Schooled Bodies?
Adolescents Encountering
Complexities in the
Pursuit of Embodied
Validation
Majella McSharry
Date: Thurs, 1st November 2007
Time: 11.00am
Venue: Stephen’s Green Hotel, Dublin
Schooled Bodies?
Thursady, 1st November 2007
Rationale
•Personal Experience
•Media perceptions
•Teaching
•An exploration of the literature
Schooled Bodies?
Thursady, 1st November 2007
Fieldwork
•Qualitative study
•Sampled from a total of 5 Inner-city and suburban
schools. Including fee-paying, voluntary secondary
and designated disadvantaged schools.
•Phase One: Open-ended question and answer
sheets with 242 first year and transition year
students.
•Phase Two: In-depth, semi-structured interviews
with 15 males and 15 females from first year and
transition year.
Schooled Bodies?
Thursady, 1st November 2007
Adolescent Deliberation on Embodied Validation
1. Validation of the body by popular culture
•
•
Magazines, looking at models and film stars and people
like that. I’d have loads of magazines and I’m always
looking at them. (Chloe, 13)
In all the shopping centres and in the ads everywhere it’s
always good-looking people you see. (Rob, 16)
2. Active agents rather than cultural dopes
•
•
Naturally you’re going to see sexy, good-looking people
on TV and in shop windows or else they wouldn’t make
any money. Nobody would want to buy the product if the
models were big fat people. (Mark, 12)
Celebrities get loads of money out of saying they have a
new diet or whatever. (Anna, 16)
Schooled Bodies?
Thursady, 1st November 2007
3. Validation of the body by adolescents
Enables access to teams
Enables popularity and protects against domination
Enables likeability
Enables specific social positioning
4. The negotiation of truth dependent on
implications for personal interaction
Truth determined by the individuals needs of the self
Schooled Bodies?
Thursady, 1st November 2007
5. Adolescents’ self-descriptions
The gender differences
• No one has ever asked me to describe myself, so I’m not really
sure. (Barry, 16)
• I wouldn’t have a natural way of describing myself. I’ve never
been asked that question before. (Ger, 13)
• Brown hair, brown eyes, a bit tanned, average height. (Chloe,
13)
• I’m quite tall. I have brownie, curly hair, blue eyes. (Amy, 13)
Negative self-descriptions among girls
Negative self-evaluations among boys
7 Girls = ideal
2 Boys = ideal
4 Girls = most attractive to men 1 Boy = most attractive to women
Schooled Bodies?
Thursady, 1st November 2007
6. Girls policing girls’ bodies
In class it’d be ‘oh she’s after loosing loads of weight or she’s
after putting loads of weight on…Everyday there’s like a
comment about someone. (Lynn, 16)
7. Boys policing boys’ bodies
•
•
I’d say it’s because they think it’s macho not to say anything.
They don’t want to be girlie… (Ger, 13)
When I thought I was fat I kept it to myself. Didn’t really see it
as any of their (friends) business. Usually I just keep stuff like
that to myself. I’d say most fellas are like that but yet they care.
Guys don’t really talk to each other about stuff like that. (Barry,
16)
So do how do boys police boys’ bodies?
• They’re always measuring strengths. (Daniel, 13).
• Physical messing just happens with all the boys. (Josh, 13)
Schooled Bodies?
Thursady, 1st November 2007
Adolescent Acceptance due to Embodied Validation
1. Male dependence on embodied activities within
a hierarchy of activities
2. Pushing for validation within embodied
activities
•
•
•
They do compete definitely in sport…In sport guys want to be
better than each other the whole time. (Kevin, 13)
In sport even if your coach doesn’t say you’re not playing very
well, your team mates are going to say, ‘what’s the story,
what’s wrong?’. If you had all your friends giving out you’d try
to do your best. (Cian, 16)
I train, I play football, I go running in the park…I work on it and
work on it. I play hurling as well on Thursdays in school. I try to
play lots of other sports and get my fitness up and just try and
play better than the person I’m marking. (Ger, 13)
Schooled Bodies?
Thursady, 1st November 2007
3. Impressive interaction and embodied
validation
•
4.
It seems in Ireland the only way you can make fella friends
is if you know them from primary school. There’s nothing
like in Germany where they have youth clubs and dance
classes…that was just the way it was so it was much easier
for the girls to be around the fellas. When my exchange
student came over here to an all girls school, ‘the convent’,
it was such a shock to the system because she was used to
sitting beside fellas in class, but there was just girls
everywhere. Then when we were over in Germany some of
my friends were going around wearing these tiny tops,
trying to impress the guys, but the German girls just don’t
see the need. (Gillian, 16)
Choosing a girlfriend or boyfriend
Schooled Bodies?
