Body Work: Youth, Gender and Health

Description

The rise of the health, beauty and fitness industries in recent years has led to an increased focus on the body. Body image, gender and health are issues of long-standing concern in sociology and in youth studies, but a theoretical and empirical focus on the body has been largely missing from this field. This book explores young people’s understandings of their bodies in the context of gender and health ideals, consumer culture, individualisation and image. Body Work examines the body in youth studies. It explores paradoxical aspects of gendered body work practices, highlighting the contradiction in men’s increased participation in these industries as consumers alongside the re-emphasis of their gendered difference. It explores the key ways in which the ideal body is currently achieved, via muscularising practices, slimming regimes and cosmetic procedures. Coffey investigates the concept of ‘health’ and how it is inextricably linked both to the bodily performance of gender ideals and an increased public emphasis on individual management and responsibility in the pursuit of a ‘healthy’ body. This book’s conceptual framework places it at the forefront of theoretical work concerning bodies, affect and images, particularly in its development of Deleuzian research. It will appeal to a wide range of scholars and students in fields of youth studies, education, sociology, gender studies, cultural studies, affect and body studies. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Acknowledgement 1. Introduction to youth sociology and the body Introduction The body and society Body work The body in youth studies Youth, ‘risk’ and the body Body image Health, gender and consumer culture Chapter outlines References 2. Theorising the body The body and society Structure, agency and the body in youth studies Bourdieu’s theory of the body Foucault’s theory of the body Feminist approaches to the body Materiality and representation (Re)theorising structure and agency Introduction to Deleuze and Guattari’s theory of the body Key concepts: assemblage, affect and becoming ‘Doing’ gender: molar assemblages and becoming Feminist critiques of Deleuzian perspectives on gender Health in postmodernity: what can a body do? Conclusion: embodying theory References 3. Researching the body The body in youth studies research Youth transitions research Youth cultures research Youth, gender and the body Sexualisation and ‘sexting’ Studies of body work practices Studies of exercise and ‘health’ in consumer culture Studies of body work and agency Deleuze and Guattari and studies of the body The research project Methods in youth research Embodying research Conclusion Notes References 4. Assembling gender: body work, identities and the body Introduction Theorising gender as an assemblage Gender and body work Negotiating ‘ideal’ (gendered) bodies Femininity, visibility and consumer culture Feminine luminosities and shopping centres Gender, consumer culture and the ‘visible’ male body The footballer–body–assemblage Affects and capacities In-between gender: ambiguities, contradictions, ruptures ‘I can’t be bothered’ ‘The gym is a f***ed place’ Images, affect and ‘body pressures’ Conclusion: opening gender and the body Note References 5. Health, affect and embodiment Introduction Health assemblages Health: ideals, discourses, affects and practice Shifting boundaries: health as ‘becoming dangerous’? Exercise, health and the self: ‘inhabiting my flesh’ Exercise, health and ‘happiness’ What can a body do? Body work as ‘liberation’ and constraint Health affects and health as becoming Conclusion References 6. ‘Buff culture’, cosmetic surgery and bodily limits Introduction Body work and the limits of ‘health’ ‘Buff culture’: muscularity, body work and addiction Cosmetic surgery, affect and the (feminine) body Kate’s cosmetic surgery: ‘now I can just really live my life’ Isabelle’s cosmetic surgery: ‘when will it stop?’ Beth, the anorexic body and recovering Conclusion Notes References 7. Conclusion: embodying youth studies Introduction The body as process of connections Embracing complexity Denaturalising inequalities What does this approach to the body do? Gender Health Embodying research methodologies Entanglement, intra-action and diffraction: developments in feminist research Feminist micro-politics Conclusion: embodying youth studies References Index