OUGD601 - Second Meeting with Pete

Brief Essay Structure:

Introduction:

• Why is there an inclusivity issue in the gyms?
• New trend.
• Growing public concern.
• Socially trying to be more inclusive so should the places we visit.
• Stereotypes of gyms.

Missing - Inclusive architecture. What does it look like? Does segregation work? Should it be a choice? Purpose?

Ideas about body image against ideas about inclusivity.

Context and Themes:

1. Inclusivity meaning - and in architecture.
2. Body Image Theories - relate to inclusivity.
3. Advertising and marketing theories.

Advertising theory - Vance Packard, Hidden Persuaders.

Questionnaire - Talk to members.

Photograph Virgin as a case study? - relate to architectural theories. 

Practical:

Campaign

Consumer/client expectations.

Ask how existing imagery in comparison to inclusive imagery makes people feel.

OUGD601 - Body Image, Maggi Wykes and Barrie Gunter – The Media and Body Image

BODY IMAGE:

Maggi Wykes and Barrie Gunter – The Media and Body Image.

Could Looks Kill?

·      In the united states, a survey of over 2,500 schoolgirls aged between 13 and 18 found that more than three-quarters said they wanted to lose weight and two-thirds had dieted in the past year to lose weight (Whitaker et al. 1989).

·      Smoking, drug use, over-exercise, cosmetic surgery and self-harm may all be part of the profound subjective dissatisfaction with body image that is evident and prevalent among, young women in particular. (Wolf, 1992)

Body Shape Ideals:

·      Body image is a psychological structure.

·      Body image concerns and a pre-occupation with dieting among teenagers often emerge together (Byely et al. 2000).

·      The ‘body image’ construct tends to comprise a mixture of self-perceptions, ideas and feelings about one’s physical attributes. It is linked to self-esteem and to the individual’s emotional stability (Cash and Szymanski 1995; Thompson, 1990).

·      The magazine Psychology Today conducted a large-scale survey of body image among adult men and women aged 18 to 70 years (Berscheid et al., 1973; Cash et al., 1986) – survey indicated that both men’s and women’s body image perception have become more negative over time (Cash and Henry, 1995; Cash et al., 1986)

·      Women think about their bodies a lot. Whatever their size, over seven in ten reportedly think about their size and shape every day and eight in ten felt that their lives would be considerably enhanced if they felt totally happy with their body (Daily Mail, 9 August 2001).

Source of blame?

·      The core of body image dissatisfaction has been located within a discrepancy between the perceived self and ideal self.

·      Ideal self-image – an ‘internal ideal’ or a ‘societal ideal’ from dictates of the surrounding cultural and societal environment as to what constitutes the perfect body.

·      Perceived ideal – dissatisfaction in relation to aspects of the body that are regarded as malleable. E.g. weight and distribution of fat, try to overcome by dieting.

Gender and body image:

·      Henwood, Gill and McLean (2002: 183), ‘Patterns of consumption, lifestyle choices and media representation of men now often focus upon men’s appearance and the male body. Media advertising routinely depicts in positive ways youthful toned muscular male bodies or focuses on style in men's clothing and physical appearance’.

·      Men tend to perceive themselves as underweight and as thinner than they actually are and report a desire to be larger (Harmatz et al., 1985; Miller et al., 1980; Mintz and Betz, 1986).

·      Male magazines’ emphasis on masculine physiques for men is believed to have created a climate in which young men are encouraged to take drugs such as anabolic steroids to achieve the body they want. Abuse of such drugs can lead to serious health problems, including impotence, heart disease, cancer and violent mood swings (Chapman, 2000).

·      Eating disorders link to body self-esteem were prevalent across black, white and Asian women (Wassenaar et al., 2000).

·      For young women, media images are implicated in the phenomenon of the starved self.

·      Positive and negative stereotypes play a role in the cultural formation of the ideal body. This ideal body may be internalised by young women and become a goal in a program to transform their body shape to match their internalised ideal body (Banner, 1986; Spitzack, 1990).

