Fitting In: Young British Women's Reported Experiences of Body Modification Abigail Tazzyman ...

318 Pages·2015·2.51 MB·English

Fitting In: Young British Women’s
Reported Experiences of Body Modification

Abigail Tazzyman

PhD

University of York
Women’s Studies

September 2014
Abstract

This thesis investigates female cultures of body modification in contemporary
Britain. I begin from the premise that women in current UK society are concerned
about their appearance and subjected to significant media pressures to engage in
body modification. By body modification I mean the methods which women use in
order to alter their physical body and appearance. All methods (invasive or non-
invasive; self-administered or other-administered; permanent or temporary) are
considered, provided the intention of their use is primarily to alter the user’s physical
appearance. Based on qualitative life-history interviews with thirty university-
educated British women aged between eighteen and twenty-five my research
investigates the choices of, motives for, influences on and relationships of women to
their practices of body modification.

The analysis chapters of this thesis deal with three key stages in my participants’
development during which body modification emerged as important. These are the
point when my participants went to school, their years at university and their entry
into the world of work. The analysis chapters focus on these three stages. The first
one explores participants’ initial engagement with and experience of body
modification during the school years. The second centres on their use of body
modification while at university, and the final analysis chapter explores their
engagement with these practices in the world of work. I also discuss my participants’
expectation of their future engagement with body modification.

Unlike third-wave feminist discourse, which frequently refers to body modification
in terms of freedom and choice, my findings offer a completely different
understanding of women’s engagement in these practices. In the life stages I focus
on, sociality and taking cue from others emerged as the most important aspects of
women’s body modification decisions.

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Table of Contents

Abstract ....................................................................................................................... 1
Table of Contents ....................................................................................................... 2
List of Figures ............................................................................................................. 5
List of Images ............................................................................................................. 6
Lists of Tables ............................................................................................................. 7
Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................... 8
Author’s Declaration ............................................................................................... 10
1. Introduction .......................................................................................................... 11
Literature Review ................................................................................................... 17
Empirical Research ............................................................................................. 17
Non-Feminist Work on Body Modification........................................................ 24
Feminist Approaches .......................................................................................... 30
Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 54
2. Methodology ......................................................................................................... 56
My Research Perspective ....................................................................................... 56
Research Design ..................................................................................................... 58
Why interviews? ................................................................................................. 58
Research Sample ................................................................................................. 60
Recruiting Participants ........................................................................................ 61
Research Ethics ...................................................................................................... 65
Writing Auto-Ethnographically as a Pilot .............................................................. 67
The Interview Process ............................................................................................ 70
Interview Preparation .......................................................................................... 70
Conducting the Interviews .................................................................................. 72
Interviewer/ Interviewee Relationships .............................................................. 77
Bodies in the Interview Process .......................................................................... 79
Being an Insider/ Outsider: Interviewer Positionality ........................................ 81
Issues Raised During the Interview Process ....................................................... 86
Transcribing and Analysis ...................................................................................... 89
Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 95
3. Learning to Follow: First and Early Experiences of Body Modification ........ 96
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Peer Influence ......................................................................................................... 98
Embodiment, Objectification and Sociality ......................................................... 104
Stigma ................................................................................................................... 108
Consumption Practice ........................................................................................... 110
Peer Approval ....................................................................................................... 114
Becoming a Woman ............................................................................................. 118
Maternal Influence ............................................................................................... 122
Change .................................................................................................................. 136
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 142
4. Adapting to New Environments: University and Young Adulthood ............ 146
Rhetorics of Change ............................................................................................. 149
New Environments and Changing Identities ........................................................ 152
Communal Living ................................................................................................. 168
Relationships ........................................................................................................ 173
Classed Appearance ............................................................................................. 175
Weight and Identity .............................................................................................. 178
Dressing Up .......................................................................................................... 185
Internalisation and Self-Regulation ...................................................................... 189
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 191
5. Changing Expectations: The World of Work and Beyond. ........................... 194
The Professional Image ........................................................................................ 197
Class and Professionalism .................................................................................... 203
Image Differences Between Job Sectors .............................................................. 207
Dressing to Impress and Looking the Part ........................................................... 208
Gender and the Professional Image ...................................................................... 219
Life Trajectory and Body Modification ............................................................... 221
Ageing Bodies ...................................................................................................... 230
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 241
6. Conclusions ......................................................................................................... 244
Key Debates ......................................................................................................... 244
My Findings and Contributions to Knowledge .................................................... 247
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 260
Appendix A: Call for Participants ........................................................................ 264
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Appendix B: Consent Form .................................................................................. 265
Appendix C: Participant Information Sheet ....................................................... 266
Appendix D: Support Contacts and Information for Participants ................... 268
Appendix E: Interview Schedule .......................................................................... 269
Appendix F: Body Modification Methods Categorisation ................................. 271
Appendix G: Participants’ Demographic Details ............................................... 275
Bibliography ........................................................................................................... 279

