Medical Anthropology and Manifestations of Sexuality

Studying medical anthropology in Chapter 14 I frequently thought of a particular movie that I saw awhile back. This film is called The Painted Veil, and it is primarily set it a 1920's Chinese village with a cholera outbreak. It is an interesting film in that it not only illustrates human behavior and customs in an unfamiliar place to most, but medical techniques of the times as well. Another film I watched recently made me think of a few chapters ago when we studied genders and sexuality. I was watching Titanic and couldn't help to notice the corseting of the rich, first class females. There is one scene in which the main female character, Rose, is being corseted up by her mother. It looks painful and after reading about it in the anthro book, I'm sure that it must have been. The other examples of women body exaggerations in the book also seem pretty crazy and ridiculous, such as the Chinese footbinding. Various cultures really do some interesting things when it comes to the emphasis of the woman form.