Toward a Sociology of (Gendered) Disgust

Abstract

Based on a reinterpretation of 105 relations between the elderly and their adult children, this article discusses incontinence as a social and cultural phenomenon. 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 over bodily fluids seems to put the individual's identity and human dignity at risk. The disturbing presence of odors, sights, and textures seems 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 gender gap in different cultures of care. This seems to be related to how ideas of individualism structure and are structured by economic and social conditions in which people live their everyday lives.

Power, empowerment, and person‐centred care: using ethnography to examine the everyday practice of unregistered dementia care staff

“…For the HCAs on the dementia care wards, part of this collective effort involved identifying their marginalised status with that of their patients/residents, as expressed by comments like ‘[dementia care] is the poor relation of the health service’. In contrast with reports of ‘dirty workers’ distancing themselves from care recipients (Ashforth and Kreiner , Isaksen ), our evidence indicates that care staff actively highlighted the parallels in their structural and social status.…”

A conceptual model of the risk of elder abuse posed by incontinence and care dependence

“…Another causal or contributing factor that may be associated with elder abuse is the emotion of disgust which is usually triggered by physical contact with a care recipient's urine and/or faeces. Sociological understanding about social norms and cultural symbols that surround the intimate part of the body indicate providing and receiving intimate hands‐on care that includes touching, seeing and smelling unpleasant body products can be extremely difficult for carers and care recipients' alike (Isakson, , ). Sociologist claim “disgust is rooted in fear of contamination, whether directly through oral incorporation or touching, or more remotely through visual images or moral pollution” (Twigg, p. 395).…”

The role of disgust sensitivity in volunteer recruitment and retention

“…When viewing photographs of homeless people, functional magnetic resonance imaging scans revealed brain activity that was consistent with feelings of disgust and avoidance (Harris & Fiske, 2007). Among the elderly, incontinence can disrupt even close familial relationships because of its propensity to induce disgust (Isaksen, 2002), as bodily functions and fluids are perceived to be disgusting due to their propensity to carry disease (Olatunji et al, 2007). Physical manifestations of aging (sagging skin, etc.)…”