Skin Deep: Body Positivity and Brand Authenticity

This experiment explores the influence of a plus-size model’s dress (modest or revealing) and skin condition (perfect or imperfect) on participants’ responses to branded body positive Instagram posts. Specifically, participants were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions (i.e., modest-perfect; modest-imperfect; revealing-perfect; revealing-imperfect) to compare their (a) ratings of the model’s attractiveness, (b) emotional responses, (c) perceptions of the sponsoring brand’s authenticity, and (d) purchase intentions. In addition to the four treatment conditions, responses were also compared across participants with varying attitudes toward society’s beauty standards and with high or low body images. The results indicate the condition, the manipulated independent variable exerted significant main and interaction effects with the measured independent variables, beauty standard internalization and body image scores, on all four of the dependent or outcome variables. Overall, participants rated the perfect skin posts the most attractive and the imperfect skin posts the least attractive. However, the revealing posts elicited the strongest positive emotions, and they were rated the most authentic. Finally, the results indicate participants’ purchase intentions were largely determined by their emotional responses to the posts, followed by their authenticity ratings, the model’s dress, and skin condition, but not by their attractiveness ratings. Finally, the implications of these results for both body positivity theories and fashion marketing practices are discussed

“Refashioning Jouissance for the Age of the Imaginary”

The question of jouissance today as reflected in fashion and its changes -- or no changes. They reflect the arrangements and rearrangements between the sexes

Being large: An interpretive phenomenological enquiry into the lived world of problematic weight

The aim of this study is to explore how large women who are unhappy with their weight experience their everyday lives. This qualitative phenomenological research was conducted through semi-structured interviews with six participants (all who defined themselves as BMI ≥ 30), whose descriptions were then analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Two main themes were identified. The first highlighted the continual experience of being a monstrously huge body and how this impacts life. The second explored how perpetually feeling the eyes of others created everyday challenges that needed to be managed. This study seeks to contribute to the limited existing phenomenological UK based research undertaken with large women from the general population. Its findings suggest the highly ambiguous lived experience of being large. There is an intensely all-consuming bodily managing practice of disownment and positioning the body as an object-like form (medically, socially and impaired). There is constant self-surveillance and social scrutiny trying to be acceptable in their unacceptable bodies within their relational world. There is an attempt to avoid feelings of shame and to experience themselves as more than their body even though this is how they experience themselves. The clinical significance lies in its attempt to increase understanding from an integrative existential psychological perspective for weight management including; the experience of someone’s physical, social, psychological and spiritual worlds; the understanding and impact of general moods; embracing the ambiguity of the body and the enhancement of agency. The study recommends that further research be undertaken into how these areas are specifically experienced and the meaning given by large women

The absurd reality of satire in Neil LaBute\u27s \u27Fat Pig\u27

This research project examines the misreading of satire in some productions of Neil LaBute’s play, Fat Pig. This practice led project aims to investigate why such misinterpretations occur and explore the theatrical styles that emphasise the satire in the text via rehearsal processes and production. There will be three preliminary paths undertaken in this research heading toward a new production of Fat Pig; an exploration of the responses of audiences and critics to past productions; an analysis of the background to Neil LeBute and his work; and an examination of theatrical expressions of satire, experimental theatre, contemporary theatre, and their practitioners. The overall aim of this research project is to find ways, as a director, to experiment with theatrical styles as a means to expand the play’s complex issues and ironic take on society’s narrow view of female beauty. This study will explore the following questions: what is the correlation between staging and design (the director’s influence and how an audience interprets meaning; and what forms of theatrical expression will highlight and emphasise the satire and irony present in the text? In what ways can critical reviews and feedback from previous productions indicate the understanding (or lack of understanding) of the ironic content in the script? Can situating LaBute in the context of his satiric writing style that straddles literary elements from opposing absurd and realism genres shed light on how irony can be exposed in Fat Pig? The project’s new production aims to underscore the play’s social commentaries by combining various forms of theatrical styles, philosophies, and methodologies. I wish to extend my directorial practice by investigating strategies to emphasis and highlight what I see as the underlying focus of Fat Pig; society’s discriminating behaviour to those who sit outside mainstream ideas of physical beaut

Nonverbal Communication in Relation to Women's Experiences of Self and Body: A Mixed Methods Examination

