ABSTRACT
Much of the large interdisciplinary literature on the body that has emerged over the last decade focuses on women (including menstruating, pregnant and lactating women), lesbians, gay men, ‘blacks’, the ‘poor’, aged and/or disabled. These are bodies that are often constructed as Other. Less has been written about the (supposedly hard) bodies of heterosexual,1 ‘white’, able-bodied men. As a strategic move to displace the alignment of femininity (homosexuality, ‘blackness’, disability) with the body and masculinity (heterosexuality, ‘whiteness’, able-bodiedness) with rationality I conducted research not just on pregnant women but also on heterosexual, ‘white’, able-bodied men. The aim was to get these men to talk about their bodies, not just as hard, strong and sexualised but as vulnerable and transgressing their boundaries. One route to doing this was to invite heterosexual, ‘white’, able-bodied men to talk about their experience of domestic toilets/bathrooms.2
