Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Sociology of the body'
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Seymour, Wendy, and mikewood@deakin edu au. "Remaking the body : Explorations in the sociology of embodiment." Deakin University, 1995. http://tux.lib.deakin.edu.au./adt-VDU/public/adt-VDU20050728.111439.
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As embodied social agents our lives are preoccupied with the production and reproduction of bodies. Making, unmaking and remaking our embodiment are ongoing activities. Eating, exercise, washing, grooming, dressing, for example, are activities in which the body engages in routine tasks of bodily management. Such activities can be seen as everyday rehabilitation.
The study explores the impact of major physical impairment on embodiment, and on the processes involved in re-embodiment after catastrophic injury or disease. The experiences of the people in this study dramatically highlight the continuous, but largely taken for granted processes involved in our embodiment.
Four analytical strands are interwoven throughout the study. The first strand relates to the frailty and vulnerability of the human body, characteristics which are epitomised by the bodies of the informants in this study. The second strand engages with key aspects of the context in which re-embodiment takes place, namely a context replete with crisis, danger, fear, uncertainty and risk. The third strand projects into the future in considering the ongoing project of self. The fourth strand addresses the institutional and social impediments which may confine vulnerable bodies and limit the exploration of more expansive bodies.
The study is situated within the general theoretical approach of the sociology of the body. While recognizing the powerful impact of social discourse in the production of bodies, the study focuses on the critical role of embodiment in the reconstitution of self. The people in this study have experienced profound bodily change, but although this damage has disrupted, it has not annihilated their embodied selves. The people still possess and occupy their bodies. It is the obduracy of embodiment which directs the processes involved in remaking the body.
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Hein, Jill Marissa. "Tween Body Image and Related Clothing Preferences." The Ohio State University, 2005. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1392105358.
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Howson, Alexandra. "Sisterhood is cervical : a sociology of the body, gender and health." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/26626.
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This thesis addresses the sociology of the body and of governance by presenting empirical material, in the form of both textual and interview data, drawn from a case study of cervical screening. This material is used to examine women's experiences and their sense of embodiment in the context of cervical screening participation. The thesis argues that cervical screening, as a form of prevention, represents a new type of social regulation in late modernity. This argument challenges current understandings of the relationship between the body, gender and health. First, the thesis poses a distinction between the body and the concept of embodiment and argues that conflation of these two concepts obscures social processes and experiences. Second, the thesis addresses tensions between notion of citizenship and surveillance in the literature which focuses on bodily regulation and issues of health. Third, the thesis reveals previously obscured aspects of this experience, such as risk, obligation, trust and entitlement.
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Twitchen, Alex Burton. "The body, sport and risk : an historical sociology of motor racing." Thesis, University of Portsmouth, 2004. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.402252.
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Clark, Pamela Michelle. "The body matters : understanding social differences in mental health." FIU Digital Commons, 2003. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/2377.
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This doctoral dissertation illuminates the salience of body image to sociological investigations of mental health. It is argued that concerns over body-appearance evident in America embody a dimension of distress over the physical self that may be appropriately considered a mental health outcome, called body dysphoria. Using cross-sectional data from a sample of 1,183 young adults comprising Hispanic, African American, and non-Hispanic white males and females of varying social classes, a valid and reliable measure of body dysphoria is developed and demonstrated to be a distinct dimension of psychological distress.
From the standpoint of the sociology of mental health, the social distribution of body dysphoria makes known individual consequences of the stratified arrangements of society based on gender, race/ethnicity, and social class. Results reveal significant social differences in body dysphoria that are both consistent with and contrary to clinical studies attributing eating disorders to white, upper-class females. Body dysphoria is substantially greater among females supporting that unrealistic cultural ideals and standards of body- appearance remain disproportionately targeted at females in the development and presentation of self. Compared to non-Hispanic whites, Hispanics exhibit higher average levels of body dysphoria while African Americans exhibit lower levels of comparable proportion. The question is addressed whether identification with the dominant (white) culture influences distress over body-appearance among racial/ethnic minorities. A small inverse association is revealed between social class origin and body dysphoria suggesting that individuals from lower social class backgrounds are as greatly affected by body image concerns generally presumed to preoccupy upper social classes.
The stress process is a widely used theoretical paradigm for explaining structurally driven social differences in mental health outcomes. New evidence is introduced that the stress process may contribute to understanding body image problems. Regression analyses reveal that stress exposure has a significant positive association with body dysphoria that is mediated by varying psychosocial resources. Overall, the stress process explains the effects of social class origin and African American race/ethnicity on body dysphoria but does not account for the larger effects of being female or Hispanic.
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Chen, Ming-Chu. "The body politic in gendered techoscience : a deconstructive interpretation /." The Ohio State University, 1999. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1487951214941284.
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Cream, Julia Hilary. "Reproducing body contours : the woman on the pill." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.307603.
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Orejuela, Fernando. "The body as cultural artifact performing the body in bodybuilding culture /." [Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2005. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3161795.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, 2005.Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-01, Section: A, page: 0290. Adviser: Richard Bauman. Title from dissertation home page (viewed Oct. 11, 2006).
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Clark, Pamela Michelle. "America's breast implant craze: exploring the politics of a postmodern gendered body." FIU Digital Commons, 2000. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/2376.
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This master's thesis concerns the increasing popularity of cosmetic breast augmentation in America in recent years. Specifically, statistics indicate that between 1992 and 1998 there has been a 306% rise in the number of breast augmentation surgeries in the U.S. (ASPRS, 1999). Why do women elect a surgery to cosmetically augment their breasts?
Taking a postmodern theoretical approach, this research offers a meta-theory for women's desires and ultimately their decisions for cosmetic breast augmentation. It entails examining a multiplicity of converging micro- and macro-level social forces, subject to historical, cultural, economic, and religious and philosophical interpretation.
Supplementary interviews provide additional theoretical support and direction, engaging the discourse of women in response to one, open-ended question, "Why is it that a woman would desire and ultimately decide to have cosmetic breast augmentation or enhancement?" Together these women's personal narratives reveal a metadiscourse on the politics of a postmodern gendered body in America.
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Boroughs, Michael Scott. "Body Depilation among Women and Men: The Association of Body Hair Reduction or Removal with Body Satisfaction, Appearance Comparison, Body Image Disturbance, and Body Dysmorphic Disorder Symptomatology." Scholar Commons, 2012. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/3985.
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Body depilation, or the reduction or removal of body hair, is a relatively new area of research inquiry. Although women in many industrialized cultures have engaged in depilation for several decades, this behavior has been documented only recently among men. Though originally thought to be widely practiced by women and only a small proportion of men, including athletes or bodybuilders, recent studies suggest that more men engage in body depilation than previously hypothesized. In fact, one recent study estimated the prevalence of men's body depilation at 83.7% which suggests that men are depilating at rates similar to women. Nevertheless sparse literature exists on the topic of depilation and its relationship to the overall body image of women and men, factors that predict depilation, and how the appearance of body hair may be related to body satisfaction, body image disturbance, and symptoms consistent with the clinical disorder known as Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD).
Clinical issues thought to be associated with body depilation include physical injuries that put men and women at risk for infection as well as psychological risks including BDD. The goals of this research project were to: (a) further explore the depilation practices of both genders, (b) develop and evaluate three scales directly related to body depilation research, (c) identify predictors of depilation among both genders; (d) examine the correlates of depilation, (e) apply and further test theoretical models to explain depilation among both genders, and (e) examine demographic differences in body image disturbance and BDD while controlling for natural body hair growth.
In support of the hypotheses, results indicated that men have greater levels of body hair growth at 12 discretely measured body sites compared to women, and that overall, body depilation prevalence is high (90.8%) among the individuals sampled. Depilation prevalence for women was 98.5% while 80.9% for men. Men were more likely to report depilation in the past, having ceased the behavior to allow natural hair growth to resume. Men were also significantly more likely to engage in hair reduction behaviors, e.g., trimming, rather than removing hair all together compared to women. Women reported a significantly greater frequency of injuries as a result of depilation, while men reported greater dissatisfaction with higher levels of chest or back hair growth.
