Body Image as an Everyday Problematic: Looking Good (Routledge Research in Gender and Society)

It is well known that body image has been associated to health risks related to eating habits. However, to what extent do identity categories, everyday social interaction and common discourses affect our preoccupations and sufferings related to body image in contemporary society, and our coordinated ways of confronting them? In Body Image as an Everyday Problematic, Diaz seeks to offer a comprehensive perspective on body image as an everyday problematic, grounded on verbal accounts of biographic experience. The main body of the book unfolds through five analyses: (1) a framework for how persons are categorized on the grounds of their beauty, weight, or physical appeal; with reference to heterosexual and friendship relations; (2) how men position themselves with respect to culturally provided images of beautiful women in relation to their heterosexual partners; (3) biographic processes through which people locate problems with the body, confront them and interpret them after some time; (4) the role of mothers in providing help across different kinds of problems; and (5) the experiences and contradictions of caring for relatives or partners who suffer for their body image. Indeed, these five analytical threads together compose a structured and rich understanding of the meaningful social order that lies at the core of our everyday preoccupations with the body. Challenging conventional psychological theories of body image, this enlightening volume will appeal to postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers interested in fields such as Gender Studies, Clinical Psychology and Sociology. Félix Díaz is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. Cover 1 Title 6 Copyright 7 Contents 8 Table 9 Acknowledgements 10 1 Introduction 12 2 Methodological foundations 29 3 The social organisation of body image: categories and relations 42 4 Men’s images of women’s bodies: from shared conventions to personal intimacy 59 5 In narrative: changing bodies through life 76 6 Helping mothers 95 7 Dilemmas of support: the caregiver’s perspective 112 8 Conclusion 123 Appendix: Transcription conventions 134 Index 136 Looking Good