Abstract
The aim of Critical Bodies has been to demonstrate an understanding of body weight and body management as always political and intertwined with a multiplicity of discourses including health, medicine and identity. Consequently, the meanings attached to weight are dynamic, fluid and context dependent. The authors in this book wanted to challenge conventional understandings about weight and body management as individual problems. The chapters in Critical Bodies showcase work that represents a range of critical, post-structuralist and social constructionist research to examine meaning making around body weight as a social, rather than a private, process.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Aphramor, L. & Gingras, J. (2007). Sustaining imbalance — Evidence of neglect in the pursuit of nutritional health. In S. Riley, M. Burns, H. Frith, S. Wiggins & P. Markula (Eds), Critical bodies: Representations, identities and practices of weight and body management. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Blood, S. (2005). Body work: The social construction of women’s body image. London: Routledge.
Burns, M. (2006). Bodies that speak: Examining the dialogues in research interactions. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(1), 3–18.
Burns, M. & Gavey, N. (2007). Dis/Orders of weight control: Bulimic and/or ‘healthy weight’ practices. In S. Riley, M. Burns, H. Frith, S. Wiggins & P. Markula (Eds), Critical bodies: Representations, identities and practices of weight and body management. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Day, K. & Keys, T. (2007). Starving in cyberspace: The construction of identity on ‘pro-eating disorder’ websites. In S. Riley, M. Burns, H. Frith, S. Wiggins & P. Markula (Eds), Critical bodies: Representations, identities and practices. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Featherstone, M. (1991). Consumer culture and postmodernism. London: Sage.
Foucault, M. (1982). Afterword: The subject and power. In H. Dreyfus & P. Rabinow (Eds) Michel Foucault: Beyond structuralism and hermeneutics. (pp. 208–26). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Giddens, A. (1992). Modernity and self-identity. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Gill, R. (2007). Body talk: Negotiating body image and masculinity. In S. Riley, M. Burns, H. Frith, S. Wiggins & P. Markula (Eds), Critical bodies: Representations, identities and practices of weight and body management. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gimlin, D. (2007). Older and younger women’s experiences of commercial weight loss. In S. Riley, M. Burns, H. Frith, S. Wiggins & P. Markula (Eds), Critical bodies: Representations, identities and practices of weight and body management. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Heenan, C. (2007). Feminist object relations theory and eating ‘disorders’. In S. Riley, M. Burns, H. Frith, S. Wiggins & P. Markula (Eds), Critical bodies: Representations, identities and practices of weight and body management. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Henriques, J., Hollway, W., Urwin, C., Venn, C. & Walkerdine, V. (1984). Changing the subject: Psychology, social regulation and subjectivity. London: Methuen.
Lyotard, J. F. (1984). The postmodern condition: A report on knowledge. In G. Bennington and B. Massumi (trans). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
McRobbie, (2007). Illegible rage: Young women’s post-feminist disorders. http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/newFemininities/
Maffesoli, M. (1996). The time of the tribes: The decline of individualism in mass society. London: Sage.
Malson, H. (2007). Deconstructing un/healthy body-weight and weight management. In S. Riley, M. Burns, H. Frith, S. Wiggins & P. Markula (Eds), Critical bodies: Representations, identities and practices of weight and body management. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Potter, J. & Wetherell. M. (1987). Discourse and social psychology: Beyond attitudes and behaviour. London: Sage.
Rich, E. & Evans, J. (2007). Obesity discourse, education and identity. In S. Riley, M. Burns, H. Frith, S. Wiggins & P. Markula (Eds), Critical bodies: Representations, identities and practices of weight and body management. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Rose, N. (1996). Inventing our selves: Psychology, power and personhood. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rose, N. (1999). Governing the soul: The shaping of the private self (2nd edn). London: Free Association Books.
Saukko, P. (2007). ‘I feel ridiculous about having had it’ — Critical readings of lived and mediated stories on eating disorders. In S. Riley, M. Burns, H. Frith, S. Wiggins & P. Markula (Eds), Critical bodies: Representations, identities and practices of weight and body management. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Stainton Rogers, R., Stenner, P., Gleeson, K. & Stainton Rogers, W. (1996). Social psychology: A critical agenda. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Walkerdine, V. (2003). Reclassifying upward mobility: Femininity and the neoliberal subject. Gender & Education, 15 (3), 237–48.
Wiggins, S. & Hepburn, A. (2007). Discursive research in practice: New directions in psychology and everyday interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wolf, N. (1991). The beauty myth. London: Vintage.
Yancey, A. K., Leslie, J. & Abel, E. K. (2006). Obesity at the crossroads: Feminist and public health perspectives. Signs, 31, 425–43.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2008 Sarah Riley, Maree Burns, Hannah Frith, Sally Wiggins and Pirkko Markula
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Riley, S., Frith, H., Wiggins, S., Markula, P., Burns, M. (2008). Critical Bodies: Discourses of Health, Gender and Consumption. In: Riley, S., Burns, M., Frith, H., Wiggins, S., Markula, P. (eds) Critical Bodies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230591141_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230591141_11
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-35543-3
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-59114-1
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)