Table Of ContentYoung Women
and the Body
A Feminist Sociology
Liz Frost
Consultant Editor
Jo Campling
Young Women and the Body
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Young Women
and the Body
A Feminist Sociology
Liz Frost
Senior Lecturer
Faculty of Health and Social Care
University of the West of England
Bristol
Consultant Editor: Jo Campling
© Liz Frost 2001
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2001 978-0-333-74089-7
All rights reserved.No reproduction,copy or transmission of
this publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced,copied or
transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with
the provisions of the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988,
or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying
issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,90 Tottenham Court
Road,London W1P 0LP.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil
claims for damages.
The author has asserted her right to be identified
as the author of this work in accordance with the
Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2001 by
PALGRAVE
Houndmills,Basingstoke,Hampshire RG21 6XS and
175 Fifth Avenue,New York,N.Y.10010
Companies and representatives throughout the world
PALGRAVEis the new global academic imprint of
St.Martin’s Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and
Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd).
ISBN 978-0-333-74090-3 ISBN 978-0-333-98541-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780333985410
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and
made from fully managed and sustained forest sources.
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Frost,Liz,1953–
Young women and the body :a feminist sociology / Liz Frost.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978- 0–333–74089–0 — ISBN 978-0–333–74090–4 (pbk.)
1.Teenage girls—Psychology.2.Teenage girls—social
conditions.3.Body image in adolescence.4.Body image
in women.5.Body image disturbance.I.Title.
HQ798 .F76 2000
306.4—dc21
00–066573
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01
For Wes and Ro
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Contents
Acknowledgements x
Introduction: the Alien Body 1
The concept of body-hatred 1
Aims of the book 2
The body projects 4
The structure of the book 6
1 What is Body-Hatred? 10
Body-hatred and psychiatric medicine 10
Body dysmorphic disorder 12
Eating disorders 13
Self-harm 19
Psychological approaches to body-hatred 22
Feminist sociological approaches to body-hatred 25
Gender ambivalence: a liberal feminist perspective 27
Body debasement: a radical feminist perspective 28
The capitalist manufacture of bodily discontent: a socialist
feminist perspective 29
‘Woman’ as inferiorised category: a feminist social
constructionist perspective 31
Summary 32
2 The Limits of Self-Reflexivity 34
Identity 35
The body 41
Theorising the female body 47
A note on female embodiment 52
Theorising youth 54
Young, female and self-hating? 57
Summary 58
3 Adolescence and Body-Hatred 60
Age difference and social difference 61
Historical constructions of adolescence 63
Present-day young people as adolescents 66
The problematisation of adolescence 67
Adolescent girls 69
vii
viii Contents
Girls and their bodies 71
Girls and physical changes: menstruation and breasts 72
The construction of womanly appearance 75
Vanity and self-appreciation 77
Summary 80
4 Teenage Consumers and Body-Hatred 82
A consuming society 83
Consumption and the visual 84
Teenagers, teen-culture and consumption 86
Young women and the process of consumption 89
Young women and the products of consumption 92
Gender and teenage leisure 93
Girls as viewers and readers 95
Teenagers and friendship groups 100
Close friends and ‘bedroom culture’ 102
Summary 106
5 Sexuality and Body-Hatred 108
Introduction 108
The sexualisation of girls 110
School and the sexualisation of girls 111
Going out with boys 116
Young women, sexuality and being ‘bad’ 122
Young women, sexuality and the family 126
Summary 130
6 Young Women’s Experience of Body-Hatred: Stigma
and Shame 131
Stigma 132
Shame 136
Stigma and the female body 136
Shame and the female body 139
Conversations with teenagers 141
The interview and questionnaire material 143
Young women speak 143
Moving closer to girls: two case-studies 154
Summary 168
7 Young Men and Body-Hatred 170
Boys as consumers 171
Young men and images 174
Boys and the masculine body 176
Contents ix
Class, labour and the masculine body 177
Sport and the masculine body 178
Black youth and the masculine body 180
Young men and homophobia 183
Gay guys and the ‘butch shift’ 183
Being ‘a girl’: the worst insult 186
Boys and relationships with girls 189
Different for boys? Some final thoughts 191
Summary 192
8 Young Women and the Body: Some Conclusions 194
Girls and the bodies they inhabit 194
The beauty imperative 195
The thin imperative 196
Issues of sexuality 197
Summary 198
Bibliography 199
Index 209
