Kjerstin Gruys
Biographic Data
| ID | 3685721 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kjerstin Gruys |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kjerstin |
| FAMILY NAME | Gruys |
| SIGNATURE | GRUYS K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Nevada, Reno |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 155 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 14 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Fit models, not fat models
The extent to which the U.S. fashion industry is becoming more size- and shape- inclusive is highly contested. To assess whether or not this is occurring in women’s fashion, I draw from a content analysis of 162 online job advertisements for female fit models in the U.S. collected between 2012 and 2018. I show that fit modeling is, indeed, more size- and shape- inclusive than fashion modeling. However, when compared to the broader U.S. population…
Under the Knife
How Do Gender, Sexuality, and Age Impact Perceptions of Teacher Sexual Misconduct? An Intersectional Vignette-Based Study
In this study we investigate the intersecting impacts of perpetrators’ gender, sexuality, and age on perceptions of teacher sexual misconduct. When the teacher was a woman, respondents perceived the relationship to be less detrimental to the student, the student to be more mature and responsible, and the relationship as more acceptable. Heterosexual pairings were perceived as more acceptable than same-sex pairings, with the student perceived as m…
Not Your Average Nerd”
Research on hybrid masculinity shows that privileged men incorporate aspects of subordinated and/or marginalized masculinities into their gender performances, contributing to the persistence of hegemonic masculinity. This scholarship has centered on white, straight, cisgender, class‐privileged men. Yet, it is reasonable to imagine that not all privileged men enact hybrid masculinities and that at least some less‐privileged men engage in hybrid id…
The Aesthetic Labor of Ethnographers
This chapter uses a comparative case method, drawing on autoethnographic accounts to explore how ethnographers perform aesthetic labor across two research sites: a women’s plus-size clothing store and a coed retail gym. The authors find that they engaged in aesthetic labor as they adapted to the aesthetic expectations of sites by either blending in or sticking out. In their studies, the successful accomplishment of aesthetic labor relied primaril…
Making Over” Poor Women
Drawing on 13 months of participant observation at a welfare‐to‐work nonprofit that provides unemployed poor women with used business attire, I assess the extent to which—and how—this “objectified cultural capital” is transmitted to clients. I advance prior theorizing in this area by considering whether clients’ “bodily capital” impacts the services they receive. I find that despite providing needed services to clients, the organization reifies m…
What Threatens, Defines
Sized Out
Feminist scholars have long critiqued the fashion industry's ultra-thin beauty standards as harmful to women. Combining data from three qualitative studies of women's clothing retailers-of bras, plus-size clothing, and bridal wear-we shift the analytical focus away from glamorized media images toward the seemingly mundane realm of clothing size standards, examining how women encounter, understand, and navigate these standards in their daily lives…
Buttoned Up
Culture, health, and bigotry
Reporting risk, producing prejudice
Does This Make Me Look Fat? Aesthetic Labor and Fat Talk as Emotional Labor in a Women's Plus-Size Clothing Store
Drawing on participant observation at a women's plus-size clothing store, “Real Style,” this article draws on the unique experiences of plus-sized women in their roles as workers, managers, and customers, to examine how mainstream beauty standards, body-accepting branding, and customers' diverse feeling rules shape service interactions. Despite branding that promoted prideful appreciation for “Real” bodies, the influence of these body-accepting d…
Social Problem Construction and National Context
Drawing on analyses of American and French news reports on "overweight" and "obesity," this article examines how national context—including position in a global field of nation states, as well as different national politics and culture—shapes the framing of social problems. As has been shown in previous research, news reports from France—the economically dominated but culturally dominant nation of the two—discuss the United States more often than…
Morality and Health
This article examines how widely shared cultural values shape social problem construction and, in turn, can reproduce social inequality. To do so, we draw on a comparative case study of American news reporting on eating disorders and overweight/obesity between 1995 and 2005. In the contemporary United States, thinness is associated with high social status and taken as evidence of moral virtue. In contrast, fatness is linked to low status and seen…
Morality and Health
This article examines how widely shared cultural values shape social problem construction and, in turn, can reproduce social inequality. To do so, we draw on a comparative case study of American news reporting on eating disorders and overweight/obesity between 1995 and 2005. In the contemporary United States, thinness is associated with high social status and taken as evidence of moral virtue. In contrast, fatness is linked to low status and seen…
Does This Make Me Look Fat? Aesthetic Labor and Fat Talk as Emotional Labor in a Women's Plus-Size Clothing Store
Drawing on participant observation at a women's plus-size clothing store, “Real Style,” this article draws on the unique experiences of plus-sized women in their roles as workers, managers, and customers, to examine how mainstream beauty standards, body-accepting branding, and customers' diverse feeling rules shape service interactions. Despite branding that promoted prideful appreciation for “Real” bodies, the influence of these body-accepting d…
Social Problem Construction and National Context
Drawing on analyses of American and French news reports on "overweight" and "obesity," this article examines how national context—including position in a global field of nation states, as well as different national politics and culture—shapes the framing of social problems. As has been shown in previous research, news reports from France—the economically dominated but culturally dominant nation of the two—discuss the United States more often than…
Reporting risk, producing prejudice
What Threatens, Defines
Culture, health, and bigotry
Making Over” Poor Women
