Dual Conversations

Body Talk Among Young Women and Their Social Contacts

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4674580
AutoresMaureen O''Dougherty (0000-0001-7006-7030, University of Minnesota), Kathryn H Schmitz (0000-0003-2400-2935, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA), Mary O Hearst (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA), Mary Hearst (0000-0002-9068-827X, University of Minnesota), Michaela Covelli (University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, USA), Mindy S Kurzer (0000-0003-2191-6459, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA)
Ano2011
Volume21
Fascículo9
Páginas1191-1204
Data de publicação2011-09-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoQualitative Health Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1049-7323 • E-ISSN: 1552-7557
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1049732311405804
PMID21508251
PMCIDPMC3260469
OpenAlexW2098076920
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas8
Referências citadas48

In this article, we explore an area little researched within the literature on body dissatisfaction: the content and functions of body talk. We interviewed 60 diverse, college-educated women aged 18 to 30 in the urban United States about how social contacts talked about their bodies. Half the women, and by their reports, half their contacts ( N = 295) endorsed some ideal body, most often the thin model. The other half favored a "healthy," "average" range in body size, shape, and/or appearance. Excepting family members, contacts gave mostly positive comments about women's bodies or appearance, or made no comments. Many critiqued their own bodies, however, as did nearly half the women participants. We suggest that these women exempted others, but not themselves, from critical body surveillance, rendering contestation of the ideal theoretical. We also suggest that the parallel airing of self-criticism repeatedly circulated through speech, if not through practice, the imperative to regulate one's own gendered body toward unattainable normativity

Criticism · Developmental psychology · Political science · Sociology · Body Image and Dysmorphia Studies · Eating Disorders and Behaviors · Fashion and Cultural Textiles · Gender Studies · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology