Looking Deviant?

Question 1

Why is physical appearance important?

Answer 1

We judge others appearances
Others judge our appearance
Perceptions of deviant appearances change over time = differ by context
Voluntary appearance –> result of choice
Involuntary appear –> limited/no choice

Blurred boundaries of voluntary and involuntary over time and place

Question 2

What are ways to cane our appearances?

Answer 2

Body projects
Camouflaging
Extending
Adapting
Redesigning

Question 3

What are body projects?

Answer 3

Ways we adapt, change or control our bodies

Question 4

What is camouflaging?

Answer 4

Normative processes (we learn this through socialization)

Question 5

What is extending?

Answer 5

Overcoming physical limitations (wearing contacts or using a cane)

Question 6

What is adapting?

Answer 6

removing or repairing ( for aesthetic or medical reasons. Weight loss, laser hair removal

Question 7

What is redesigning?

Answer 7

reconstruction (plastic surgery, body peircings or tattoos)

Question 8

What do bodies tell us?

Answer 8

Objective - characteristics of the person ( bodies tell us characteristics of people. Age, sex, SES, academic performance assumed personality)
Subjective - characteristics of society, relationship, and self (they tell us about self, how we come to understand ourselves broader society)

Question 9

What are gendered norms?

Answer 9

Men desirable ( muscular, fit, tall, clear skin)
undesirable trait ( baldness, flakiness, small penis size, lankiness)

Women desirable ( thin, thin legs, firm but, clear skin)
Undesirable ( short hair, muscular, small breasts, overweight

Question 10

What are some racial variations in appearance norms?

Answer 10

Milkie

• White girls read Seventeen or teen magazine
• Black girls read ebony or essence
  
  • criticized the unrealities of red white girl images in the magazines
  • less negativity affected by the narrow body image than white girls
  • defined themselves a being outside the dominant culture

Question 11

What are some noteworthy body projects?

Answer 11

Body modification
- tattoos
-illustration of change over time
Body size and weight
- pervasive in medicine.media, education, commercial, industry, daily interactions

Question 12

What are body modifications?

Answer 12

Lengthy history

• 5000 years old iceman with tattoos
• early Christian era –> religious affiliation
• European colonization –> primitives
• 1950s –> working class masculinity and subculture

Question 13

What so modified bodies tell us? (objective side)

Answer 13

Characteristics of the individual:

1) risk (are at risk, or like to engage in risk)
2) motivation
- aesthetic
- pursuit of identity
a) social identity
b) individual identity

Question 14

What do modified bodies tell us? (subjective side)

Answer 14

Understanding of the self through interaction
Dramaturgical approach
- front v back stage self
Impression management

Question 15

What is the deal with women and tattoos?

Answer 15

Construction of the gendered self

• established femininity
• > increase sex appeal to males
• Resistant femininity
• > contradict hegemonic ideal
• Negotiated femininity
• > source of liberation but concealable

Question 16

What is straightedge tattoos?

Answer 16

Tattoos as ideological messages
- symbols of lifestyle declaration
-symbols of pacification
-symbols of indictment
Tattooing as means of control over ones body
(Resistance to hedonism
enhance physical purity and control over one’s body
Less self serving
XXX as a straight edgers symbol
declaration of what is wrong with society - ZOMBIE NATION
pain signifies the control)

Question 17

Gang tattoos: Symbolism and consequences

Answer 17

Sends a message that they are loyal to the group but sends a negative message to the community, family, police
Tear drop = body count

Question 18

What is the ideal body in scientific standards?

Answer 18

based on health risks
BMI
More likely to be an evaluative criteria for females then for men. Medical field is based in health risk. Harm notion. Is your body weight and size indicative of harm>

Question 19

What is the canadian experience with being over weight?

Answer 19

World wide: 1.4 billion adults
Canada:
-67% of adult men
-54% of adult women
-32% of children
More people are overweight than underweight in Canada and the world

Question 20

Is childhood obesity child abuse?

Answer 20

Child abuse: not always active harm
Can be associated with neglect

• state/legal interventions
  -women: blames
  Child and mother stigmatized
  Socioeconomic restrictions

Question 21

What is the causation of anorexia and overweight?

Answer 21

Overweight - combination of individual and social factors. (people assume it is a very simple reason. but they don’t look at why people eat more calories)
Anorexia
-Ego-psychological theories ( imparted psychological function on the child mother relations)
- Family system theories( facilitated by really over controlling families)
-Endocrinological theories (look at hormonal defects and how they affect anorexia)
-Sociocultural theories( social norms that emphasis thinness)

Question 22

What is muscle dysmorphia (bigorexia)

Answer 22

Mostly affects males
Disordered fixation on gaining body mass
More common in men than anorexia
Multiple negative consequences 
Increasing media pressures on men to be muscular and lean
- Higher rates of depression
-lower levels of self esteem
- higher adherence to masculine norms

Question 23

What are negative perceptions of “too fat”?

Answer 23

Surveys reveal stereotypes and dislike
- adults, children, teachers, nurses
Female media bodies have become thinner
Male media bodies have become more muscular

Question 24

What is social control of “too fat”

Answer 24

Media --> lose weight fast!
Commercial industry --> pills and powder
Medicalization --> prescriptions, surgery
Government--> fat tax, tax deductions
Communities --> recreational facilities

Question 25

Resting a label of too fat

Answer 25

Fat acceptance groups ( actively trying to resist the stigma and labels
Beauty magazines and clothing lines for “plus size” individuals
Media

Question 26

What is social control of too thin?

Answer 26

Perception of too thin = extreme instance (family members are unwilling to recognize their unhealthy weight
Social control 
- changing family interactions
- medicalized prevention and education
-media

Question 27

Resisting a label of too thin

Answer 27

Difficult to do: prevasiveness of weight loss messages and products in society
- resistance on this case, often means supporting extreme thinness
- Support of anorexia
(ana websites)
(pro-anorexia websites give you tips on how to lose weight and keep weight off when you are hospitalized. You can never be too rich or too thin. they don’t give help they glorify it)