Instruments were developed and evaluated to measure depilation appearance comparison, depilation social norms, and body hair growth. In terms of predictors of depilation, appearance comparison was a predictor for both genders, while the drive for muscularity was a unique predictor for men. Theoretical paradigms associated with depilation included Social Comparison Theory, and in part, a belief that depilation is socially normative. Results also provided partial support for hypotheses related to gender, racial/ethnic, and sexual orientation differences in body image disturbance and BDD symptomatology. Overall, the results of this study provide support for the notion that body depilation is a key appearance and body image concern for both genders, though more so for men, but also suggest that more research is needed in order to better understand the role of the appearance of hair on the human body.
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McNay, Lois. "Power, body, gender : implications of French social theory for feminist critique." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1991. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/272613.
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Brennan, Patrick Joseph, University of Western Sydney, College of Social and Health Sciences, and School of Applied Social and Human Sciences. "Dumb questions : blustering hostility : nature/nurture, the body and the sociology of child abuse." THESIS_CSHS_ASH_Brennan_P.xml, 2001. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/786.
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This thesis critiques the nature/nurture debate in sociology and applies current thinking to sociological work on child abuse. By examining the literature available within sociology, biology and ecology, the nature/nurture debate is shown to be a defining epistemological construct within sociology. In deconstructing the debate, this thesis shows that addressing biology within sociology does not require an acceptance of determinism and that a plurality of possibilities still exists. It also reveals that human corporeality is viscerally susceptible to the environment and that separating human social life from its corporeality merely reiterates the Judeo-Christian theology that human life is divinely separate from its environment. In applying contemporay and classical sociology to the issue of child abuse, this thesis destabilises contemporary notions of the plasticity of the body and the irrelevance of the biological sciences to human social life.Master of Arts (Hons) (Sociology)
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Elliott-Brennan, Patrick. "Dumb questions - blustering hostility nature/nurture, the body and the sociology of child abuse /." View thesis, 2001. http://library.uws.edu.au/adt-NUWS/public/adt-NUWS20040730.151852/index.html.
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Richardson, Margaret. "Effects of Internal Versus External Attribution and Body Mass Index on Weight Prejudice." TopSCHOLAR®, 2005. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/473.
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The primary purpose of this research was to examine the effect of internal and external attribution and a person's Body Mass Index on weight prejudice. Data for this research was obtained from an ABC News/Time Magazine Poll (2004). Logistic regression was used to analyze the data. My hypothesis that people who internally attribute the cause of being overweight or obese will be more likely to be prejudiced toward overweight or obese individuals was supported by my findings. My hypothesis that people who internally attribute the cause of obesity and have a lower Body Mass Index would be more likely to be prejudiced against overweight or obese individuals was not supported by my findings. Individuals with more education were shown to be more likely to be prejudiced against obese individuals. Women were shown to be less likely than men to be prejudiced against obese individuals. A respondent's age and urbanity were not shown to significantly predict weight prejudice.
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Pereira, Beatriz Patriota. "“O mais profundo é a pele” : processos de construção de identidade por meio da tatuagem." Universidade Federal de São Carlos, 2016. https://repositorio.ufscar.br/handle/ufscar/7471.
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Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)
In order to contribute to the expansion of a sociological comprehension related to body and its identity, this research intents to understand how the inked person attributes meaning to his tattoo, to construct his identity. We recognize the increasing popularization of the tattoo and the existence of a correlation between tattoos and identity; also we consider that the tattoo, as a body modification, is a distinction and identification mark. Having those assumptions established, we propose in this research an understanding of the dimensions the tattoo has negotiated in a identity construction to the inked person. Those are our purposes: to understand how the tattoos meaning is built and the importance these signs hold in the selfimage construction to the inked person; to analyze how positions of subject, location and price influence in the process of choosing the images and the parts of the body in which the tattoo will be inked; finally, to establish the differences between “commercial” and “artistic” tattoos, both from the tattoo artist and the inked person point of view. These purposes will be achieved through a bibliographic, a participant observation in three different tattoo studios with different profiles and, finally, semi structured interviews with the tattooed persons.
Contribuindo para ampliar a compreensão sociológica sobre corpo e identidade, esta pesquisa tem o intuito de compreender como o sujeito tatuado dá significado a suas tatuagens ao construir sua identidade. Considerando a crescente popularização da tatuagem e partindo dos pressupostos de que há uma relação entre tatuagem e identidade e de que a prática, na qualidade de modificação corporal, é uma marca de diferença e identificação. A pesquisa visa compreender como a tatuagem é negociada na construção da identidade para o tatuado em São Carlos, interior de São Paulo. Os objetivos são: entender como as tatuagens são significadas e o que esses desenhos afirmam na construção de uma imagem de si para os tatuados; analisar como as posições do sujeito, a localização e os preços dos estúdios reverberam na escolha dos desenhos e dos locais dos corpos tatuados; e demarcar a diferença entre tatuagem “comercial” e “artística” do ponto de vista dos tatuadores e dos tatuados. Para isso, a metodologia é baseada em pesquisa bibliográfica, observação participante em três estúdios com diferentes perfis e entrevistas semiestruturadas com tatuados.
FAPESP: 2014/13133-1
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Watson, Jonathan M. "Being in shape : the body as a location for the health beliefs of men." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 1994. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk/R?func=search-advanced-go&find_code1=WSN&request1=AAIU074533.
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The aim of this study was to explore male self-image, its impact on health beliefs and behaviour, and to identify any implications for health education practice. A review of the literature revealed the importance of understanding lay health beliefs and that the relationship between male embodiment and health had not been significantly addressed. Thirty informants aged 30-40 were interviewed in depth on three separate occasions over an eighteen month period. Using the grounded theory approach, interview transcripts were read, coded and analysed to reveal that informants' theorising about the body underpins their health beliefs. The thesis explores this lay theorising about the body and then moves on to define a core analytical concept being in shape, that is, the research moves from description to explanation following grounded theory. Significantly, the theoretical concept being in shape illuminates a basic tension between the promotion of personal responsibility for health and responsibility derived from the functional demands of everyday embodiment. Finally, several implications for health promotion are advanced. In particular, this research challenges an over-reliance on behavioural explanation which, in respect of men's health, has informed the assumption that much of men's ill-health is a product of stereotypical masculine role behaviours which are themselves perceived to be inherently unhealthy.
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Westoby, Kay. "Body, transparency and tactile dwelling : are we nearly here yet?" Thesis, Cardiff University, 2017. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/108505/.
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This thesis proceeds from an attempt to articulate the body. At its core, however, is not the attempt to offer a definition of the body but instead to articulate a problem of touching on it. As such, it is motivated by a question at once banal and impossible: ‘Are we nearly here yet?’ Following Jean-Luc Nancy’s engagement with the account of space and being-there proposed by Martin Heidegger, it relates the materiality of the body to a broader role of touch and sense in constructing a world of engagements in which the body is never “here” but always “there”, always exposed in its touch upon the other. Following Nancy, this thesis begins by opening an ontological formulation of space and embodiment in which the materiality of the body allows for sense to pattern a world of bodies always separated from each other but situated in relation to each other. Sense, on Nancy’s account, is both bodily and conceptual; sense is the touch of vision, of the hands, of the body, and of understanding. Emphasising this multiple formulation of touch, this thesis offers an ontology of space as both material and transparent, in which this transparency figures the potential of the world to be continually re-spaced according to the touches and relationships enacted within it. After establishing this ontology of body and touch, the thesis enacts a series of attempts to approach the body, conducted in relation to encounters with bodies through photographs, painting and self-portraiture, as well as encounters with bodies that reveal aspects of their particular embodiment at moments of disruption or in their pathological relationships to the world. In each case, what is explored are figures of approach and withdrawal, turn and return, in which the body is nearly available to touch, but always elusive.
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Pilipovic, Josipa. "The body and democracy : Contemporary dance, technology and democracy." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för design (DE), 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-76076.
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In this essay the research question; “How is the body movement de ned in times of democracy due to technology? “will be explored. e process will include a theoretical research on the de nition of democracy in relation to digitalization. e outcome of this project will be in the form of a performance with a con- temporary dancer. e purpose of this project will be to invite the audience to question the limitations and freedoms the digitalized world imposes on our political system and our body movement.
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Kwan, Samantha. "Contested Meanings about Body, Health, and Weight: Frame Resonance, Strategies of Action, and the Uses of Culture." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/193746.
