Norms Of Appearance Research Articles

Body image resilience and health in an era of ‘The Perfect Body’: Developing a personal sense of social responsibility

Abstract Achieving a cultural standard of appearance that is thin, physically fit and muscular is advocated as a personal appearance goal for individuals to seek in American culture; benefits are thought to accrue for those who meet this arbitrary and socially constructed standard. Much time, effort and expense can be directed towards appearance management behaviours practiced to this end and both emotional anguish and physical harm can occur in its elusive search. This article describes a college freshman seminar course dedicated to building body image resilience and healthy decision-making regarding appearance behaviours; concurrently, the course helps to build a personal sense of social responsibility so that students are better prepared to advocate for social change and personal empowerment regarding cultural norms of appearance. Herein are described the learning objectives of the course, topics covered and related activities and the impact these experiences have on developing body image resilience and healthy behaviours among students. Through these strategies and teaching pedagogy, we see evidence that building a strong sense of body image resilience and personal goals of healthy living can mitigate the pressure felt to attain such a standard and the dangers of pursuing bodily perfection.

Effects of Reading Health and Appearance Exercise Magazine Articles on Perceptions of Attractiveness and Reasons for Exercise

ObjectiveTo examine the effects of reading exercise-related magazine articles (health, appearance, or control) and the moderating effects of exercise self-identity on reasons for exercise and perceptions of attractiveness, among women in first year university. An additional purpose was to use a thought listing technique, the results of which were examined for evidence of internalization of the exercise-related messages.ParticipantsFemale students in their first year of studies between September 2010 and April 2011 (N = 173; mean age = 19.31 years, mean body mass index = 22.01).MethodsParticipants read a health, appearance, or control article, listed thoughts, and completed questionnaires measuring reasons for exercising, physical self-perception, and exercise self-identity.ResultsParticipants in the health condition rated exercise for health significantly higher than control condition participants. Participants with high exercise self-identity rated attractiveness as a reason for exercising significantly higher than low exercise self-identity participants in both the health and appearance conditions. Participants with higher internalization scores (i.e., accepted societal norms of appearance) reported exercising for attractiveness reasons more so than participants with lower internalization scores.ConclusionsThe good news is that health messages may be influential and result in wanting to exercise for health purposes. However, exercising for attractiveness was rated highly by participants with high exercise identity who read either the health or appearance articles. Health and appearance are not necessarily distinct concepts for female undergraduate students and the media may influence cited reasons for exercise.

Bodily cleanliness in modern nursing

Why are bodily washing practices the way they are in nursing? Michel Foucault argues that modern democratic societies discipline human bodies in accordance with political interests. In the extension of that argumentation we will show that bodily cleanliness in modern nursing may have been used as a disciplining tool. The first part of our discussion takes as its point of departure the second half of the 19th/the beginning of the 20th centuries, the period in which modern nursing emerged. At that time scientific theories on hygiene seem to have legitimized the political effort to produce a clean, pleasant-smelling, decent, obedient, and productive population. Doctors, nurses and teachers played important roles in the implementation of hygienic bodily washing practices. The second part of the discussion focuses on the post-war period. At that time humanistic needs theories seem to have legitimized political argumentation for independent patients who washed themselves if possible. Those who could not manage on their own, should, as far as possible, be washed by cheaper staff, so that nurses could concentrate on medical treatment. Finally we argue that present day bodily washing practices in nursing are in accordance with the norms of appearance and smell that arose in the second half of the 19th and the first part of the 20th centuries. We further argue that staff with little or no education perform much of the bodily nursing work. Self-care seems to be of interest only when it reduces public expenses.