·      Theories of Media influence:

Attractiveness of body types

Social comparison theory

Self-ideal discrepancy

Schema theory

Cultivation theory

Third-person effects

OUGD601 - Gender Theories, John Archer and Barbara Lloyd – Sex and Gender (second addition)

GENDER THEORIES:

John Archer and Barbara Lloyd – Sex and Gender (second addition).

Stereotypes and roles:

·      Stereotypes minimise individual differences.

·      William and Bennett (1975) experiment – asked students to indicate which adjectives from a list of 300 words were typically associated with either men or women.

Findings: 15 adjectives had a positive or negative evaluation: for women 5 positive and 10 negative, for men 10 positive and 5 negative. Suggests that the greater societal power of men is reflected in the affective meaning of the words used to describe the traits most associated with them.

·      ‘Gender roles and stereotypes held in society at any one point in time are rooted, not primarily in the society’s cultural tradition, but more importantly in the society’s contemporaneous division of labor between the sexes. Women are views as suited for the specific social roles that women typically occupy, and men are viewed as suited for the specific social roles that men typically occupy.’ (Eagly, 1987:21-2)

·      Social role theory.

·      Diekman and Eagly, 2000 – women are becoming increasing more masculine in their new roles where men haven’t changed.

Do Stereotypes reflect prejudice or reality?

·      Rationalisations, illogically derived from the social work and incorrect in content (Lippman, 1922).

·      Stereotypes are generalisations but not necessarily incorrect ones (Martin, 1978).

·      Social role theory – stereotypes are not based on detailed experience with the groups concerned but with their social roles.

·      Stereotypes are rationalisations of the gender roles of men and women rather than accurate descriptions of group characteristics (Hoffman and Hurst, 1990).

·      In many cultures and subcultures attitudes to gender issues are radically different than those held by college-educated Westerners.

·      Benson and Vincent (1980), Examples of items from the Sexist Attitude Towards Women Scale:

1.     Women should be handled gently by men because they are so delicate.

2.     Men will always be the dominant sex.

3.     Women shop more than men because they cant decide what to buy.

4.     A woman’s place is in the home.

5.     It would make me feel awkward to address a woman as ‘Ms’.

·      Swim and Cohen (1997) devised a rating scale that measured more subtle forms of sexism, terming it the Modern Sexism scale (MS). The study shows that covert sexist attitudes can be reliably measured and used to predict reactions to issue such as sexual harassment which are important in the modern mixed-sex workplace.

·      Deaux and Lewis (1984) suggested that people link the different components of gender stereotypes together in their mind. For example, if we know that someone likes cooking, we may think that they will also like sewing, as both of these are feminine activities.

·      Bem (1981), gender schema theory. The degree to which gender was a salient variable in their interactions.

Gender schema theory explains the development and consequences of sex typing or how children acquire sex-defined characteristics (i.e., preferences, skills, personality traits, behaviours, and self-concepts) that are aligned with gender. The theory aims to provide an understanding of how mental representations of gender develop in early childhood to influence attention, motivation, person perception, impression formation, and behaviour.

Gender Appropriate Behaviour:

·      Davies (1982, 1986), study with three groups of older British children (11, 13, and 16). Trying to tread a metal loop through a bent wire without touching it. Both sexes made fewer errors when the task label was gender-consistent than when it was inconsistent.

·      Barkley et al (1977), children imitated behaviour they viewed as gender-appropriate, irrespective of the sex of the person performing it.

·      Kohlberg, gender identity. Enabled children to select those parts of the social world that applied to their sex, and to ignore those that applied to the opposite sex. Thus, the process of identification with one’s own sex was seen as the beginning of a guiding force of socialisation.

·      Kohlberg (1966), sense of gender identity appeared between 2 and 3 years of age.

·      Leinbach and Fagot (1986), children as young as 19 months can use the labels ‘mummy’ and ‘daddy’ to discriminate the sex of adults.

·      Kuhn et al. (1978), gave children two paper dolls, one called Michael and the other called Lisa, and asked questions in the form of a game about the dolls likes and dislikes. It was apparent that children of 2 to 3 years of age have an extensive, if stereotyped, knowledge about gender-typed activities. E.g. girls would clean the house, boys would boss and mow the lawn.