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There has been much talk in the public arena about the meanings of the overweight body. While feminist scholars have long theorized and studied the oppressive effects of hegemonic beauty norms, in recent years several groups such as the Centers for Disease Control, the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (a non-profit fat acceptance organization), and the Center for Consumer Freedom (a non-profit organization representing the food industry), have stepped up claims-making about the fat body and what it represents. How are these competing cultural messages promulgated by these cultural producers? Do these messages resonate with individuals? Moreover, how meaningful are these cultural messages in shaping day to day lives?Using content/frame analysis, survey data (n=456), and in-depth qualitative interviews (n=42), my dissertation examines framing competitions and dynamics among four competing cultural frames about the overweight body (the health frame, beauty frame, market choice frame, and social justice frame). I also examine the relationship between these cultural frames and individual agents. Specifically, I look at how respondents use culture by accepting, redefining, and rejecting elements of various frames. In my dissertation, I elaborate on my empirical findings and theoretical developments about health, beauty, individual and corporate responsibility, and social justice; the relationship between culture and agents; policy implications; and directions for future research.
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Watts, Alison J. "Embodied Conflict: Women Athletes Negotiating the Body and Identity." Diss., Temple University Libraries, 2011. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/111289.
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SociologyPh.D.
Breaking out of the traditional expectations of femininity, women participating in sports, particularly physically aggressive sports, challenge the dominant framework of a sex/gender binary. The reading of essential difference between the bodies of men and women has been central to the history of women's involvement in sports. Historically, women's bodies have been considered incommensurable with and even in danger of damage from participation within the male world of sport. In the current climate of sport, women athletes embody a peculiar dilemma as their participation is often encouraged provided that they maintain an appropriately feminine appearance. Prior research has provided a somewhat limited analysis of the dilemma that women athletes face in embodying femininity and athleticism, often reporting the experiences of a homogenous group of sporting women. To better understand the complex ways that athletes negotiate gender and the body, I focus on the experiences of a diverse group of women athletes. In particular, I pursue the following question: how do women athletes negotiate gender and the body in relation to multiple subject positions, such as those associated with gender, sexuality, race, and type of sport played? To answer this question, I conduct 5 focus group interviews using photo-interviewing and 40 in-depth interviews with athletes in basketball, soccer, and volleyball. The results indicate that women athletes' negotiations of gender and the body are highly influenced by the intersections of race, sexuality, and the type of sport played. Women athletes negotiate gender and the body in complex and ways that both reinscribe and challenge heterosexualized gender norms. While the embodied experiences of these athletes sometimes reinforce assumptions about gendered bodies, they also, at times, present the potential for more fluid and capacious understandings of gendered bodies. As such, these women athletes expose our knowledge about gendered bodies as contested and tenuous. I conclude by presenting areas of future research that arise from the findings in this study.
Temple University--Theses
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Mansfield, Louise. "Gender, power and identities in the fitness gym : towards a sociology of the 'exercise body-beautiful complex'." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2005. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/7753.
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This thesis examines the ways in which female bodies are central to the production and reproduction of gendered social inequality, and the formation of feminine identities in the fitness gym. Ethnographic methods were utilised to investigate the patterns and relations of power that underpinned the production and reproduction of feminine body ideals and feminine identities and habituses in a fitness gym in the South-East of England. The potential usefulness of harnessing feminist and figurational concepts for understanding gendered bodies in the context of sport and exercise is also explored. Some of the theoretical and methodological links between feminist and figurational perspectives are explored in this thesis. A feminist-figurational approach is presented as a useful way of understanding the complexities of female body image and feminine identification in the fitness gym. Central in this regard has been an examination of the unequal relationships between, and within, groups of people in exercise and fitness settings. The task of producing a relatively high degree of adequate knowledge about gendered bodies in the fitness gym has also involved consideration of several concepts related to Elias's (1978,1987) theory of involvement and detachment including: the personal pronoun model, the use of developmental thinking, the interplay between theory and evidence and the adequacy of evidence. Feminist and figurational ideas about gender, power and identities have been of use in making sense of the relationships between workingout, female bodies and femininities. Elias's conceptualisations of power, establishedoutsider relations and identification have been particularly helpful. Evidence from participant observations and interviewing revealed that several mechanisms serve to reinforce, challenge and negotiate a variety of images of the female body-beautiful in the fitness gym. These include: the insecurity and emotion that surround the acquisition and maintenance of an ideal physique, the monopolisation of corporeal power, the construction of group charisma and group disgrace, the formation of gossip networks, and the corporeal logic of the 'exercise body-beautiful complex'. The findings also reveal that female bodies are central to the formation of feminine identities and habituses. Feminine identities are founded on both different and shared characteristics of the female body-beautiful. Some female exercisers also share some characteristics with other women, specifically in the context of the fitness gym. Linked to a desire for a high status body Image, there is a tendency for white, western, middle-class, heterosexual, able-bodied women, who go to the gym, to share a preference for cosmetic fitness activities, and an emotional tie to aspirations for a slender, muscularly toned physique. The exercise histories of the women in this study indicated that the inculcation of feminine conduct and bodily preference happens over time, and in relation to a range of corporeal experiences including: physical education, sport, exercise, dance, dieting and adolescence.
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Bushaw, Kyle J. "The Effects of Police Body-Worn Cameras on Arrests| Examining the Chicago Police Department's Pilot Program." Thesis, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, 2017. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10274824.
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With overwhelming public support, pressure has been mounting on police departments to improve accountability and public trust by equipping their officers with body worn cameras (BWCs) to reduce police violence and hold officers responsible for excessive use of force, unjustified shootings, and other forms of misconduct. As police departments have begun to employ BWCs, however, concerns have risen regarding the application of this new technology and its potential to benefit police officers more so than the communities they serve. This study focuses on the city of Chicago’s recently implemented Body Worn Camera Pilot Program. The goals of this study were to determine if racial demographics could predict which of Chicago’s 22 police districts received BWCs during its pilot program, and whether and to what extent BWCs and the racial makeup of those districts influenced the arrest to crime ratios within them. A preliminary analysis revealed crime rates were not a statistically significant predictor for whether a district received BWCs. There was, however, an association between race and BWCs, where majority white police districts were much less likely to receive the technology. Standard multiple regressions indicate that as the white population percentage increases, arrests decrease. This finding was statistically significant at the .05 alpha level while controlling for the crime rate and BWC implementation. Three-way mixed ANOVA models were run to compare arrest to crime ratios pre- and post-BWC implementation for overall crime, serious crime, violent crime, non-index crime, and property crime. Although no significant two- or three-way interactions were found in any of the ANOVA models, when plotting the pre- and posttest arrest ratios there were noticeable differences between control and experimental groups across race.
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Silva, Deborah Helen 1950. "The relationship between female body image and androgyny." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/291890.
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This study examined gender role and female body image. It was hypothesized that results would support a statistically significant difference between the androgynous gender role group and other gender role groups on measures of body image. Androgynous female undergraduates (n = 52) of a large southwestern university, as classified by the Short Form of the Bem Sex-Role Inventory, were compared with masculine (n = 57), feminine (n = 53), and undifferentiated (n = 56) female undergraduates on body image scores of the Body Esteem Scale. Androgynous females scored significantly higher than masculine, feminine, and undifferentiated females on the Sexual Attractiveness subscale and significantly higher than the undifferentiated females on the Weight Concern and Physical Condition subscales. Additional results supported a significant correlation between height-to-weight ratio and Weight Concern subscale scores and a low but statistically significant correlation between height-to-weight ratio and Physical Condition subscale scores.
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Villa, Julio. "Cuerpo, masculinidad y estilo en jóvenes de sectores altos de Lima." Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 2015. http://repositorio.pucp.edu.pe/index/handle/123456789/114955.
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This paper approaches masculinity through the study of the body, taking into account its aesthetics tounveil a subject not well documented and to explore the experience and representation of masculinity in a socioeconomic sector that is not well known. The research on masculinities in Latin America and the world, point out three essential components: the persistent demonstration of masculinitythe distinction between feminine and homosexual
and the control of emotions. This research shows that, in the social sector explored, the concept of masculinity widens and the three components that were pointed out before, are reduced in intensity
meanwhile we foresee the importance of the body as an individuation factor and as an esthetic innovation. Through the practice of ethnography in two independent design stores in Lima, we observe that the appearance is produced when the personal taste, the salesmen as cultural intermediaries and the feminine figure intertwine.