Drawing on 13 months of participant observation at a welfare‐to‐work nonprofit that provides unemployed poor women with used business attire, I assess the extent to which—and how—this “objectified cultural capital” is transmitted to clients. I advance prior theorizing in this area by considering whether clients’ “bodily capital” impacts the services they receive. I find that despite providing needed services to clients, the organization reifies m…
Sized Out
Feminist scholars have long critiqued the fashion industry's ultra-thin beauty standards as harmful to women. Combining data from three qualitative studies of women's clothing retailers-of bras, plus-size clothing, and bridal wear-we shift the analytical focus away from glamorized media images toward the seemingly mundane realm of clothing size standards, examining how women encounter, understand, and navigate these standards in their daily lives…
Not Your Average Nerd”
Research on hybrid masculinity shows that privileged men incorporate aspects of subordinated and/or marginalized masculinities into their gender performances, contributing to the persistence of hegemonic masculinity. This scholarship has centered on white, straight, cisgender, class‐privileged men. Yet, it is reasonable to imagine that not all privileged men enact hybrid masculinities and that at least some less‐privileged men engage in hybrid id…
Fit models, not fat models
The extent to which the U.S. fashion industry is becoming more size- and shape- inclusive is highly contested. To assess whether or not this is occurring in women’s fashion, I draw from a content analysis of 162 online job advertisements for female fit models in the U.S. collected between 2012 and 2018. I show that fit modeling is, indeed, more size- and shape- inclusive than fashion modeling. However, when compared to the broader U.S. population…
Social Problem Construction and National Context
Drawing on analyses of American and French news reports on "overweight" and "obesity," this article examines how national context—including position in a global field of nation states, as well as different national politics and culture—shapes the framing of social problems. As has been shown in previous research, news reports from France—the economically dominated but culturally dominant nation of the two—discuss the United States more often than…
Morality and Health
This article examines how widely shared cultural values shape social problem construction and, in turn, can reproduce social inequality. To do so, we draw on a comparative case study of American news reporting on eating disorders and overweight/obesity between 1995 and 2005. In the contemporary United States, thinness is associated with high social status and taken as evidence of moral virtue. In contrast, fatness is linked to low status and seen…
Does This Make Me Look Fat? Aesthetic Labor and Fat Talk as Emotional Labor in a Women's Plus-Size Clothing Store
Drawing on participant observation at a women's plus-size clothing store, “Real Style,” this article draws on the unique experiences of plus-sized women in their roles as workers, managers, and customers, to examine how mainstream beauty standards, body-accepting branding, and customers' diverse feeling rules shape service interactions. Despite branding that promoted prideful appreciation for “Real” bodies, the influence of these body-accepting d…
Reporting risk, producing prejudice
Culture, health, and bigotry
Buttoned Up
Making Over” Poor Women
Drawing on 13 months of participant observation at a welfare‐to‐work nonprofit that provides unemployed poor women with used business attire, I assess the extent to which—and how—this “objectified cultural capital” is transmitted to clients. I advance prior theorizing in this area by considering whether clients’ “bodily capital” impacts the services they receive. I find that despite providing needed services to clients, the organization reifies m…
What Threatens, Defines
Sized Out
Feminist scholars have long critiqued the fashion industry's ultra-thin beauty standards as harmful to women. Combining data from three qualitative studies of women's clothing retailers-of bras, plus-size clothing, and bridal wear-we shift the analytical focus away from glamorized media images toward the seemingly mundane realm of clothing size standards, examining how women encounter, understand, and navigate these standards in their daily lives…
The Aesthetic Labor of Ethnographers
This chapter uses a comparative case method, drawing on autoethnographic accounts to explore how ethnographers perform aesthetic labor across two research sites: a women’s plus-size clothing store and a coed retail gym. The authors find that they engaged in aesthetic labor as they adapted to the aesthetic expectations of sites by either blending in or sticking out. In their studies, the successful accomplishment of aesthetic labor relied primaril…
Not Your Average Nerd”
Research on hybrid masculinity shows that privileged men incorporate aspects of subordinated and/or marginalized masculinities into their gender performances, contributing to the persistence of hegemonic masculinity. This scholarship has centered on white, straight, cisgender, class‐privileged men. Yet, it is reasonable to imagine that not all privileged men enact hybrid masculinities and that at least some less‐privileged men engage in hybrid id…
How Do Gender, Sexuality, and Age Impact Perceptions of Teacher Sexual Misconduct? An Intersectional Vignette-Based Study
In this study we investigate the intersecting impacts of perpetrators’ gender, sexuality, and age on perceptions of teacher sexual misconduct. When the teacher was a woman, respondents perceived the relationship to be less detrimental to the student, the student to be more mature and responsible, and the relationship as more acceptable. Heterosexual pairings were perceived as more acceptable than same-sex pairings, with the student perceived as m…
Fit models, not fat models
The extent to which the U.S. fashion industry is becoming more size- and shape- inclusive is highly contested. To assess whether or not this is occurring in women’s fashion, I draw from a content analysis of 162 online job advertisements for female fit models in the U.S. collected between 2012 and 2018. I show that fit modeling is, indeed, more size- and shape- inclusive than fashion modeling. However, when compared to the broader U.S. population…
Under the Knife
Sociology (11 works) · Political science (10 works) · Psychology (10 works) · Social Psychology (8 works) · Fashion and Cultural Textiles (6 works) · Gender Studies (6 works) · Obesity and Health Practices (6 works) · Social Psychology (6 works) · Clothing (5 works) · Gender Studies (5 works)