scholarly journals Shaping Girls: Analyzing Animated Female Body Shapes

Animation ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-36
Author(s):  
Rebecca Rowe
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Female Body ◽  
The Body ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Young Girls ◽  
Film And Television ◽  
Inverted Triangle ◽  
Female Bodies ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
Body Shapes

The debate over whether television and film affect girls’ body image has been contentious. Researchers argue that film and television negatively affect, only partially affect, or do not affect girls’ body image. These studies have one common limitation: they approach animated female bodies as if they are the same because they are, mostly, thin. In this project, the author seeks to extend and complicate this existing scholarship by analyzing bodies in 67 films produced by several American animation studios from 1989 through 2016. In this study, she classifies 239 female characters as one of four body types: Hourglass, Pear, Rectangle, or Inverted Triangle. Her argument is two-fold: (1) over the last 30 years, there has been a shift from a singular dominant shape (Hourglass) to the dominance of several body shapes (especially Pear and Rectangle); and (2) young girls may be affected by characters their own age who have been largely ignored in studies thus far. The author argues that young girls see diverse images of bodies rather than the singular image that scholars study. Girls’ body image may be affected by animation, but animated images are so diverse that this effect may be difficult to determine. A more nuanced understanding of the body shapes animation utilizes may allow researchers to study the more complex messages that girls do or do not internalize.

scholarly journals Development and initial psychometric evaluation of the Body Image Matrix of Thinness and Muscularity – Female Bodies

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Beate Steinfeld ◽  
Andrea S. Hartmann ◽  
Manuel Waldorf ◽  
Silja Vocks
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Convergent Validity ◽  
Female Body ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
The Body ◽  
Retest Reliability ◽  
Figure Rating Scale ◽  
Body Ideal ◽  
Female Bodies ◽  
Test Retest Reliability

Abstract Background Despite evidence that thinness and muscularity are part of the female body ideal, there is not yet a reliable figure rating scale measuring the body image of women which includes both of these dimensions. To overcome this shortcoming, the Body Image Matrix of Thinness and Muscularity - Female Bodies (BIMTM-FB) was developed. Methods The objective of this study is to analyze the psychometric properties of this measure. N = 607 non-clinical women and N = 32 women with eating disorders answered the BIMTM-FB as well as instruments assessing eating disorder symptoms and body image disturbance in order to test the convergent validity of the BIMTM-FB. To assess test-retest reliability, a two-week interval was determined. Results The results indicated that the body-fat dimension of the BIMTM-FB correlates significantly with the Contour Drawing Rating-Scale, the Drive for Leanness Scale (DLS) and the Body Appreciation Scale, while the muscularity dimension of the BIMTM-FB was significantly associated with the DLS and the Drive for Muscularity Scale, proving the convergent validity of the BIMTM-FB. High coefficients of test-retest reliability were found. Moreover, the BIMTM-FB differentiated between the clinical sample and the non-clinical controls. Conclusions The BIMTM-FB is a figure rating scale assessing both thinness and muscularity as part of the female body ideal. Due to its high reliability and validity, the BIMTM-FB can be recommended in research and practice.

Chinese and American College Students' Body-Image: Perceived Body Shape and Body Affect

1998 ◽  
Vol 87 (2) ◽  
pp. 395-403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weiyun Chen ◽  
Ricky L. Swalm
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Female Body ◽  
Body Shape ◽  
Chinese Students ◽  
The United States ◽  
Female Students ◽  
The Body ◽  
American Students ◽  
Body Shapes ◽  
Negative Feelings

This study examined the differences in the measures of perception of body shape and body affect among Chinese and American college male and female students. 289 Chinese students in China and 180 American students in the United States voluntarily completed the Body-image Questionnaire, comprised of four categories: (a) anthropometric data, (b) self-perception of body shape, (c) body affect, and (d) desired body shape. American students were significantly more likely than Chinese students to perceive their body shapes as being larger, but both Chinese and American students tended to perceive their body shapes accurately. For body affect, both Chinese and American female students who perceived themselves as thin had positive feelings about their bodies, while both groups of female students who perceived themselves as heavy had negative feelings about their bodies. American women were more likely than Chinese women to have negative feelings about their bodies. American students also placed high value on muscular firmness as part of their ideal female body shape, while Chinese students added plumpness as another component for judging ideal female body shape. Both Chinese and American men valued physical strength as a major component for body satisfaction.

