‘What you look like is such a big factor’: Girls’ own reflections about the appearance culture in an all-girls’ school

Abstract

High school is a key venue for the development and expression of body image concerns in adolescent girls. Researchers have begun to investigate the role of school-based ‘appearance cultures’ in magnifying the body image concerns of students. To date, however, no research has examined girls’ experience as participants within these cultures, and thus the opportunity to learn how girls account for the development and maintenance of these cultures has been missed. In interviews with nine girls attending an all-girls’ school, the existence of a strong ‘appearance culture’ in the school was identified as a major influence on the body image concerns of students. Girls talked about the ways in which appearance-focused conversations, dieting, and weight monitoring occurred as part of the everyday interaction with friends and peers at school. They also identified many ways in which their school attempted to address body image concerns, although these attempts were often portrayed as ineffective, if not counter-productive. These findings suggest that attempts to address the body image concerns of students will need to be sensitive to the lived reality of appearance cultures within schools.

Metrosexual Masculinities

“…In R4's testimonial, time is marked as not having used this product for long -'just bought'; also, the product is for specific occasions -'It sure helps out for those crazy party weekends'. These references to time imply that cosmetic use is not daily; in other words, it is distinct from many women's daily cosmetics use (see: Carey et al, 2010;Dellinger & Williams, 1997). This distinguishing feature ties nicely with the activity of 'partying', presented as extreme ('crazy') -his (and also R3's) choice in using cosmetics is due to exceptional circumstances.…”

Peer Culture and Body Image Concern Among Australian Adolescent Girls: A Hierarchical Linear Modelling Analysis

“…For example, a study of adolescent girls in the UK found that these girls experience pressure within the school environment to evaluate their own and others' bodies in relation to the cultural thin-ideal (Rich and Evans 2008). In an Australian study, high school girls reported that appearance-focused conversations, appearance-based gossip, dieting, and weight monitoring formed a major part of their everyday interaction with friends at school (Carey et al 2011). Appearance-focused media has also been shown to be widely incorporated into the school-based interactions of adolescent girls; Clark and Tiggemann (2006) found that Australian high school girls regularly looked at fashion and celebrity magazines at school with their friends, and material in these magazines was a frequent topic of conversation.…”

“…Appearance-focused media has also been shown to be widely incorporated into the school-based interactions of adolescent girls; Clark and Tiggemann (2006) found that Australian high school girls regularly looked at fashion and celebrity magazines at school with their friends, and material in these magazines was a frequent topic of conversation. In addition to these mass media products, more recent Australian research shows that social media is another key site of adolescent girls' appearance conversations, with the pictures posted to MySpace and Facebook pages a routine subject of discussion and surveillance (Carey et al 2011;Tiggemann and Miller 2010). High levels of exposure to appearance-focused internet sites (such as MySpace) were found to be associated with weight dissatisfaction and increased drive for thinness (Tiggemann and Miller 2010).…”

“…The resistance to media influence that is the goal of many prevention programs may therefore be nurtured by the perception that one's peers share critical attitudes towards images presented in the media. Interventions targeted at the peer level could thus go some way towards reconciling the inconsistencies that adolescent girls have reported between the hopeful messages promoted by body acceptance programs offered in their schools and the lived reality of their day to day experiences with their friends (Carey et al 2011 Table 2 Items Assessing Friends' Concern with Thinness (from Paxton et al 1999) Item a Table 3 Descriptive Statistics (Mean, SD) …”

“…However, concerns about body dissatisfaction and eating disorders are often lost amid the louder public health warnings about the dangers of rising obesity in Australia, which has lead to the development of an intense focus on monitoring the bodies and eating habits of students in schools (Leahy 2009). Thus adolescent girls in Australian schools are subject to mixed messages about accepting versus controlling their bodies, and a climate of body surveillance in schools (Carey et al 2011;Leahy 2009).…”