Esta investigación aborda la masculinidad desde el cuerpo tomando como eje de análisis la estética corporal para poder arrojar luces sobre una dimensión poco estudiada y sobre la experiencia y re- presentación de la masculinidad en un sector que falta explorar. Los trabajos sobre masculinidades en América Latina y el mundo señalan tres componentes esenciales: la demostración constante de la masculinidad, la diferenciación con lo femenino y homosexual y el control de las emociones. Este trabajo evidencia que, en el sector social explorado, las fronteras de la masculinidad se amplían y los tres componentes antes señalados se reducen en intensidad mientras que se vislumbra la importancia del cuerpo como factor de individuación e innovación estética. Realizando una etnografía en dos tiendas de diseño independiente en Lima se observa que la apariencia se produce cuando se intersecta el gusto propio, el trabajo del vendedor como intermediador cultural y la figura femenina.
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Moore, Erin Lindsey. "Thin-Ideal Internalization, Body Misperception, and Their Association with Weight Control Behaviors Among Adolescent Girls." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2011. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/3053.
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Negative body image and preoccupation with weight are the norm for most women and girls in Western society, despite their potentially harmful consequences for psychological and physical wellness. While we know that many in this population experience negative feelings towards their bodies, we do not know if their beliefs about their body size are accurate and what effect a correct or incorrect assessment of one's body size has in terms of actual behavior. I examine this question among adolescent girls using data from the 2002 Health Behaviors in School-Age Children Survey. With a sample of 2,784 girls between the ages of 11 and 17, I run Poisson regression models to assess the relationship between actual and perceived body size and healthy versus unhealthy weight control behaviors, controlling for a number of indicators known to be associated with weight control, including parent and peer relationships, media exposure, and age of first menstruation. Results indicate that a discrepancy between actual and perceived body size is associated with increases in both positive and negative weight control behaviors, though the association with negative weight control behaviors is much larger. Starting puberty later is associated with a decrease in both types of these behaviors. Difficult family relationships appear to be more strongly associated with negative weight control than positive weight control. Other associations are discussed and suggestions for future research are offered.
26
Jennings, George Bradley. "Fighters, thinkers and shared cultivation : experiencing transformation through the long-term practice of traditionalist Chinese martial arts." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10036/116974.
Full textAbstract:
Traditionalist Chinese martial arts (TCMAs) are popular in Britain, and some advocates have made extensive claims of their body-self transformation through sustained training. Despite extensive physiological research, there are few investigations of these practices regarding their socio-cultural practice. This qualitative sociological study examines long-term British practitioners’ experiences of transformation via Taijiquan (Tai Chi) and Wing Chun by addressing five issues: 1) Rationales behind practice 2) Resulting transformations 3) Explicit/implicit pedagogic strategies 4) Cultural transmission 5) Relations to broader social life. It approaches these questions through an emergent research design incorporating autobiographical vignettes as a practitioner-teacher-researcher, life histories of experienced practitioners and ethnographic fieldwork of two case study schools. Following thematic, metaphorical and narrative analysis, a structurationist theoretical framework illuminates the data by incorporating sensitising concepts from diverse thinkers including Bourdieu, Frank, Giddens and Yuasa. The findings are represented through autobiographical, modified realist, impressionist and confessional writing and structure the thesis as follows: Firstly, my own story demonstrates shifts in transformation from a technique-orientated approach to a more spiritual/holistic perspective, finally emerging as a scholarly position of a thinker-martial artist. Secondly, practitioner case studies further articulate transformations along a flexible continuum of changing body-self-society relations interpreted here as three ideal types: Fighters, martial artists and thinkers. Thirdly, the connecting pedagogical issues are addressed, as well-rounded TCMA systems possess specific partner exercises to develop intercorporeal awareness and embodied sensitivity, which are explicit aspects of each association’s martial habitus and body lineage. Meanwhile, socio-linguistic metaphors articulate these transformations and are also interpreted as transformations in thinking and schemes of perception. Overall, these sensitising concepts and empirical findings offer a social theory of shared cultivation that acknowledges transformation on individual, relational, institutional and art levels. This shared cultivation framework may be useful for future methodological, theoretical and empirical considerations of wider physical culture. Key words: Autobiography, Body-self transformation, Chinese martial arts, cultural transmission, ethnography, life histories, qualitative research, sociology, shared cultivation
27
Gomes, Juliana Neves Simões. "Entre o ar e o chão: Metier de bailarino na cidade de São Paulo." Universidade de São Paulo, 2010. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/8/8132/tde-22082011-104438/.
Full textAbstract:
Essa tese procura investigar os mistérios que envolvem a adesão ao metier da dança, atividade artística para a qual é atraída uma minoria que faz do corpo instrumento de trabalho e recurso privilegiado de transgressão das próprias condições de existência. Trata-se de um estudo sobre bailarinas e bailarinos profissionais cujo interesse reside no exame dos elementos objetivos e subjetivos de acesso e permanência nessa carreira. A idéia consiste em desvendar a vocação para a dança tomando como cenário analítico o contexto do meio coreográfico da cidade de São Paulo, na atualidade, em que são encontrados bailarinos de distintos perfis alinhados em diferentes modelos estéticos: de um lado, a produção contemporânea que tem como base os procedimentos do balé clássico e, de outro, as linguagens de vanguarda amparadas, sobretudo, nas técnicas de improvisação. De acordo com isso, o objetivo deste trabalho é compreender quem são aqueles que, do ponto de vista social, tornam-se bailarinos, suas razões e seus meios, e em que medida os capitais econômicos, simbólicos e corporais podem ser traduzidos no âmbito dos estilos aos quais essas trajetórias se dirigem. A tese teve como fundamentos de pesquisa a etnografia de duas companhias paulistanas uma tradicional e outra de vanguarda e um conjunto de entrevistas com bailarinas e bailarinos, a partir das quais foram geradas narrativas sobre os seus itinerários e um banco de dados morfológicos que permitiram a interpretação das trajetórias dos agentes desse meio. Ao abordar essa base de dupla perspectiva metodológica, o trabalho elabora a análise da modelagem corporal e do imaginário desses profissionais e dos estilos de vida que deles derivam. A trajetória social e a feição do corpo dos bailarinos, submetidas ao ângulo das subjetividades do sujeito e da construção da dimensão de seus sentidos, foram às principais referências utilizadas como fontes de dados para apreender as especificidades dos portadores que constituem o pequeno grupo que realiza o salto para essa profissão e passa a vivenciar a dança como um trabalho, na condução metódica da vida; e para examinar os fatores e as condições sociais que orientam a formação dessa vocação.This thesis seeks to investigate the mysteries surrounding the access to the métier of dance, this artistic activity to which a minority is attracted, which makes the body a work instrument and a privileged transgression resource of their own living conditions. This is a study on professional dancers, both male and female, whose interest lies in examining the objective and subjective elements of access and permanence in this career. The idea is to unveil the \"vocation\" to dance considering as analytical scene the present choreographic context in the city of São Paulo, where dancers of distinct profiles are found lined up in different aesthetic models: on the one hand, the contemporary production that is based on the procedures of classical ballet and, on the other, the vanguard languages especially supported by improvisational techniques. Accordingly, the objective of this work is to understand, from a social standpoint, who are those that become dancers, their reasons and their means and to what extent the economic, symbolic and body capitals can be translated within the styles in which those paths are conducted. The thesis had as a research basis the ethnography of two dance companies from São Paulo a traditional and a vanguardist one as well as a series of interviews with dancers, from which both narratives about their itineraries and a morphological database were generated, allowing the interpretation of the trajectories of the agents in this environment. In addressing the basis of this dual methodological perspective, the work elaborates the analysis of body sculpting, these professionals imaginary and the lifestyles that derive from it. The social trajectory and the shape of the dancers bodies, submitted to the angle of the subjectivity of the subject and the construction of the size of their senses, were the main references used as data base to capture the specificities of holders who constitute the small group that leaps into this profession and starts to experience dance as a work, as a methodic way of life, and to examine the factors and social conditions underlying the formation of this vocation
28
Abbas, Andrea. "Sociological approaches to the sexed running body and its construction through magazine and memory 1979-1995." Thesis, Keele University, 2000. http://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/7755/.
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This thesis explores the transforming embodiment of sex that is integral to the development of running/jogging culture between 1979-1995. Actor-network theory, a foucauldian approach and critical realism are each used to elucidate different aspects of running including the way it defines sex through the body, clothing, space and the rules and practices of running, jogging and racing.
