and practices. Using my own experiences, supplemented with information from online sources, I document the changes that occur in the meanings and the practices that implant surgery enables. My analysis derives from the concepts of habitus and the looking glass body, and it begins with a diagnosis of impotence and moves through the various considerations that lead to surgery and its aftermaths. I suggest that understanding how medical technology interacts with everyday meanings contributes to a wider application of the concept of habitus while expanding a symbolic interactionist perspective of the body.

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Author Biography

Jeffrey E. Nash, Missouri State University, USA

Jeffrey E. Nash is a Professor Emeritus (Missouri State University) and former chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He also served as a Professor of Sociology at Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota. He is the author of Deafness in Society with Anedith Nash, The Meanings of Social Interaction with James Calonico and he co-edited with Paul Higgins two editions of Understanding Deafness Socially. He has articles and book chapters on a wide range of topics, from bulldogs to barbershop singing. With Charles Edgley, he is currently the co-editor of the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography.

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Published

2021-04-30

How to Cite

Nash, J. E. (2021). A Penile Implant: Embodying Medical Technology. Qualitative Sociology Review, 17(2), 88–102. https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.17.2.05

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