In this important work, Davis builds upon his theories of the ways that our modern concepts of the "norm" and the "normal" emerged, arguing that at the heart of these ideas is an attempt to construct the modern nation-state. The- wha?
In other words, Davis is arguing that we build and maintain a sense of ourselves both as citizens and as a nation by constructing, and then internalizing (so that we don't have to think about or question them) assumptions about how bodies should look, function, and behave. Thus, the "American" body is robust, competent, and self-actualizing—the fleshly embodiment of our patriotic ideals of equality, liberty, autonomy, and the pursuit of happiness. USA! USA!
Not only that, but Davis also looks at the visual arts, including Classical Greek and Roman sculpture, to show how sight/visibility is used to enforce—and to undermine—our collective beliefs about and requirements about bodies—and the citizens who live in them.
Davis shows that Classical art often depicts broken and incomplete bodies (i.e., armless, legless) to at once enforce and to question assumptions of what "wholeness" and "normalcy" really mean. These are questions and practices, Davis suggests, that carry over into our postmodern practices of shaping, shifting, and celebrating the artificial, incomplete, and wounded body.
As we read Davis, we should think about how our assumptions and requirements of the body link to our assumptions of ourselves as citizens. How might the ideals that shape our sense of self as a nation shape what we believe about our bodies and the ways they should look and function?
And what roles do the visual arts, and the art of looking, of visibility, play in determining what we think about and expect from our bodies and the bodies of others, especially when that body is "non-normative"?