title: The american dental dream.
abstract: The American Dental Dream-the cultural desire for straight, white teeth-is difficult, if not impossible, for poor and working-class people to achieve. Using ethnographic fiction, autoethnography, poetry, and qualitative interviewing, I brush away the taken-for-granted assumptions about teeth. I explore the personal, relational, and structural consequences of this cultural desire, and show how social class writes itself on our bodies. I write these culture-centered teeth tales to show how one might cope with their teeth.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Communication , University of South Florida.
authors.forename: Nathan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hodges
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000884:Anthropology, Cultural; D003469:Culture; D006801:Humans; D011037:Poetry as Topic; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012923:Social Class; D012928:Social Desirability; D014070:Tooth; D014481:United States