Thursady, 1st November 2007
Adolescent rejection due to embodied invalidation
1. The normalisation of stigmatisation
2. Too thin for embodied validation
•
3.
•
One guy isn’t terribly small but he’s really, really skinny... He
does be thrown around the class… He loves wrestling too
and playing around but he’s usually the dummy ‘cause he’s
so skinny and they just lift him up and throw him around.
(Andy, 16)
Too fat for embodied validation
Fat people are treated very differently. Just the general
image in itself. They say never judge a book by its cover but
that’s not what teenagers do, teenagers do judge books by
their covers. I don’t want to fall into that category but I do. It’s
the way I’ve been brought up and I’ve been taught to think
about how you should classify a person or give them labels
and that’s what I find myself doing. (Brian, 16)
Schooled Bodies?
Thursady, 1st November 2007
4. Complex strategies to cope with stigmatisation
•
•
•
Self-enclosure: I’d say if you were really fat you wouldn’t be
as prepared to be out and about and for people to see you.
You’d hide away more. People do that. If you were just
really thin it wouldn’t be as bad so you wouldn’t mind being
seen. (Cian, 16)
Protective groups: Fat people are put into a different group.
People who are fat or chubby tend to stick to that group and
thin people stick with thin people. That’s what my cousin
does ‘cause she’s fat. She tends to stick with people who
are the same size as her instead of going with skinny
people because she thinks they are talking about her
behind her back. She cares what they think about her all the
time. (Chloe, 13)
Self-stigmatisation: If you’re a bit fat who cares if you’re a
good laugh. Like if you can laugh about it too. (Mark, 12)
Schooled Bodies?
Thursady, 1st November 2007
Adolescent validation through embodied regulation
1. The appeal of junk food
•
•
I wouldn’t starve myself or I wouldn’t refuse my food if it was
put in front of me… Yesterday I just kept eating and eating
and eating and I wouldn’t stop. (Anna, 15)
I love sweets. I have a sweet tooth. We all have. Chocolate
has a drug in it that makes us happy. (Mark, 12)
2. School food
•
It’s all hot-dogs and burgers and chicken burgers and
sometimes they do chicken wings and sausage rolls.
There’s a shop too and they do chocolate bars and jellies
and fizzy drinks. (Josh, 13)
Schooled Bodies?
Thursady, 1st November 2007
3. Seeking equilibrium through compensating
•
•
I eat loads of junk food. I prefer to eat all that sort of stuff but
then you want to have a nice figure as well. You like to fit into
your jeans after eating a packet of crisps or something.
(Shannon, 14)
I’ve been eating so much rubbish and all lately and I have to try
and get it all off again. I’m not starving myself but I was overeating again but I’m not anymore. (Barry, 16)
4. More worrying compensating practices
•
•
More people are going on diets and sticking their fingers
down their throat.. ‘Cause my friend was making herself sick
there for a while and she’s gone very thin. (Anna, 15)
There’s this guy in my class and last year he was quiet chubby
and he came back this year and he’s thin. From what he said
I’m pretty sure he would make himself get sick… I don’t think
anyone would actually admit to it but I think some guys
probably do it. (Enda, 16)
Schooled Bodies?
Thursady, 1st November 2007
5. Validation through exercise: learning from family
•
I love doing exercises and I do have my little sister doing them
now. She’s only ten. I guess my mam influences me the way
that she is. Yeah ‘cause she does be messing and she’d say
‘will you hold my feet and I’ll do a few exercises, sit-ups?’ And
then I’d ‘you hold my feet now and I’ll do a few.’ I think it’s good
and it doesn’t take long ‘cause you feel much better in yourself
when you do exercise. (Lynn, 16)
6. Focus and the gym
7. Ultimate embodied validation
•
Like if you set a goal for yourself and say ‘I want to do the
highest one’ and you go for it, it makes you feel really good. But
if you let the opportunity pass you by, if you don’t take every
opportunity, you can feel like you haven’t accomplished what
you set out to do and you feel like you’re not as good a person,
not in personality, but that you can’t stick to your own word to
yourself. (Rob, 16)
Schooled Bodies?
Thursady, 1st November 2007
Conclusion
Socially schooled on the importance of a quantifiable
self. Embodied validation determined by number of
friends, number of times fancied, number of experiences
of exclusion, number of bars of chocolate eaten, number
of episodes of vomiting, number of calories burnt. The
need for quantifiable proof in the pursuit of validation.