Somaesthetics and C. S. Peirce

From its outset, the project of somaesthetics?briefly defined as the critical, ameliorative study of the experience and use of the body as a locus of sensory aesthetic appreciation (aesthesis) and creative self-fashioning?has been largely inspired and shaped by the perspectives of classical pragmatist philosophy. Among the classical pragmatiste, John Dewey has clearly been the preeminent influence on somaesthetics. The project was first introduced through a study of Dewey's views on immediate experience and embodiment and his work with somatic therapist F. M. Alexander.1 Moreover, reclaiming the still vibrant utility of the notion of experience that is central to Dewey and the classical pragmatist tradition, somaes thetics sought to balance our culture's unhappy obsession with oppressive norms of attractive external body appearance (the realm of representational somaesthetics) by instead proposing a compensating focus on appreciating the inner experience of aesthetic feelings of one's own body {experiential somaesthetics). As this project developed, it was articulated in terms of three branches?analytic somaesthetics (a descriptive inquiry into the functioning of our bodily perceptions and somatic practices and their various cognitive, social, and cultural uses), pragmatic somaes thetics (a more normative inquiry into methods of somatic improvement and their comparative critique), and practical somaesthetics (the fully embodied concrete practice of somatic disciplines). Dewey emerged as the paradigmatic prophet of this field, for he was exemplary in vigorously and astutely pursuing all three of these branches, by making disciplined somatic self-cultivation a matter of personal practice and not just a topic for theoretical and methodological discourse.2 When Shannon Sullivan advanced the somaesthetic project by emphasizing the transactional nature of somatic experience while underlining its applications to feminist and race issues, she too chose Dewey (and his concept of transac tional selves) as the classical pragmatist inspiration for her work.3 In Martin Jay's Somaesthetics and Democracy: Dewey and Contemporary Body Art, which explores somaesthetics as a resource for progressive projects of democracy and

Self–Esteem as a Moderator of the Effect of Social Comparison On Women’s Body Image

Abstract The moderating effects of self–esteem on women’s reactions to social comparisons of attractiveness were investigated. After viewing a photograph of an attractive or unattractive peer, female college students completed measures of affect, body esteem, internalization of socio–cultural norms of appearance, and contingencies of self–worth. Self–esteem significantly moderated the effects of social comparison on body esteem. Whereas the low self–esteem group displayed a contrast effect, the high self–esteem group displayed an assimilation effect. The Self–Esteem ×Social Comparison interaction was significant even when controlling for differences in affect, internalization of norms, and contingencies of self–worth. Possible mediators of this interaction are discussed in the article.

Rational eating: can it lead to overweightness or underweightness?

Although a deviation from the physiologically optimal weight increases the probability of dying, the steady state for an expected lifetime-utility maximiser is a state of overweightness. However, even a small initial deviation from this rationally stationary weight is followed by explosive oscillations. These oscillations might lead to severe and chronic underweightness in a late stage of life. In the presence of socio-cultural norms of appearance, the rationally stationary weight of fat people is lower than otherwise and the rationally stationary weight of lean people is greater than otherwise.

COMIC CUTS: SNIPPETS OF ACTION ON THE GREEK COMIC STAGE

Abstract The article represents a preliminary attempt to distinguish aspects of performance style in Athenian comedy from the later fifth to the third quarter of the fourth century on the basis of depictions on contemporary vases. It examines issues of dress and deportment, the changing place of female roles in comedy of the period (or the popular perception of these roles), and what one can observe of the growing subtlety of presentation. These developments are set against some literary evidence for the norms of public behaviour and appearance at that period. It also looks at what one can judge of the appearance and height of the stage in the theatres of Athens, Taranto, and Syracuse.