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List of Figures

Figure 1. Feedback loop diagram

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List of Images

Image 1. Screen shot from Pinterest
Image 2. Elle magazine online work wear article ‘Elle’s Working Wardrobe’.
Image 3. Harper’s Bazaar front cover for October 2010.
Image 4. Times Style Magazine work wear article ‘New Work Wear Rules’.
Image 5. Times Style Magazine work wear article ‘Work it Out’.
Image 6. Cosmopolitan online work wear article ‘What to Wear to Work’.
Image 7. Marie Claire online work wear article ‘What to Wear to Work’.

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Lists of Tables

Table 1. Practices Engaged in by Participants
Table 2. Researchers Relationship to Participants
Table 3. Assumed Relationship of Researcher to Participants After the Interview
Table 4. Analysis Themes
Table 5. Practices Engaged in During the School Years by Participants
Table 6. Practices Engaged in During University by Participants
Table 7. Practices Engaged in by Participants in the Work Environment
Table 8. Participant Employment Status at the Point of Interview, 2012
Table 9. Acceptable and Unacceptable Appearance Adjectives

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Acknowledgements

Thank you firstly to my participants. Without them and the rich data they provided
me with this research could not have taken place. I am indebted to their generosity in
the time they gave and the histories they shared with me.

I cannot thank enough my wonderful supervisor, Gabriele Griffin, who provided
unwavering support, encouragement and guidance throughout the PhD process. You
helped me both to keep on track and to venture down new roads to develop myself as
an academic. I am incredibly grateful for all the help you have given me.

I would also like to express my gratitude to Stevi Jackson and Ann Kaloski-Naylor,
for the thought-provoking insights and guidance they gave as my Thesis Advisory
Panel members and for the opportunities they and the Centre for Women’s Studies
provided, enabling me to develop as a researcher, teacher and scholar. Also a huge
thank you to Harriet Badger for your help and support in the multitude of projects I
have undertaken while a member of the Centre for Women’s Studies at the
University of York: so many of these could not have taken place without you.

Amy Godoy-Pressland (University of East Anglia): thank you for all your advice and
encouragement as a mentor and the opportunities you have given me to disseminate
my research further afield. Thank you to Prof Ruth Holliday from the University of
Leeds for the ideas and the inspiration you offered for my PhD research and the
future.

To my co-organiser of so many projects and conferences, Bridget Lockyer: you have
been an inspirational friend and colleague and I am grateful to have had the
opportunity to work with you, and hope to continue to do so. My friends and
colleagues at the Centre for Women’s Studies provided me with a supportive and
stimulating environment throughout my PhD and I truly appreciate this.

I am incredibly grateful to my family who have given me constant support over the
last three years. The stories of my Grandma Olive inspired my desire to listen to
women’s voices and her support enabled me to do so. My twin brother Seb asked
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questions like no one else and put life back into perspective with such humour; I
thank him for always being there. I would also like to thank my partner Ash for
everything, for helping me in whatever way I needed throughout this process, be it
proof reading, listening to yet another conference paper, or simply reassuring me that
I could do it. You gave me the encouragement to always keep striving for the best
and the support to get there.

Finally, thank you to mum and dad. Without the two of you this PhD would not have
been possible. You have continuously supported me, patiently listened, persistently
shown interest in my work and always inspired me. You instilled in me the
importance of questioning the taken-for-granted and in doing so led me to my
research and my feminism.

With thanks to Funds for Women Graduates (FFWG) for funding me through the
final year of this PhD.
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