BODY PRACTICES OF WOMEN IN THE LIGHT OF FEMINIST DEBATES

2018 ◽  
pp. 129-156 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Female Body ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
The Body ◽  
Social Regulation ◽  
Critical Study ◽  
Phenomenological Tradition ◽  
Academic Feminism ◽  
Female Bodies ◽  
Body Practices

The paper provides an analysis of the structuralist and phenomenological traditions in interpretation of female body practices. The structuralist intellectual tradition bases its methodology on concepts from social anthropology and philosophy that see the body as ‘ordered’ by social institutions. Structuralist approaches within academic feminism are focused on critical study of the social regulation of female bodies with respect to reproduction and sexualisation (health and beauty practices). The author focuses on the dominant physical ideal of femininity and the means for body pedagogics that have been constructed by patriarchal authority. In contrast to theories of the ordered body, the phenomenological tradition is focused on the “lived” body, embodied experience, and the personal motivation and values attached to body practices. This tradition has been influenced by a variety of schools of thought including philosophical anthropology, phenomenology and action theories in sociology. Within academic feminism, there are at least three phenomenologically oriented strategies of interpretation of female body practices. The first one is centred around women’s individual situation and bodily socialization; the second one studies interrelation between body practices and the sense of the self; and the third one postulates the potential of body practices to destabilize the dominant ideals of femininity and thus provides a theoretical basis for feminist activism. The phenomenological tradition primarily analyses the motivational, symbolic and value-based components of body practices as they interact with women’s corporeality and sense of self. In general, both structuralist and phenomenological traditions complement each other by focusing on different levels of analysis of female embodiment.

Body Schema and Body Image

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Body Dysmorphic Disorder ◽  
Body Schema ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Neural Activities ◽  
Body Shapes ◽  
Influential Book ◽  
Social And Cultural Factors

Body schema refers to the system of sensory-motor functions that enables control of the position of body parts in space, without conscious awareness of those parts. Body image refers to a conscious representation of the way the body appears—a set of conscious perceptions, affective attitudes, and beliefs pertaining to one’s own bodily image. In 2005, Shaun Gallagher published an influential book entitled ‘How the Body Shapes the Mind’. This book not only defined both body schema (BS) and body image (BI), but also explored the complicated relationship between the two. The book also established the idea that there is a double dissociation, whereby body schema and body image refer to two different, but closely related, systems. Given that many kinds of pathological cases can be described in terms of body schema and body image (phantom limbs, asomatognosia, apraxia, schizophrenia, anorexia, depersonalization, and body dysmorphic disorder, among others), we might expect to find a growing consensus about these concepts and the relevant neural activities connected to these systems. Instead, an examination of the scientific literature reveals continued ambiguity and disagreement. This volume brings together leading experts from the fields of philosophy, neuroscience, psychology, and psychiatry in a lively and productive dialogue. It explores fundamental questions about the relationship between body schema and body image, and addresses ongoing debates about the role of the brain and the role of social and cultural factors in our understanding of embodiment.

scholarly journals Dancing in a culture of disordered eating: A feminist poststructural analysis of body and body image among young girls in the world of dance

PLoS ONE ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. e0247651
Author(s):  
Nicole Doria ◽  
Matthew Numer
Keyword(s):  
Eating Disorders ◽  
Body Image ◽  
Adolescent Girls ◽  
The Body ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Negative Body Image ◽  
Young Girls ◽  
The World ◽  
Poststructural Analysis ◽  
The Ideal

Eating disorders among adolescent girls are a public health concern. Adolescent girls that participate in aesthetic sport, such as dance, are of particular concern as they experience the highest rates of clinical eating disorders. The purpose of this study is to explore the experiences of young girls in the world of competitive dance and examine how these experiences shape their relationship with the body; feminist poststructural discourse analysis was employed to critically explore this relationship. Interviews were conducted across Canada with twelve young girls in competitive dance (14–18 years of age) to better understand how the dominant discourses in the world of competitive dance constitute the beliefs, values and practices about body and body image. Environment, parents, coaches, and peers emerged as the largest influencers in shaping the young dancers’ relationship with their body. These influencers were found to generate and perpetuate body image discourses that reinforce the ideal dancer’s body and negative body image.