Understanding how nonverbal behaviour imparts information about women’s attractiveness and body image is important, given that peers are a source of information about appearance (e.g., Tiggemann, 2011). Research has demonstrated that negative messages from peers are associated with body dissatisfaction and disordered eating among females (e.g., Vincent & McCabe, 2000) but less is known about nonverbal communication. The current research examined women’s nonverbal behaviour, physical appearance, and body image within interactions. An explanatory sequential mixed method design was used. The initial quantitative study examined the relationship between immediacy and women’s body attractiveness, facial attractiveness, and body image in peer-dyad interactions (n = 80 dyads). Participants were videotaped interacting in a laboratory setting for 15 minutes and then completed self-report measures of their interaction partner for immediacy and attractiveness. They also completed self-report measures of their body image, internalization of the thin ideal, and appearance comparison. The researcher measured body mass index. Results indicated that as perceptions of body and facial attractiveness and body image of an interaction partner decrease, so does the immediacy shown towards the partner. Following the quantitative component, a follow-up qualitative study explored women’s experiences of their bodies and themselves in relation to nonverbal communication in interactions with peers. It was conducted according to Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009). A subset of participants (n = 4) was invited to review their videotaped conversation and participate in a semi-structured interview with the researcher. Results indicated that women experience complex processes within interactions, including comparing and judging as well as body consciousness and that both the egocentric and sociocentric parts of the self are involved. Results also illuminated women’s experience of resisting the influence of adhering to society’s ideals of appearance. Together, the findings indicate that weight-based bias is present within everyday interactions among women. It is hoped that this research will bring attention to biases that are routinely communicated in subtle ways to decrease it and positively impact women’s experiences of themselves and their bodies

Porn identity: The sexualisation and objectification of young girls

Over the past five years the increasingly explicit sexual nature of a range of clothing and toys for children, mainly girls, sold in Australian shops has become the focus of a sustained public debate. My Masters project aims to contribute to this critical discourse. The project explores the social, cultural and commercial influences on childhood identity that result from an acceptance of the sexualisation and objectification of young girls. It questions the impact that this tendency towards an earlier sexualisation process may have on the sense of identity and wellbeing of the contemporary generation of children and reflects on what may be driving these changes

The Effectiveness of the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty in Terms of Society and the Brand

The following thesis aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. The problem is that of measuring the effectiveness of the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty in a form deeper than numbers. As the campaign held a secondary goal of changing women’s perceptions of beauty, so should the evaluation. Thus, two measures will be employed. First, the following thesis evaluates the campaigns effect on society by examining how the issue of beauty at large was and is communicated. Data was collected on beauty by drawing from experience, researching eating disorders, and exploring a feminist approach to the underlying causes of dissatisfaction with appearances. Second, it evaluates its effect on the brand by exploring the use of cause marketing as a tool to increase sales. Data includes research on the best ways, times and methods to use cause marketing. A deep description of the campaign itself is included to showcase the ways in which Dove paired with advertising agency Ogilvy to communicate its message. Included are subjective interpretations of the reasons for which each set of ads in the campaign were launched and public evaluations via blogs, interviews, and statistics. I argue that the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty is effective both in terms of the brand and society in that it reinvigorated a previously irrelevant brand with an relevant message that is working to reshape notions of beauty

One nation under salary: Business, critics, and the body in the 1950s

The 1950s was period of dramatic social upheaval. The massive changes brought on by suburbanization, the G.I. Bill, postwar dislocation, the rise of the white-collar worker, the cold war and more significantly impacted ideas about gender. This thesis explores the meaning of corporate work and its impact on masculinity from 1946 to 1963. During this period a group of public intellectuals attacked corporate work as unmanly and white-collar workers as effeminate. These intellectuals believed masculinity was in decline, and that white-collar men were no longer men. While commentators challenged postwar masculinity, business leaders rallied to defend white-collar men’s masculinity. Pro-business intellectuals defended white-collar men’s positions in 1950s both as masculine and valuable to the company. Ultimately, these discourses impacted ideas about men’s bodies. Male beauty culture emerged during this contest over the proper ideal of masculinity. Some elements of male beauty culture embraced commentators’ rhetoric, but most sided with white-collar leaders. Thus, in a period where middle-class white men’s grip on masculinity was tenuous, male beauty culture and white-collar leaders sought to reaffirm their position atop the social and cultural hierarchy

Influence of media literacy curriculum on body image of postsecondary students in Oklahoma

Scope and Method of Study: As the world becomes more connected and continues to expand on the various literacies that people use daily in their attempts to inform, persuade, and educate, it is imperative that people learn how to analyze the information that they are being surrounded with daily. This study used a mixed methods approach to determine whether a one hour media literacy curriculum, created by the author for postsecondary social science students, could influence students' perceptions of body image satisfaction. The researcher used methods triangulation and data triangulation, including a questionnaire, focus groups, and interviews to determine whether students' perceptions of self could be influenced by a media literacy curriculum created by the researcher for the specific group.Findings and Conclusions: The research suggests that a one-hour curriculum can influence students' perceptions of self in terms of media influence. In addition, the curriculum did not appear to make students negatively biased against the media, but simply more able to reflect on the intentions of particular media productions. The SATAQ-3/M showed the "opposite" results of what one would expect, and yet, when inspecting the actual questions in each section it becomes obvious that more informed students would initially score higher in areas such as "internalization," "pressures," and "information" simply because they are more informed. This finding does imply the need for either the use of a longitudinal study with the SATAQ-3, or a new questionnaire to measure the influence of media literacy curriculum on body image. The curriculum designed and implemented for this study shows a significant effect on undergraduates' body image