The body as social marker: health, beauty and the valorization of bodily care among young women

Abstract

This article is part of a Master’s Dissertation which discusses some of the ways in which young women give meaning to, learn and experience care of the body in contemporary society. It is inscribed in the fields of gender studies and the sociology of health, and particularly within the critical strands that are aligned with a Foucaultian poststructuralist perspective. We employ the methodological approach known as discourse analysis to examine discussions with 18 girls between the ages of 13 and 15, students at a public school in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. They were members of focal groups that held meetings over a two month period during 2004. In the analyses resulting from this corpus of research, we have focused on a movement that allows for re-signifying the body as a powerful social marker in contemporary culture and society.