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Gill, Henwood and McLean Body Projects and the Regulation of Normative Masculinity
Gill, Rosalind, Henwood, Karen and McLean, Carl (2005) Body projects and the regulation of normative masculinity. Body & society, 11 (1). pp. 37-62. ISSN 1357-034X Mens appearance: their own selves located within social, cultural and moral universes o Identity functions 37 Masculinity, identity and embodiment 38 o Mens body visible in the popular culture object of the gaze, eroticized, idealized body to be looked at (Mulvey) 39 we survey and consume others bodies credit to feminist and gay movements, consumerism journey from near invisibility to hypervisibility over a decade raising anxieties o Men defining themselves through their bodies as a result of the erosion of work as a source of identity (particularly working class) o High, late and post-modernity Desacralization of the social life Erosion of grand political narratives Rise of individualism and consumerism Ontological insecurity 40 Reflexive concern with the identity and the body We have become responsible for the design of our bodies Individualization of the body (Shilling) Meanings privatized, body as a bearer of symbolic value, symbolic capital o Means of claiming a place in the contemporary soc. (57) The superficial body focus on the body surface, the looks o Performance becomes semiotically divorced from the look Class important, reasons: o Social location o Formation of habitus o Development of individual tastes Somatic society, through body projects (Turner) The unfinished nature of bodies o Transforming and accomplishing as a part of work on the individuality o Lack of empirical research on the embodied identity 41 Theoreticism: Sociology has ignored the voices that emanate from the bodies themselves Problems with transcending the body-mind dualism Giddens: Bodies colonized by society, to be reconstructed in line with minds eye view of what they should look like 1

simon.fiala@seznam.cz o Deliberative nature of contemporary identities 44 Not enough focus on vibrant health, mostly concerned with experience of illness The discourses of mens embodied identity 44 o Being different: Individualism and the rebellious self Mostly unexplained, self-evident truth Expressive individualism Mens talks about their embodied identities saturated by the assumptions of individualism (57) o Grammar of individualism Explanation for various bodily practices, often contradictory A) rebel without a cause 45 Attack on uniformity and conformity Attachment to the notion of being different Sex Pistols heritage o Difference achieved through consuming, not through rejection of consumption o Being extremely wealthy so they can do whatever they want B) asserting autonomy 46 Independence in relation to all bodily practices as a central feature of hegemonic masculinity Denying influence from parents, teachers, friends, lovers, media Courage to be different Decorated body no longer important as an expression of group identity, rather individual identity 47 C) criticising other men Explicit and implicit contrast with the category of other men o Sheep-like, fake, conform o The libertarian self and the autonomous body Individuals right to do with their bodies whatever they want, needs to be defended 48 In regard of cosmetic surgery But as long as there is a good reason No awareness of social context of the pressures, strictly individual decision Authoritarian counter-position (58) o Rejecting vanity: The unselfconscious self Vain: An undesirable label for the interviewees Vanity perceived as a taboo a need to excuse bodily practices Instrumental explanations for the care Working out primarily to be healthy A desire for a cosmetic surgery to be based on reasonable grounds (52) o Very flexible o Medical categories used as the grounds vs. fantasy 2

simon.fiala@seznam.cz Very narrow space between the boundaries: Vanity vs. letting go Strong negative category in thinking about ones experiences of embodiment Well-balanced self vs. obsession 54 Obsession flexible negative category deployed to describe other men Not taking yourself too seriously as a strong imperative To be cool, have a distance, disinterest Self-respect and the morally responsible body 55 Man should take care of himself Body as a quasi-autonomous entity to be negotiated with Self-respect a way out of the vanity/letting go dilemma Responsibility to discipline ones own body Body as an indicator of self-discipline Fat symbolizing an unhealthy lifestyle Appropriate masculine behaviour being policed by the notions of vanity, obsession and letting oneself go 58 Body as a site for performance of masculinity and also for profound and intimate regulation Masculinity much defined by what it is NOT Inspiration by the new lad