The racial body is gendered: a comment on Emirbayer and Desmond’s The Racial Order

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn The Racial Order, Emirbayer and Desmond offer a systematic theory of race. The social psychology of race is central to the theoretical framework of this book. In their discussion of bodily aesthetics, bodily cognition, and bodily morality, they neglect the important theoretical insights and empirical contributions of feminist sociologists who have studied the racialized and gendered body. The exclusion of the intersectional research of feminist sociologists weakens their analysis of ‘relational social epistemology’. Intersectional research conducted by feminist sociologists during the past decade should be central to any theoretical discussion of the social psychology of race in North America, which is their primary focus.