Workshop 1: Changing understandings of body image (4th & 5th March 2014)

5298_509_200_crop_14499Our first workshop is fast approaching, here is some more information on the types of discussions that will be taking place.

University of Warwick, hosted by Dr Fiona MacCallum (Psychology)

This workshop will consider changing body image. It will consider perceptions of ‘normal’, ‘healthy’ and ‘perfect’, conceptually, as they figure in the understandings of women’s and girls’ self images, and how they are understood in current practice and regulation. The extent to which the requirements of beauty are becoming more dominant for women of all types (and increasingly men); as the ‘minimal requirements’ extend and are required of more, perhaps all women (for instance, sportswomen, politicians and professionals). The way concepts function to support such demands will also be considered, for instance, deviance from normality is a criteria used to justify surgery. Such criteria both influence concepts of normality (as they define abnormal) and are also influenced by such concepts, as aesthetic concerns become medicalised.

Would you like to join the discussion? We'd love to hear from you - submit a post to the Beauty Demands Network here.

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