Firm but Shapely, Fit but Sexy, Strong but Thin: The Postmodern Aerobicizing Female Bodies

1995 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 424-453 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pirkko Markula
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Female Body ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Media Analysis ◽  
Consumer Society ◽  
Women's Relationships ◽  
The Media ◽  
Cultural Dialogue ◽  
Female Bodies ◽  
The Individual

This paper aims to reconstruct the cultural dialogue surrounding the female body image in aerobics. To do this I have used several methods: ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, and media analysis. I found that the media ideal is a contradiction: firm but shapely, fit but sexy, strong but thin. Likewise, women’s relationships with the media image are contradictory: They struggle to obtain the ideal body, but they also find their battles ridiculous. I interpret my findings from a Foucaultian perspective to show how the discourse surrounding the female body image is part of a complex use of power over women in postmodern consumer society. In addition, I assume a feminist perspective that assigns an active role to the individual aerobicizers to question the power arrangement.

scholarly journals The GIRL Curriculum: Co-Constructing Learning About Body Image Through Empowering After-School Programming

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 216-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brianna Meza ◽  
Risto Marttinen
Keyword(s):  
School Personnel ◽  
The Body ◽  
Perceived Barriers ◽  
After School ◽  
Physically Active ◽  
Young Girls ◽  
The Media ◽  
Female Bodies ◽  
School Programming ◽  
The Ideal

From a young age, girls experience many influences that may negatively impact how they view their bodies. Many girls are subject to teasing by peers and feel pressure to conform to gender norms. Moreover, the media perpetuates an unattainable and unrealistic image of women, referred to as the ideal female body. Since peers and the media are prominent influences, researchers have implemented curricula as interventions to help girls navigate perceptions of their bodies in a healthy way. Building on prior research, the GIRL curriculum was developed as a semi-structured, co-created curriculum that aimed at engaging girls in critical analysis of media’s representation of female bodies in society. Furthermore, the GIRL curriculum aimed to help girls identify and navigate their possible perceived barriers to physical activity. This curriculum was developed as a response to a lack of resources available for teachers, after-school personnel, and others who work with young girls to engage with the girls about issues of the body in a physically active setting. This program article focuses on the development and implementation of the GIRL curriculum and provides insight, through qualitative analyses, into how a curriculum could help young girls improve their understanding and perception of their bodies and feel empowered. A copy of the co-created curriculum is presented. The researchers urge future practitioners to co-create the curriculum with their participants in order to create opportunities that would allow young girls to view their bodies in a more positive light and feel empowered through a variety of activities.

The Morphed Photographic Figure Scale: Creation and validation of a novel set of realistic female body stimuli

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andy Skinner ◽  
Helen Bould ◽  
Andy ◽  
Peter James Etchells ◽  
Ian Penton-Voak ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eating Disorders ◽  
Body Image ◽  
Female Body ◽  
Rating Scales ◽  
Muscle Tone ◽  
Body Images ◽  
Rating Data ◽  
Body Image Disturbances ◽  
Female Bodies ◽  
Eating Disorders Examination

