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Saints, sinners and standards of femininity: discursive constructions of anorexia nervosa and obesity in women's magazines
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Saints, sinners and standards of femininity: discursive constructions of anorexia nervosa and obesity in women's magazines

K. Whitehead and T. Kurz
Journal of Gender Studies, Vol.17(4), pp.345-358
2008
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09589230802420086
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Abstract

It has been suggested that women are encouraged, particularly by the popular media, to gain 'feminine' power through the pursuit of a 'suitably' petite figure. The current project investigated, from a feminist poststructuralist perspective, the construction of female obesity and female anorexia in 20 popular magazine articles (10 anorexia and 10 obesity articles). Of interest was the extent to which the two states, despite both being physically unhealthy, may differ with respect to the ways in which they are constructed as 'feminine' or aesthetically abhorrent. Whilst both being contextualized medically as deviant, dangerous, and overwhelmingly physical, anorexia nervosa was constructed as more desirable, powerful and feminine than obesity. We discuss the implications of these dichotomous representations in relation to issues surrounding the social construction of 'the feminine'.

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being
#5 Gender Equality

Source: InCites

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41 Record Views
13 Times Cited - Web of Science

InCites Highlights

These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output

Citation topics
1 Clinical & Life Sciences
1.44 Nutrition & Dietetics
1.44.335 Eating Disorders
Web Of Science research areas
Social Issues
Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary
Women's Studies
ESI research areas
Social Sciences, general
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