My Postmodern Body

Let me first state that my research and my comments are based on body image and the concept of makeover in a 'western' context. Growing up in the UK and now living in Australia, my experience outside of this sphere is limited and I speak only for myself.


Last week I started carrying out my research interviews. I hope that talking to other women about their bodies and their thoughts about the makeover concept will help to mitigate to some extent the one-sidedness of my thinking and my writing, but my target group is in itself narrow and therefore my pool of information is still somewhat restricted. Once I have carried out my initial batch of interviews I hope that I will be able to reach a little further afield to help balance out my research.


So far the women I have spoken to have gone some way to confirming in my mind that the contemporary body, and in particular the contemporary body ideal is a rather disjointed and unstable thing. Further interviews may help to develop an analysis of 'the' contemporary feminine ideal, but so far, each woman has described a different ideal to me.


It is the question on femininity which helps to develop this issue most clearly. Each woman has a different idea of what makes a woman feminine, but although all the women I have spoken to far say they like to be, or would like to be more feminine, and on occasions make an effort to appear more feminine, none considered themselves to be feminine in their everyday life.


This postmodern feminine ideal, if it can be called such, appears to have become so fragmented and unstable, that women find it difficult to define and even more difficult to conform to on a day to day basis.

The instability of the postmodern body seems to be driving increasingly diverse body ideals and attitudes to body image today in the west. Clearly at this point a major area is missing, that of the male point of view, but that will be an area to develop later.




Questions Raised


Why are body ideals diversifying? - is it that women have more varied role models, that society is increasinly multicultural?

Today, when (in the west) we have access to the technology to conform, as well as the information we need, so why don't we?

What is the future for film and media, which have been driven for many years by a feminine ideal, if the feminine ideal no longer exists?

The Desire to Change

Based on my own failure to bring about significant changes in my body , I'm wondering what it is that drives people to follow through and really make changes.

I'd like to be thinner, more glamorous, better groomed, but why don't I have the motivation to do so when others do?

Is it a personality thing? I've always been confident in myself, generally my self-esteem is good. Maybe it is those with lower self-esteem who actually, ironically, are more likely to succeed in making a change, because the overall benefit is greater (i.e. increased self-esteem), whereas if you quite like yourself already, then after the change you only like yourself a little bit more, rather than a lot more. And that's the bottom line, generally, I like myself, I think I'm a 'nice' person, I'm not amazing looking but I'm not ugly, I'm not thin, but I have never, even at my heaviest, considered myself to be 'fat'. In fact I don't apply these types of labels to myself at all really.

I feel that self-image is clearly at the centre of all of this.

Questions raised...

• How many people manage to maintain the changes they make to lifestyle and body in the long-term?
• Is surgery popular because it is a longer-term option than say dieting, or getting a new wardrobe? Not just because it's seen as an 'easy' option.

To do this week

• Carry out and transcribe at least 2 interviews
• Write about interviews
• Finish Reading Flesh Wounds (Virginia Blum)

Erm... a bit off track - quick update

Well, I didn't do so well there did I.

The update is that I lost 8kg before Christmas, put 4 back on, and lost two again, so I'm 6kg down overall.

I haven't had sweets or chocolate bars since October, but I have been making up for it with cakes and biscuits - oops, that's never going to work! Oh and a hot chocolate most days.

Other than that, I really need a hair cut, and I'm getting behind on my uni work generally due to lack of motivation at the moment.

I'm going to try and post each Wednesday now as that is my 'uni' day, so no more excuses.

First Weigh In

Well the first weigh in should always be an easy one, after giving the metabolism a good shock with all that healthy eating business. So,

Starting Weight: 76.5 kg
Current Weight 73.9 kg
Total Loss This Week - 2.6 kg
Total Loss To Date - 2.6 kg.

I have to be pleased with that, now I know it doesn't carry on like that in real life (only on Biggest Loser) but I certainly feel that I have made a good start.

Maybe I should treat myself to a great big creamcake ;-) (Nooooooo...)

Day One

So this was going to be the 1st day of my makeover, you know, get the birthday over with and then get started. You know how it is. Well, I started early, couldn't wait to get going!

I signed up to Weight Watchers online, finished off all the chocolate in the house, bought a load of vegetables and healthy food and off I went.

First weigh in is on Monday

Wish me luck

Was I really that thin?

Crunching the numbers has got me thinking a bit. Was I really once 56kg? I lived in stones and lbs when I was in the UK. Wow! I must have been almost skinny.

I have no recollection of ever being skinny, well not since I was about 8 and accused of being bony, but in my 'adult' life, nope, pretty sure I've never been skinny. Although at 56kg I can't have been huge, that's for sure. That's right down near the bottom of my healthy range.

It's a bit of a shock to me now to work this out. This must be where our body image problems start. I mean, I must have been thin, but I never thought of myself as thin. I had lost weight that summer, getting fit for the start of my undergraduate degree studies. I worked in a swimming pool over the summer holidays, double shifts whenever I could get them, made good use of my free access to the gym in my lunch breaks, and lived on a diet of chocolate and chip butties (I wonder if that would still work now). Every so often, well actually quite often, the chocolate vending machine would spit out doubles, I'd eat both in one go, no problems. So it's not like I was 'dieting' to be that size, just busy, and 19. Other than at work I was living at home, so the rest of my diet was pretty healthy, but I don't think I deserved to be that thin.

I asked Sam (my husband) this morning, he says he doesn't remember me as 'thin' either, certainly not fat, but not thin. Not 20kg different than I am now. It's not that I've ever considered myself to be fat, even now, when I'm borderline for dropping out of the overweight category and into the very overweight with my BMI of 29.

Weight Watchers

There are hundreds of weight loss programs out there, from calorie counting, to meal replacement shakes to ready prepared meals, so why Weight Watchers. Well, apart from it being one of the biggest in the world, there are a number of reasons.
I've used it before with some success and know others who have too
It has great online tools and access
and as part of their offering they are giving away a booklet called 'makeover secrets' well, it's like it's meant to be, how could I resist.

According to Weight Watchers, at 163cm tall (5'3") and 76kg (12 stone 1lb/169lbs) I have a BMI of 29 (oops) my 10% goal is 68kg and my healthy weight range is 53-66kg.

So I have 10kg to lose to be healthy, and 20kg to lose to be at the thin end of the range.

Easy, now I have three goals to aim for, 68kg (110stone 10lbs/150lbs - 10% weight loss), 66kg (10stone 6lbs/146lbs, healthy weight range) and 56kg (8stone 11lbs/123lbs, a bit skinny?).

So is it realistic? Well, I was 56kg (8 stone 11lbs/123lbs) when I met my husband in 1996 (and 73.5kg/11 stone 8lbs/162lbs) when I married him in 2003. So it is somewhere I've been before, and although I'm older now, maybe I could go there again?

And weightwatchers recommend an average of 1/2 - 1kg per week, so 20kg in 52 weeks should be 'easy'...

So here I go, phase one of my makeover program underway.

New Year, New Start, New Me?

OK, so it's not really new year, but it's almost my birthday so a new year for me is about to begin.

This is going to be my 'year of the makeover' I'm going to do a makeover concept practical for my PhD project. Why? well, why not? I have nothing to lose except a few kilos, and maybe, just maybe, I'll learn something about myself, or even something of slight academic significance.

I'm committed, I can do it, erm, well I think I can, but I guess that is part of the process.

Oh, and I'm going to use to learn blogger well into the bargain!