Research exploring how people with eating disorders or obesity perceive their bodies, and interventions targeting this rely on high quality figural rating scales. We present data on a new figural scale, the Morphed Photographic Figure Scale (MPFS). It comprises eight sequences of photographic quality images of female bodies varying from underweight to overweight. Each sequence is centred on a veridical photographic image of a female body, and we used image morphing techniques to produce a number of increasingly overweight and increasingly underweight versions of the same body. Morphing provides body images with highly realistic representations of changes in adiposity and muscle tone, and enables manipulation of body weight without introducing idiosyncratic variations in anthropomorphic features, which could impact judgments of physical appearance in unpredictable ways. All images were rated in an online study (n = 377) as underweight, overweight or neither. Within each sequence, rating data showed a clear rank ordering from underweight to overweight. Overweight participants were more likely to rate images as underweight, and less likely to rate them as overweight. Participants with a high level of concern about their own weight (measured using the Eating Disorders Examination Questionnaire) were more likely to rate images as overweight. We anticipate the MPFS will have application in a range of research domains, including assessment of body image disturbances, and the design of new interventions targeting body image.

scholarly journals Human-Friendly Design of Virtual System “female Body-dress”

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mengna Guo ◽  
Victor E. Kuzmichev ◽  
Dominique C. Adolphe
Keyword(s):  
Evaluation System ◽  
Female Body ◽  
The Body ◽  
Virtual Technology ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Mechanical Approach ◽  
Virtual System ◽  
Female Bodies ◽  
3D Shapes ◽  
Selection Of

Abstract Recently, the development efforts focused on the computer simulation of garments, which depend on the material's physico-mechanical properties. It intends to achieve the best possible and realistic simulations of garments, which are available for pressure prediction. In this manner, 3D garment virtual technology improvements allow the visualization of pressure areas with values where the fabric might be too tight against the body. Although the purposes of simulation graphics were acceptable, the accuracy for apparel shaping is not enough to meet the needs of Virtual Prototyping and CAD utilization especially while the fabric properties system design was inadequate. Moreover, the existing pressure simulation is intended to simply predict the pressure index or how the textile deformation extend, which are deficient in real human's perception. In this research, the 3D shapes belonging to typical female bodies and dresses made of different fabrics were obtained by 3D body scanners (ScanWorX and TELMAT). Through reconstruction for the 3D torso shapes, the volumetric eases between body and dress were calculated by means of a software Rhinoceros. A new approach for the selection of textile properties based on the Kawabata Evaluation System (KES) was proposed to investigate its relations with dress shaping and pressure comfort. Finally, fabric properties tested by the KES-F system were compared with volumetric eases, objective pressure indexes and subjective comfort scores to reveal the relations how the fabric properties have impacts on dress outside shaping and inside pressure comfort of a female body. In this manner, the human-friendly CAD instead of mechanical approach existing before has been presented as a new approach to promote the construction of a realistic system for the 3D simulation optimization.

Bat wings, bunions, and turkey wattles: body transgressions and older women's strategic clothing choices

2009 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 709-726 ◽  
Author(s):  
LAURA HURD CLARKE ◽  
MERIDITH GRIFFIN ◽  
KATHERINE MALIHA
Keyword(s):  
Older Women ◽  
Female Body ◽  
Later Life ◽  
The Body ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Body Shapes ◽  
Clothing Choices ◽  
Depth Interviews

ABSTRACTThis paper examines older women's experiences and perceptions of clothing prescriptions for adults in later life. Using data from in-depth interviews with 36 women aged 71 to 93 years, we investigate the stringent, taken-for-granted social norms that older women identified with respect to appropriate fashion for the ageing female body. Specifically, the participants argued that older women should refrain from wearing bright colours and revealing or overly suggestive styles. Expressing a preference for classic or traditional styles, the women also reported that they used clothing strategically to mask or compensate for bodily transgressions that had occurred over time as a result of the physical realities of ageing, including weight gain, altered body shapes, wrinkles and sagging or ‘flabby’ arms and necks, referred to respectively as ‘bat wings’ and ‘turkey wattles’. In addition, the women contended that they consciously chose their clothing styles to compensate for age-related health issues and/or to present a competent, healthy self to others. Finally, the women talked about the ways in which their clothing choices were influenced by their changing lifestyles and constrained by a lack of desirable and affordable clothing options for the older female body. The findings are discussed in the light of Erving Goffman's concept of stigma and contemporary theorising about ageing, ageism, beauty work and the body.

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