29
Reilly, Andrew H. "Risk, body image, and internalized homonegativity among gay men: body building, eating disturbance, tanning and unsafe sex." The Ohio State University, 2004. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1086193466.
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30
Bridel, William. "Gender, sexuality, and the body: Exploring the lived experiences of gay and queer marathoners." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/27228.
Full textAbstract:
The present study explores the experiences of 12 gay and queer males within the sport of marathoning. Working within an anti-positivist paradigm that draws on queer and poststructuralist gender theories, as well as a Foucauldian perspective of the body, I investigate subjects' discursive constructions of sexuality, gender, and the body within the context of this individual sport milieu. Gathered through guided conversations, written personal stories, and my reflexive research journal, subjects' narratives were analyzed thematically and then submitted to a discourse analysis. While revealing the subjects' recitation of dominant discourses regarding gay sexuality, the analysis also suggested marathoning as a "queer positive" space for the participants. Analysis also uncovered some resistance to dominant constructions of sporting masculinity, but also an emergent masculinity specific to the marathon context that re/produced a traditional gender order. Though interpellated by dominant discourses, subjects also "blurred" the traditional rigid boundaries of sexuality and gender binaries. Finally, the subjects' discursive constructions of their bodies and marathon practices were also considered. I have suggested that queer marathon bodies can be considered as "hybrid" creations through the adoption of subject positions within dominant discourses of physical activity, running, and popular representations of gay male physicality. In focusing specifically on an individual sporting space, this study adds a unique perspective to the growing body of knowledge related to gay men in sport.
31
Lantz, Elise. "Des marginalités encadrées : étude des rapports au handicap dans différentes configurations associatives du monde du cirque contemporain français." Thesis, Montpellier 1, 2014. http://www.theses.fr/2014MON14001.
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Le monde du cirque contemporain, qui a émergé en France à la fin des années 70, et qui a toujours entretenu une certaine marginalité, révèle les rapports ambivalents qu'entretient notre société à l'égard du handicap. Nous avons adopté une approche relationniste du handicap pour réaliser une étude exploratoire quantitative, puis une étude qualitative de onze associations circassiennes. Nous avons mis à jour quatre types de rapports à la différence : certaines associations organisent un Regroupement et Mise à distance des différences, qui sépare les personnes qui ont des limitations de capacités intellectuelles des autres pratiquants, par la création d'un véritable secteur de cirque spécialisé; une majorité d'associations accepte également la participation de personnes qui ont peu d'incapacités dans des pratiques de cirque normalisées, par un processus d'assimilation, traduisant une hiérarchisation des comportements; dans certaines associations professionnelles, quelques artistes aux corps hors-normes sont mis en avant, par leurs différences corporelles créatives; seule une des associations étudiées propose une forme originale de participation, acceptant des personnes ayant tous types de capacités et incapacités pour des pratiques inclusives, révélant une mixité créative. Le cirque contemporain a ainsi mis en place un secteur spécialisé, qui reproduit le détour ségrégatif organisé par les secteurs médico-sociaux et psychiatriques. Il propose un simulacre d'intégration hors du monde du handicap, tout en instituant une mise à distance de la différence. Cette participation au processus de ségrégation est masquée par la mise en avant d'artistes ayant des incapacités motrices et l'utilisation créative de leurs différences corporelles, à condition qu'ils démontrent un contrôle exceptionnel du corps. Une unique association combine l'organisation de pratiques inclusives et le rejet affirmé de sa propre institutionnalisation. Pour les autres, ni le statut associatif, ni la posture de marginalité, ne produisent des formes originales de participation pour les personnes ayant des limitations de capacités. On assiste à une polarisation du rapport à la norme, la marginalité « négative » des personnes « handicapées » – au sens d'un manque de contrôle des comportements – est encadrée par une prise en charge globale alors que la marginalité« positive » des différences corporelles est encadrée comme une œuvre, par une mise en piste spectaculaire, symbole de la marginalité renouvelée du cirque contemporainThe contemporary circus emerged in France during the late 70s and so far it has taken up a marginal position. Itsframework reveals the ambivalent relationship between society and disability.A research approach in which disability is the result of interaction between individuals and their environments wasadopted. We conducted a wide angle quantitative study about circus associations throughout France, followed by aqualitative study centered on eleven circus associations. We established four relationship patterns with respect todissimilarities: some associations organize a Clustering and segregation, that separates people with intellectual disabilitiesfrom other participants, with the creation of a specialized circus programs; a majority of associations also accepts theparticipation of people who carries low impact disabilities in normalized circus practices, by a process of assimilation,reflecting a Behavioral prioritization ; in associations that regroup professional performers, few artists with unconventionalbody types are emphasized by their Creative corporal dissimilarity ; only one among all organizations studied offers anoriginal pattern of participation, where people with all types of abilities and disabilities are united in inclusive practices, bythe virtue of a creative mosaic.Contemporary circus has established specialized programs that reproduce the segregation utilized in the medicosocialand psychiatric sectors. It proposes a simulated integration aimed to the world outside of the disability, whileestablishing a distancing of the difference. Recurrent highlighting of artists with physical disabilities that creatively usestheir corporal differences and demonstrates exceptional body control masks this participation in the process of segregation.A single organization combines inclusive practices and affirmatively rejects its own institutionalization. For others,neither association status nor the posture of marginality produces original forms of participation for people withdisabilities.Norm is polarized: “Negative” marginality of the “disabled” – those that have a lack of behavioral control – isframed by a global care, while the “positive” marginality of corporal differences is framed as a fine art piece by spectacularstaging, the symbol of the renewed marginality of the contemporary circus
32
Hill, Anabel Lee 1954. "Changes in body weight, total body fat, fat distribution, and dietary food intake in Hispanics participating in a 6 month smoking cessation program with and without the use of transdermal nicotine." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/282576.
Full textAbstract:
Smokers who successfully quit smoking gain weight; although important factors have been identified the mechanisms remain unclear. We measured changes in body weight, fat distribution, and dietary intake of macronutrients during a 26 week smoking cessation trial with the use of nicotine and placebo patch in a Hispanic sample of smokers (88% Mexican-American). Participants were randomized to receive patch treatment for 10 weeks and then followed for 16 weeks. We found that nicotine treated quitters experienced significantly less weight gain than placebo treated quitters at 6 weeks; however by 26 weeks, there were no significant differences among treatment groups. We found that percent total body fat (%TBF) for nicotine treated female quitters changed significantly less than for placebo treated female quitters at 10 weeks (p<0.05); there were no treatment differences in change in %TBF for males at 10 weeks. Male and female quitters experienced significantly less change in %TBF at 26 weeks than continued smokers (adjusted for treatment). Dietary intake of total energy, percent of total energy consumed as fat, protein, and carbohydrate were not significantly different by treatment group from BL for males or females. Thus, although body weight increased significantly in quitters versus non-quitters; dietary intake of macronutrients did not change significantly from BL for quitters and non-quitters. This suggests that factors other than changes in energy intake are responsible for the weight gain observed in this sample of Hispanic ex-smokers.
33
Mueller, Emma, and Sara Johansson. "Sociala medier - Ett osunt samhällsfenomen : En kvantitativ sociologisk studie om Facebook och Instagrams exponering på kvinnors kroppsuppfattning." Thesis, Södertörns högskola, Institutionen för samhällsvetenskaper, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-34258.
