Constructions of ageing and narrative resistance in a commercial slimming group

Abstract

This study focuses on the role of organisational setting and age in shaping individuals' narratives of embodied selfhood. It compares older and younger women's use of 'narrative resistance ' to negotiate identity in light of their ageing and the negative social and personal meanings of being fat. Cordell and Ronai (1999) observed three types of narrative resistance among overweight people : loopholes, exemplars and continuums. This paper identifies two others: ' justifications', for behaviour that associated with weight gain, and ' repentance ', for behaviour that reaffirmed a commitment to losing weight. Drawing from six months of participant-observation and in-depth interviews with 20 older and younger female clients of a commercial weight-loss organisation, this article shows that both the meanings women attributed to their experiences of slimming, and their opportunities for benefiting from organisational resources, varied by their stage in the lifecourse. The weight-loss group generated narrative strategies and opportunities for its members that were informed by both cultural constructions of ageing and the organisation's interests. While these strategies stopped short of empowering the clients to abandon restrictive dieting altogether, they did enable the older respondents to excuse temporary setbacks in weight loss and their deviation from (what they described as) the more exacting appearance standards of youth. At the same time, the strategic narratives reaffirmed constructions of ageing that present the older female body as uncontrollable and older women as unconcerned with physical attractiveness.

What Is ‘Body Work’? A Review of the Literature

“…Among the beauticians interviewed by Black and Sharma (2001), such conceptualizations centered around the notion of a deficient body, defined not as being deficient of beauty or youthfulness, but instead as lacking self-love and confidence (which workers claimed to be helping to restore). Gimlin's (2002) research with hairstylists provided similar findings. Drawing on these various studies and arguments shows that a closer examination of the performance of body labor provides a range of insights into processes of domination and empowerment among body workers and those whose bodies are labored on, as well as the tools both groups use to negotiate for power during their interactions, and the implications of all of these for individuals' experiences of work and embodiment (Wolkowitz 2006).…”

“…In comparison to body/appearance work, body work/labor has received somewhat greater attention from sociologists. While some of that attention (particularly in recent years) has been paid to beauty-and fitness-related labor (Black 2004;Gimlin 2002;Rooks 1996) and the 'dirty work' (Chang 1993;Hughes 1971) carried out by garbage collectors, cleaners, hospital orderlies, and the like, a larger proportion has been directed at the unpaid caring labor performed by women in the domestic sphere (Finch 1989;Finch and Groves 1980;Finch and Mason 1994;Morris 1980;Twigg 2006;Ungerson 1987;Widding Isaksen 2005), particularly by feminists motivated by a sense of 'injustice arising from the unequal burden of caring borne by women' (Twigg and Atkin 1994, 3). Such authors have argued that the responsibility for caring limits women's access to educational opportunities and economic resources and so perpetuates their subordinate position within the gender hierarchy.…”

“…Although sociologists long ignored the body, recent decades have witnessed a widespread and growing interest in the subject (e.g., Crossley 2001;Shilling 2003Shilling /1993Turner 1984Turner /1996. Various authors (Gimlin 2002;Kang 2003;Wolkowitz 2002Wolkowitz , 2006 have proposed 'body work' or 'body labor' as one way to further develop the sociology of the body. This article will provide an overview of the concept, including the different (although often overlapping) forms of body work that have been identified in the literature to date, i.e., body work as: (i) body/appearance work, (ii) body work/labor, (iii) body/emotion management, and (iv) body-making through work.…”

A qualitative study comparing commercial and health service weight loss groups, classes and clubs

“…The extent to which group-based interventions for weight management are applied in health service settings has not been quantified. In the private sector, commercial weight management groups are well established and some studies have explored the experiences of those attending them (Tod & Lacey, 2004;Gimlin, 2007;Hunt & Poulter, 2007;Herriot et al, 2008). By contrast, health service groups are sporadic and little is known about the perceptions and experiences of those attending or running them.…”

Embodied Experiences Associated with Obesity and the Management of Bodyweight. Gender and Social Differences

“…However, research suggests that concerns about being overweight are not uniform or evenly spread throughout populations. In contemporary Western societies a slim body ideal applies more to women than to men (Bordo, 1993), and it has been demonstrated that the social costs of obesity, measured by education, employment and income, are especially profound for women (Gimlin, 2007). Furthermore, being overweight has been found to have a more negative relationship with self-esteem among high socio-economic status (SES) individuals than among middle-and low-SES individuals (Miller & Downey, 1999).…”