Toward a sociology of (gendered) disgust

Abstract

Based on a reinterpretation of a study of 105 relationships between homebound dependent fathers and mothers and their adult sons and daughters, this article discusses incontinence as a social and cultural phenomenon. Care work has other people's bodies as its working field. The social norms and cultural symbols that surround the intimate parts of the body affect the way care work is organized, gendered, culturally understood, and socially stratified. To lose bodily control and the capacity to keep the disgust related to bodily fluids hidden from the eyes of others, seems to put the individual's identity and human dignity at risk. The disturbing presence of odors, sights, and textures seem to have a disruptive effect on close relationships. The article further discusses how bodily dimensions of care add new burdens to modern family life in different social contexts, and contribute to expand the gap between men and women in different cultures of care. This seems to be related to how ideas of individualism structure are structured by the economic and social conditions in which people live their everyday lives.