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The aim of this study is to examine if social media has a negative impact on how womenperceive their own body image. The study was conducted by a quantitative survey usingquestionnaires to examine the various factors that affect the perceived body image. Such ashow women socially compare themselves with others or how satisfied they are with theirbody depending on how much time they spend on social media. We will also investigate ifwomen’s perceived body image is consistent with the their actual body based upon theirBMI. The sample for the study consisted of 159 women who are members of a specificFacebook group. The material was analyzed with support from Festinger’s theory of socialcomparison and Cooley’s glass-self theory among others. The results show that high use ofsocial media affects women’s satisfaction with how they look negatively compared withthose who use social media to a low degree. It also shows that women who spend a lot oftime on social media tend to compare themselves with other more widely and tend to beunhappier with their body. On the other hand, we could not see any correlation between theuse of social media and women’s perception of their actual body.Syftet med studien är att undersöka om sociala medier har en negativ påverkan på hurkvinnor uppfattar sin egen kroppsbild. Studien genomfördes av en kvantitativ undersökningmed hjälp av enkäter för att undersöka de olika faktorerna som påverkar den uppfattadekroppsbilden. Såsom hur kvinnor jämför sig med andra eller hur nöjda de är med sin kroppberoende på hur mycket tid de spenderar på sociala medier. Vi kommer likaså undersöka omkvinnors uppfattade kroppsbild överensstämmer med deras faktiska kropp baserat på derasBMI. Urvalet för studien bestod av 159 kvinnor som är medlemmar i facebookgruppen Pinkroom. Materialet analyserades med bland annat stöd av Festingers teori om social jämförelseoch Cooleys teori om spegeljaget. Resultaten visar att vid hög användning av sociala medierpåverkas kvinnornas tillfredsställelse med kroppen i jämförelse med dem som användersociala medier i liten utsträckning. Det visar också att kvinnor som spenderar mycket tid påsociala medier tenderar att jämföra sig med andra i större utsträckning och att dem tenderaratt vara mer missnöjda med sin kropp.
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Erim, Bilun. "Making The Secular Through The Body: Tattooing The Father Turk." Master's thesis, METU, 2011. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12613367/index.pdf.
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This thesis examines the recent phenomenon of Atatürk&rsquo
s tattoos through a twofold theoretical framework of body politics and secularism. Firstly, it examines the growing interest on the body in social sciences, which has focused on the body as a site of both docility and subversivity. Additionally, the body has been rediscovered as a fetish object through which selfhood and subjectivity are continually reconstructed and contested. These developments were simultaneously conditioned by and manifested themselves in an understanding of &lsquo
the body as a project&rsquo
. Secondly, the study explores Atatü
rk&rsquo
s continued legacy in Turkish politics and for the nation-people. 73 years after his death, Atatü
rk still remains the utmost personification of the secular Turkish nation state. An effort is made to demonstrate how &lsquo
the secular&rsquo
, representing the normative nation-identity, and &lsquo
the religious&rsquo
, representing its Other, have been made in Turkish history. In light of these theories, Atatü
rk tattoo almost seems like an oxymoron: &lsquo
tattoo&rsquo
carrying controversial and rebellious, and &lsquo
Atatü
rk&rsquo
statist and conformist undertones. The main ambition of this thesis is to explore this contradiction through an analysis of whether the Atatü
rk tattoo is a spontaneous (body) politics on the side of &lsquo
the people&rsquo
or whether it is a symptom of Kemalism&rsquo
s current position in society and politics. Finally, to better understand the subject, field research has been conducted with tattoo artists and people with the Atatü
rk tattoo, in 3 cities, through the summer and fall of 2010.
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Horn, Zachary. "Cemeteries & the Control of Bodies." Thesis, University of Waterloo, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10012/2986.
Full textAbstract:
There has been a substantial change in cemetery administration over the last century. Where once cemeteries were predominantly run by religious organizations, now they are mostly run by local municipalities. This thesis examines the change in cemetery administration, using the cemeteries in the city of Hamilton, Ontario as a case study, drawing on material taken from an inventory of Hamilton cemeteries. The Ontario Cemetery Act of 1913 is examined to see how it helped to consolidate municipal power over cemeteries. In addition to secularization theory, relevant concepts are also applied from the works of Talcott Parsons, Max Weber and Michel Foucault. The analysis suggests that the laicization of cemeteries is part of ongoing rationalizing trends in the larger society. The connection between cemeteries and changes in how we think about human bodies and death is also investigated. Rationalization is linked to a marginalization of the meaning of death as death itself moves from a religious understanding to the control of professionals and bureaucracies like hospitals and funeral homes.
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Ghillani, Francesca. "Migrating bodies : the effects of transnational movement on women's bodily practices in later life." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:bddae074-798e-490e-8079-85d9dfed9423.
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When approaching old age, women's bodies face functional, esthetical, and reproductive changes that can represent a source of discontinuity in their lives. Moreover, women are constantly exposed to the social pressure of compelling stereotypes regarding their body image and functionality: from media to medical pamphlets, the feminine body is subjected to deep social observation and regulation. Given that the relationship between ageing and the body is socially mediated, how does the encounter with a different culture have an impact on it? In this research, migration has been employed to analyse the cultural aspects of bodily practices. Migration can be described as an embodied experience, in which a body is first displaced and then emplaced in two social locations - the community of origin and the culture of destination - a circumstance known as transnationalism. Interviews were carried out with women aged between 59 and 74, divided in three groups: RESIDENTS: women who were born in an Italian village and had lived all their lives there; MIGRANTS: women who moved from the same village to London and are still living in England; RETURNED: migrants who moved back to the village permanently after living in London. Four dynamics were identified to regulate the interplay of ageing, bodily practices, and migration: (i) Assimilation: encountering and integrating with the new community; (ii) Acculturation: observing, learning, and sometimes adopting norms and values of the culture of destination; (iii) Acceptance: the binding agent between body and self during the recognition of ageing; (iv) Adjustment: the set of changes in their habits that women put in place in order to accommodate transformations in their bodies and maintain social inclusion. Moreover, a new conceptualization of transnationalism is proposed, which helps to frame how, after many years of negotiation between the culture of origin and the one of settlement, migrants disengage from social normativity, gaining an augmented sense of agency.
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Pollock, Sarah. "Framing Fitness: Gender, Experts, Popular Magazines, and Healthism." Diss., Temple University Libraries, 2015. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/324761.
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SociologyPh.D.
I examined the extent to which Bourdieu's field theory applied to the fitness industry through analysis of magazine content and interviews with a variety of field participants. I found that the processes through which people come to understand and define fitness in different ways, and, at times, develop contradictory positions on the importance and benefits of fitness are in concert with Bourdieu's theory. I argue that in addition to the historical macro forces identified by other scholars as shaping the fitness industry, endogenous field dynamics propel the field in new directions. Four broad conceptions of fitness emerged: (1) fitness as health; (2) fitness as functionality; (3) fitness as obligation; and (4) fitness as appearance. Key findings include that fitness magazines' and experts' constructions of fitness relied on gendered biological understandings of the body that promote healthism. Fitness magazines' and experts' discourse equated fitness with gendered versions of personal responsibility, discipline, and moral character and often characterized fitness as a panacea. Magazines (re)produced gendered body ideals and perpetuated the gender binary. Women's magazines' incorporation of feminist empowerment discourse promoted individual-level empowerment while simultaneously perpetuating gender inequality. I identified a few alternative perspectives on fitness that critiqued the mainstream focus on fitness as a weight loss strategy and drew attention to social inequalities that result from idealizing particular body forms. I identified competition within the fitness field among various actors striving to establish legitimacy and secure resources such as social and economic capital. Competition occurred at three levels: the macro (field) level in which the fitness field competed with and against other fields, the mezzo (organizations) level in which institutions competed with each other, and the micro level in which individual experts and practitioners contended for recognition. Magazines and respondents identified various types of "fitness experts" whom I classified into five categories: producing, disseminating, practicing, alternative, and exemplary. I identified seven strategies used by fitness experts to claim expertise and establish legitimacy within the fitness field. These included: (1) social capital; (2) credentialing; (3) name-dropping; (4) using science and referring to scientific research studies; (5) referencing commercial success; (6) referencing personal fitness goal success; and (7) discrediting others. These strategies represent the logic of the fitness field and the struggle to establish associated forms of capital, such as social capital and bodily capital. I observed that because fitness is a commercial field--the industry generates billions of dollars in economic activity annually-- many of these forms of capital can be converted into economic capital. Thus, an appreciation of the economics of fitness provides an important perspective on the competition within the field. I found differences in the fitness habitus among the variety of players and agendas in the fitness field. In other words, people came to fitness with different assumptions about what was "natural" and "desirable"--and indeed, even different definitions of fitness itself. Respondents in the study held different beliefs about how bodies work, the extent to which they can change, the desirability of certain physical forms, whether or not the pursuit of fitness is a morally superior activity, and whether that pursuit is obligatory work or enjoyable leisure. I compared how various experiences and social factors produced differing definitions of fitness and hypothesized that variations in habitus are associated with different desired changes to the fitness industry. As the fitness industry continues to grow, and as public programs increasingly turn to exercise as part of the solution to the "obesity epidemic," more research is needed to understand what messages are available to the public about fitness and which are most important in shaping public perception and debate. Continued attention to how fitness is influenced by and contributes to gendered body ideals is warranted. This project highlights the socially constructed nature of fitness and identifies what factors influence how fitness is understood.