Urea and nitrogen excretion in pediatric peritoneal dialysis patients

Adequate nutrition is critical to the care of children with end-stage renal disease, and failure to reach the target dietary intake is associated with growth failure. Prospective studies of urea and nitrogen output in adults have led to the derivation of quantitative relationships, which allow assessment of dietary protein intake when only urea appearance is known. Such a clinically useful relationship has not been defined in children receiving chronic peritoneal dialysis (PD). We studied 18 pediatric PD patients (ages 0.8 to 14.3 years) on 132 occasions and determined norms of urea nitrogen appearance (UNA), total nitrogen appearance (TNA), and nonurea nitrogen appearance (NUNA). We stratified data on UNA, TNA, NUNA, nonprotein nitrogen appearance, and the protein equivalent of nitrogen appearance by age groups (0 to 5, 6 to 10, and 11 to 15 years of age) and demonstrated significant differences. In addition, dietary protein and energy intake were measured in the outpatient setting with food scales and dietitian interviews, and the results were stratified by age, presence of residual renal function, and recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) therapy. UNA (3.05 +/- 1.38 g/day, 103 +/- 42 mg/kg/day) and TNA (4.67 +/- 1.86 g/day, 159 +/- 52 mg/kg/day) varied significantly between different age groups. NUNA in pediatric subjects (56 +/- 24 mg/kg/day) was significantly greater than previously published adult norms. A linear relationship was defined between UNA and TNA that was specific to pediatric PD patients [TNA (g/day) = 1.26(UNA) + 0.83]. When the relationship was scaled to body mass, the y intercept was significantly different in the youngest subjects [TNA = 1.03 (UNA) + 0.02 (weight in kg) + 0.56 (for subjects age 0 to 5) or 0.98 (for subjects age 11 to 15 or 6 to 10), r2 = 0.91]. Dietary protein intake was significantly greater in subjects receiving rhGH therapy, although nitrogen excretion was unchanged. Markers of protein metabolism in pediatric PD patients are age dependent and differ from adult values. An age-specific relationship between TNA and UNA is defined for pediatric subjects; it does not vary with rhGH or the presence of residual renal function.

Stigma Management Through Participation in Sport and Physical Activity: Experiences of Male College Students with Physical Disabilities

Individuals with physical disabilities are often stigmatized because their bodies are assumed to vary from norms of physical competence and bodily appearance. Possession of a discrediting attribute may impair social interactions and result in the devaluation of an individual. The purpose of this paper is to explore how involvement in sport and physical activity may be one strategy to manage the stigma of a disabled body. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 24 male college students with physical disabilities. Findings indicate that respondents believe this context helps them exceed expectations associated with their disability through demonstration of physical skill, a fit healthy body, a muscular body, and a liberated body. Sport and physical activity may be effective in compensating for a spoiled identity as participation in this setting is unexpected and emphasizes an alternative representation of a disabled body.

Overweight and Depression

Is being overweight distressing? If it is, is the distress due to negative appraisals by others, to the stresses of trying to fit norms of thinness by dieting, or to the health consequences of being overweight? If being overweight is stigmatizing, negative evaluations by others may be internalized as high levels of depression. This perspective predicts that being overweight has a direct effect on depression, and that the effect is greater in social groups where being overweight is less common, especially among women, Whites, younger people, the well-educated, and the well-to-do. Alternatively, overweight may not be distressing per se. Instead, attempting to fit norms of appearance that equate thinness with attractiveness by dieting is distressing. According to this perspective, the association between being overweight and depression is explained by dieting. Finally, this association may be due to the health consequences of being overweight. A random sample of 2,020 U.S. adults aged 18-90 were interviewed by telephone in 1990. Results showed that being overweight has no direct effect on depression in any social group except among the well-educated. Overweight persons are more likely to diet and to experience worse physical health, both of which are associated with depression. Combined, these explain the negative effects of being overweight on depression.

Horrible prettiness: burlesque and American culture

Robert Allen's compelling book examines burlesque not only as popular entertainment but also as a complex and transforming cultural phenomenon. When Lydia Thompson and her controversial female troupe of British Blondes brought modern burlesque to the United States in 1868, the result was electric. Their impertinent humor, streetwise manner, and provocative parodies of masculinity brought them enormous popular success--and the condemnation of critics, cultural commentators, and even women's rights campaigners. Burlesque was a cultural threat, Allen argues, because it inverted the normal world of middle-class social relations and transgressed norms of proper feminine behavior and appearance. Initially playing to respectable middle-class audiences, burlesque was quickly relegated to the shadow-world of working-class male leisure. In this process the burlesque performer lost her voice, as burlesque increasingly revolved around the display of her body. Locating burlesque within the context of both the social transformation of American theater and its patterns of gender representation, Allen concludes that burlesque represents a fascinating example of the potential transgressiveness of popular entertainment forms, as well as the strategies by which they have been contained and their threats defused. |Robert Allen's compelling book examines burlesque not only as popular entertainment but also as a complex and transforming cultural phenomenon. Locating burlesque within the context of both the social transformation of American theater and its patterns of gender representation, Allen concludes that burlesque represents a fascinating example of the potential transgressiveness of popular entertainment forms, as well as the strategies by which they have been contained and their threats defused.