Disgust - Reflections on the nauseating feeling of revulsion and repulsion

Contrary to so many other emotions, disgust is not an emotion that so far seems to have attracted much attention among sociologists studying emotions. This chapter seeks to rectify this general sociological neglect of or disinterest in the emotion of disgust. Disgust – despite often being associated with bodily or biological reactions like repulsion and revulsion – also contains a lot of social and cultural information, informing us about what is considered appropriate/inappropriate actions, good taste/bad taste and acceptable/unacceptable identities. This obviously differs from one time period to the next and from one cultural context to the other. In the chapter, we shall explore several different dimensions of disgust as a cultural and everyday emotion. First, we will deal with the different meanings and reactions associated with disgust, looking also at how what we regard as disgusting has changed over time. Then we shall look at some of the different forms that disgust may take – physiological, moral and social (although there are some considerable overlaps between them). Following this, we will move on to an exploration and exemplification of various sources of disgust: disgusting objects, disgusting practices and disgusting subjects. The purpose of the chapter is thus to provide an initial overview of some forms, sources and expressions of disgust in a cultural and everyday context intended for further theoretical elaboration and empirical exploration within a sociological context.