Temple University--Theses
38
Adams, Joshua R. "Transient bodies, pliable flesh culture, stratification, and body modification /." Columbus, Ohio : Ohio State University, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1181666499.
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Ison, Joshua A. "Poking, Prodding, and Piercing: Becoming a Successful Body Modifier." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2015. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/2551.
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Body modification is a global phenomenon. In the southeastern United States, two forms of modifications present themselves most often: piercings and tattoos. Much of the research conducted on body modifications looks at deviance as a primary concern, focusing less on what the individuals are like. This study examines the personal accounts of people with body modifications and add to the existing information about body-modified people. Interviews were conducted with fifteen participants across several months in different parts of two east Tennessee cities. Questions were open-ended and all responses were transcribed. Participants discussed a variety of topics, including pain, belongingness, and body image. This research offers suggestions for future research in focused areas of body modification.
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Keller, Zoe A. "Correlations between body mass index and psychological distress in adolescents." Thesis, California State University, Long Beach, 2014. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=1527717.
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The purpose of the current study was to address the relationship between Body Mass Index (BMI) status and psychological distress within the adolescent population. Data was acquired from the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) 2011-2012, a state-wide phone survey which addresses health issues among the resident population. The present study used data from 2,1 04 California adolescents, utilizing variables relating to demographics, general health condition, and mental health.
Results indicated a statistically significant relationship between BMI and psychological distress, with overweight adolescents experiencing more distress and depression than their underweight/healthy weight counterparts. Gender and perceived general health condition were both significantly related to distress, with females and those of poor perceived general health condition experiencing greater psychological distress, regardless of weight status. This study has implications for social work policy and practice, especially in work with youth and families.
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Rowson, Emily. "Impossible girls and tin dogs : constructions of the gendered body in Doctor Who." Thesis, Northumbria University, 2017. http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/36277/.
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This thesis interrogates the various constructions of the gendered body within the rebooted Doctor Who (1963- ). To do this, this thesis contends that Doctor Who occupies something of a contradictory position with regard to gender and the body, seemingly acknowledging the need for equality and feminism as ‘common sense’ whilst simultaneously denying true realisation of these aims by retreat to universal (patriarchal) concepts of goodness, humanity, and benevolence. In addition to this, whilst, at present, our definitions of the gendered body appear to be becoming ever more fluid and abstract, something that is aided by the increasing encroachment of technology in our everyday lives, there remains a limit to this bodily fluidity, a limit heavily informed by recourse to the ‘natural’ and, therefore, the ‘acceptable’. Science fiction’s interest in the body is clear and well documented; science fiction landscapes are frequently populated by bodies that have been mutated, enhanced and cloned. Hence, there is scope for a mutually beneficial discourse between theoretical constructions of the body, evolving technology and science fiction narratives, a discourse that this thesis will ground within the narrative of Doctor Who. In doing this, this thesis will intervene within these debates by deconstructing representations of the gendered body within the rebooted Doctor Who, constructing a continuum of ‘acceptable’ bodily expressions that will offer insight into the limits of our apparent gendered bodily fluidity. Using a methodological approach that involves textual analysis informed by social, cultural, and technological theory, this thesis begins by foregrounding the mutual areas of interest between the various theoretical concepts. From this, the thesis contains three broad thematic chapters discussing the topics of reproduction, monstrosity and technology with the selection of these topics being attributable to them representing convergence points of interest for the given theoretical areas. These themes are then grounded and discussed within Doctor Who, with the programme’s popularity, longevity, long form narrative structure, and political reflexivity all making it an appropriate lens for analysis. This thesis argues that these debates are ones Doctor Who both acknowledges and embodies, yet Who appears to remain hamstrung by a resort to tradition that prevents true radicalism and subversion. By using Doctor Who as an accessible point of reference for these potentially abstract and emotive debates, this thesis aims to question the extent to which we are now, or may ever consider ourselves, truly ‘postgender’; whether our ‘choices’ are as freely made as they appear, or whether we remain constricted by residual patriarchal mores.
42
Windsor, Elroi J. "Regulating Healthy Gender: Surgical Body Modification among Transgender and Cisgender Consumers." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2011. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/sociology_diss/55.
Full textAbstract:
Few bodies consistently portray natural or unaltered forms. Instead, humans inhabit bodies imbued with sociocultural meanings about what is attractive, appropriate, functional, and presentable. As such, embodiment is always gendered. The social, extra-corporeal body is a central locus for expressing gender. Surgical body modifications represent inherently gendered technologies of the body. But psychomedical institutions subject people who seek gender-crossing surgeries to increased surveillance, managing and regulating cross-gender embodiment as disorderly. Using mixed research methods, this research systematically compared transgender and cisgender (non-transgender) people’s experiences before, during, and after surgical body modification. I conducted a content analysis of 445 threads on a message board for an online cisgender surgery community, an analysis of 15 international protocols for transgender-specific surgeries, and 40 in-depth interviews with cisgender and transgender people who had surgery. The content analysis of the online community revealed similar themes among cisgender and transgender surgery users. However, detailed protocols existed only for transgender consumers of surgery. Interview findings showed that transgender and cisgender people reported similar presurgical feelings toward their bodies, similar cosmetic and psychological motivations for surgery, and similar benefits of surgery. For both cisgender and transgender people, surgery enhanced the inner self through improving the outer gendered body. Despite these similar embodied experiences, having a cisgender gender status determined respondents’ abilities to pursue surgery autonomously and with institutional support. Ultimately, this research highlights inequalities that result from gender status and manifest in psychomedical institutions by identifying the psychosocial impacts of provider/consumer or doctor/patient interactions, relating gendered embodiment to regulatory systems of authority, and illuminating policy implications for clinical practice and legal classifications of sex and gender.
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Stokes, Donald Milton. "Media's Impact, Body Image, and Latina Ethnic Sub-group Affiliation." Thesis, University of Connecticut, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3569930.
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Body image refers to how a person perceives herself physically. A woman's perception of her physical appearance and her adherence to a cultural ideal of beauty informs her body image. Several determinants shape the development of body image, including sociocultural, psychological, and interpersonal factors, as well as adolescent physique and maturation, history of abuse, and certain types of media exposure (e.g., fashion magazines and a variety of television programming).
Much scholarly critique has argued that popular media perpetuate a "thin ideal" to viewers. Consumers receive distorted information. Heavy media consumers, through sheer volume of exposure, may be more aware of and likely to internalize the societal ideal, which could lead to disturbed body image and eating disorders. Substantial body image and media effects research focuses on print images, while television images are far less studied. Furthermore, Caucasian females are studied more frequently than members of other ethnic groups, such as Latinas (Hispanic females). Existing research examining Latinas tends to aggregate ethnic sub-groups (e.g. Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, etc.) into one homogenous group despite differences in national origin. The present study addresses a paucity of research focusing on ethnicity and ethnic sub-group identification related to body image across disciplines.
A sample comprising 305 self-identified Latinas completed an online survey about television consumption and body image. Television consumption was not predictive of social comparison; however, television consumption did predict awareness of the Eurocentric idealized thin body type. Moreover, sociocultural pressure from friends and family predicted awareness of the idealized thin. Awareness of the idealized thin was positively associated with social comparison, and internalization was positively associated with social comparison. Likewise, social comparison was positively associated with body dissatisfaction and with drive for thinness. The results lend further support for the sociocultural paradigm of body image disturbance. Limitations of the present work are posed along with suggestions for future research.
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Allen, Steven William. "A pleasure in pain : contemporary mainstream cinema's fascination with the aestheticized spectacle of the controlled body." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2003. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/1228/.
