contradiction to comments made by women who were media consumers, actively tried to avoid media exposure wherever possible. These women discussed how unrealistic these ideals were, describing how images were often (digitally-enhanced). year old ‘air-brushed’ Helen’s (30 lesbian) anger towards, and avoidance of, thin images in the media stemmed from personal experiences of using such images as a motivation to diet and lose weight (in the past, Helen was diagnosed with eating disorders including anorexia): me angry that this is going on in the media and about ‘it makes nobody’s doing anything it. [...] Erm, but previously, yes very much so it has affected me and I would, I would often have used, erm, skinny-looking people or athletic-looking people [...] to help me stay motivated to lose weight, to be thin, to be smaller’ The prioritising of physical health was presented as a method of resisting the social emphasis on thinness by some women. Desires to be slimmer were expressed in terms of desires to be or a while bodies were seen as undesirable ‘healthy’ ‘healthy weight’, ‘overweight’ because they were rather than because they do not meet cultural appearance ideals: ‘unhealthy’, want to be healthy and if I gain weight then I start feeling like getting out of breath ‘I I’m running for the bus . . . that concerns me, but in terms of the aesthetics I really, I don’t don’t year old bisexual woman). These women presented an emphasis on really care’ (Laura, 27 health as a resistance to mainstream idealisation of thinness. However, it could be argued that through the lens of health, these women still subscribed to the social ideal that thin body shapes are desirable because they conflated thinness with healthiness (Gonzalez et al., 2012; Kwan, 2009). Despite this reported critique of social pressures, there often seemed to be a discrepancy between the criticisms of cultural ideals and their feelings about their own bodies. women’s
contradiction to comments made by women who were media consumers, actively tried to avoid media exposure wherever possible. These women discussed how unrealistic these ideals were, describing how images were often ‘air-brushed’ (digitally-enhanced). Helen’s (30 year old lesbian) anger towards, and avoidance of, thin images in the media stemmed from personal experiences of using such images as a motivation to diet and lose weight (in the past, Helen was diagnosed with eating disorders including anorexia): ‘it makes me angry that this is going on in the media and nobody’s doing anything about it. [...] Erm, but previously, yes very much so it has affected me and I would, I would often have used, erm, skinny-looking people or athletic-looking people [...] to help me stay motivated to lose weight, to be thin, to be smaller’ The prioritising of physical health was presented as a method of resisting the social emphasis on thinness by some women. Desires to be slimmer were expressed in terms of desires to be ‘healthy’ or a ‘healthy weight’, while ‘overweight’ bodies were seen as undesirable because they were ‘unhealthy’, rather than because they do not meet cultural appearance ideals: ‘I want to be healthy and if I gain weight then I start feeling like I’m getting out of breath running for the bus . . . that concerns me, but in terms of the aesthetics I don’t really, I don’t really care’ (Laura, 27 year old bisexual woman). These women presented an emphasis on health as a resistance to mainstream idealisation of thinness. However, it could be argued that through the lens of health, these women still subscribed to the social ideal that thin body shapes are desirable because they conflated thinness with healthiness (Gonzalez et al., 2012; Kwan, 2009). Despite this reported critique of social pressures, there often seemed to be a discrepancy between the women’s criticisms of cultural ideals and their feelings about their own bodies.
Huxley%20et%20al%202013%20JHP%20WRAP%20Final%20MS.docx