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This thesis considers the ways in which the dominated, marked and suffering body (the controlled body) has been represented and employed in recent mainstream cinema. Noting a shift from narratives that depict escape and the alleviation of torment to ones that highlight subjection and endurance, it probes the influences and implications of the change. The project employs an interdisciplinary approach that utilizes discourses from anthropology, art history and cultural studies in conjunction with textual analysis, and consequently attempts to rethink a pleasure in pain outside psychoanalytically informed theories. The thesis argues that diverse images of pain can be usefully understood by examining them as part of a collective negotiation of the relationship we have with our bodies in Western culture, especially in respect of agency and corporeality. Identifying a fascination for activities that fuse concepts of pain and pleasure, in particular sadomasochism, body modification, artwork and extreme sports, the study argues that the controlled body borrows heavily from these sources for its imagery but typically understates the social motivations of masochistic pleasure and assertion of autonomy. The research uncovers a range of narrative strategies that justify depictions of masochism (especially in men) that deflect the implication of pleasurable pain whilst simultaneously formulating it as part of personal identity. It investigates how pain and the closeness to death are used to convey a vitality of existence, and also, through an analysis of the spectacle and the narrative patterns in recent films, offers an appreciation of how the spectator engages with the texts. Furthermore, the iconography of pain and control is shown to be important in our conceptualization of beauty, whilst the personal appropriation of suffering can be interpreted as an affirmative choice. The thesis therefore reveals that, with varying degrees of explicitness, mainstream cinema has broached contemporary anxieties regarding self determination and identity through the representation of the controlled body.
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Karadeniz, Oguz Ozgur. "Subject, Body, And Technology In The Discourse Of Cyberculture: The Case Of Wired Magazine." Master's thesis, METU, 2010. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/2/12611901/index.pdf.
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This study aims to provide an account of the production of subject through the representations of body and technology in the discourse of cyberculture through the analysis of Wired magazine. The findings indicate that the subject produced in this discourse is normatively white and male, and is produced along the ways of liberal humanism as it is conceptualized as autonomous, having free will and preceding the discursive operations and market relations. The production of this subject requires a series of exclusions and abjections including the smart machines which are becoming increasingly humanoid and thus forming a threat to the category of &ldquohuman&rdquo
and to the boundaries of the autonomous subject.
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Öhman, Marie. "Kropp och makt i rörelse." Doctoral thesis, Örebro universitet, Samhällsvetenskapliga institutionen, 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-1513.
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Body and Power in Motion This dissertation is concerned with body and politics, or, more specifi cally body, power and governance. The central question is how specifi c individuals and bodies are constituted in the teaching of Physical Education (PE) in school. Inspired by Foucault’s work and the research fi eld that emanates from the concept of governmentality, one of the ambitions is to develop a method that facilitates the study of power and governance processes in teachers’ and students’ interactive actions and dealings. With the aid of this approach, 15 video-recorded physical education lessons in 5 Swedish nine-year compulsory schools are analysed in order to demonstrate how governance processes are included in the work and activities in terms of how the processes of governance–self-governance are staged, and the direction this takes. In using the term direction I am here referring to the content the governance is aiming towards, where the question of which subjects and bodies are constituted is of substantial interest. This means that the study not only focuses on what is done, but also on the way in which it is done, i.e. it analyses both process and content. The results show that physical exertion and the desire for physical work is a thread that runs though the analysed material. It is mainly scientifi c knowledge about the body that is referred to in actual teaching practice. This is displayed through the use of a scientifi cally inspired language when talking about the body, where effects on muscles and degrees of oxygen intake are considered in connection with the physical activities. In connection with physical exertion, pupils are encouraged to do their best, try the activities on offer, cooperate with others and face challenges. In line with the governmentality perspective’s problematisation of the process governance–self-governance, the study highlights a governance mentality that is not characterised by coercion, but is rather directed towards different components of willingness where the students are expected to be participatory, take responsibility and govern their own actions in the direction of that which is most desirable and reasonable. The willingness component appears as the actual hub of character-building, were the students ought to be physically active, should want to do their best, be willing to try, should want to show solidarity and should want to defeat the others. The process of governance–self-governance is staged as different ways of appealing to one’s willingness in the activities studied. Specifi c governance techniques are used to support and promote self-governance work, i.e. different forms of encouragement strengthen the correct action, emphasising physical exertion as pleasurable and focuses on the fact that we are all involved in a common project. In the dissertation it is shown how the body is included in a socio-political context. Through the body the individual is turned into a participant of physical projects concerned with becoming a certain kind of social citizen. The body thus symbolises the complex encounter between the individual and society. In this way the study demonstrates and highlights tendencies that are evident in modern society. It is thus a narrative that indicates how we all become part of a discourse system.
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Caballero, Julia Daniel. "Socialisations et institutionnalisation des pratiques corpo-expressives en Espagne." Thesis, Toulouse 3, 2018. http://www.theses.fr/2018TOU30117/document.
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L'Expression Corporelle (EC) est une discipline relativement récente en Espagne. Elle a été institutionnalisée au cours des années 1960 et 1970. Nous avons analysé les parcours de professionnalisation et les modalités d'appropriation/socialisation des pratiquants de l'EC. Le matériau est composé d'observations directes des pratiques corporelles, d'entretiens semi-directifs et de questionnaires qualitatifs. Cette thèse met en évidences les carrières corpo-expressives des pratiquant-e-s de l'EC. Notamment, on étudie le travail de transformation de soi qui modifie leurs dispositions. Nous mettons également en évidence la structuration de l'espace de la pratique. Il est configuré par les femmes des classes sociales moyennes et supérieures détenant un grand volume de capital culturel qui s'engagent "plus facilement" que les hommes dans des activités impliquant un " travail émotionnel "Body Expression (BE) is a relatively recent discipline in Spain. It was institutionalised over the course of the years 1960-1970. We have analysed the process of professionalisation and means of appropriation/socialisation of BE practitioners. The material subject to analysis consists of the direct observation of corporal practices, semi-directive interviews and qualitative questionnaires. This thesis brings to light the corpo-expressive careers of BE practitioners. We will mainly study the process of transformation of the self that modifies their disposition. We will also examine the structure of the space in which BE is practised. This space is mainly formed by middle and upper class women with a large amount of cultural capital who are "quicker" than men to commit to activities that entail "emotional work"
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Meadows, Amber S. "Men Feel it too: An Examination of Body Image and Disordered Eating among Older Males." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2011. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/gerontology_theses/27.
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This quantitative study examined body image and disordered eating in older males. Using a series of questionnaires and demographic questions, two research questions were explored: a) What are the characteristics of older males in terms of eating and body image? and b) Are disordered eating behaviors among older males related to dissatisfaction with body image, specifically physical appearance or physical functioning? Paired samples t-tests revealed that older males rated their ideal body figure as significantly smaller than their current figure, t(35) = -5.53, p < .01, which indicates the presence of body dissatisfaction. Twenty percent of participants were found to be at risk for disordered eating attitudes and behaviors. Furthermore, a correlation was found between disordered eating attitudes and body dissatisfaction particularly as it relates to physical appearance, (r(33) = -.486, p < .01).
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Lee, Ilknur. "Beyond body an analysis of diachronic changes of societal beliefs and attitudes /." [Pensacola, Fla.] : University of West Florida, 2006. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/WFE0000007.
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Purdue, David. "Conflict and consensus within the paralympic field : a sociological investigation of an elite disability sport competition." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2011. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/8367.
Full textAbstract:
This research provides a sociological investigation of an elite disability sport competition known as the Paralympic Games. A quadrennial multi-sport competition for individuals with specific impairments, the Paralympic Games, is explored in this thesis through the method of semi-structured interviews. Individuals interviewed included current and former Paralympians, active and retired disability sport administrators as well as social researchers of disability and disability sport. A number of themes surface in this research which identifies and begins to explore the relationships between the core constituents which influence the Paralympic Games. Assertions about which bodies have a legitimate claim to be involved in Paralympic sport, alongside how impaired bodies are used to create an elite disability sport spectacle, such as the Paralympic Games, remain contested by members and organisations that influence, through consensus and conflict, the development of the Paralympic Movement. The Paralympic Games, of course, has not developed in isolation, but in the context of wider developments across sport. In relation to this the positive and negative influences of the International Olympic Committee upon the Paralympic Games are considered. At the core of the thesis, critical analysis has been generated through the use of the social theory of Pierre Bourdieu. In particular Bourdieu's related concepts of habitus, capital and field, in conjunction with previous research into the Paralympic Movement and the extant literature in the field of disability studies, are used to illuminate the existence of a Paralympic field. The possible manifestation of a Paralympic field is explored through the empirical data collected. As a result this thesis highlights the nexus between the sociology of sport and disability studies. Through the fusion of these fields, and by grounding them in a robust theoretical framework, it is hoped that this research will add positively to the literature in this emerging specialism of the sociology of disability sport.