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Journal of Consumer Research, Inc.
Understanding the Socialized Body: A Poststructuralist Analysis of Consumers' Self-

Conceptions, Body Images, and Self-Care Practices
Author(s): Craig J. Thompson and Elizabeth C. Hirschman
Source: Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Sep., 1995), pp. 139-153
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
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Understanding the Socialized Body:
A Poststructuralist Analysis of Consumers'
Self-Conceptions, Body Images, and
Self-Care Practices
CRAIG J. THOMPSON
ELIZABETH C. HIRSCHMAN*
The present inquiry examines the psychosocial meanings and processes that shape
consumers' sense of body image and the consumption behaviors motivated by
those perceptions. Poststructuralist interpretive procedures were used to analyze
interviews with 30 male and female consumers, aged 6-54. This discourse analysis
led to the development of three process-orientated themes: (1) the ideology of self-
control, (2) the social processes of normalization and problematization, and (3) the
operation of the disciplinary gaze. The systematic manifestations of these themes
are illustrated across a range of consumer experiences and body-focused percep-
tions. Implications of these themes for the theoretical conceptualizations of body
image and the nature of self-concept in contemporary consumer culture are dis-
cussed.
Mind/body dualism is no mere philosoph-
ical proposition to be defended or dispensed
with by clever argument. Rather it is a
practical metaphysic that has been de-
ployed and socially embodied in medicine,
law, literary and artistic representations, the
psychological construction of the self, in-
terpersonal relationships, popular culture
and advertisements. (BORDO 1993, p. 14)
F or those socialized in a Western worldview, it seems
self-evident that each of us has a "mind" (or an
immaterial self) that is housed in a material body. This
mind observes its body, critiques its appearance and
form, and engages in activities-such as exercise, sur-
gery, dieting-to transform the body into a more desired
form. In this context, the promotional motifs of con-
structing one's desired look or to become free from un-
wanted characteristics have a powerful resonance
throughout contemporary consumer culture. This is
evidenced vividly by the several multi-billion-dollar in-
dustries that have an explicit body focus, such as diet
programs, fitness equipment and services, cosmetic
surgeries, diet- and health-oriented foods, diet and
health books and magazines, and the pervasive images
of idealized bodies (both male and female) that are used
to promote an even wider array of products and services.
Our research aim is to provide an understanding of
the processes by which these dualistic conceptions and
beliefs-diffused throughout modern consumer cul-
ture-shape the experiences, motivations, preferences,
and self-concepts of individual consumers. In exploring
this consumer-culture relationship, we have adopted the
interpretive orientation known as poststructuralism
(Culler 1982; Poster 1989). The opening quotation from
Bordo succinctly captures several key characteristics of
this interpretive orientation.
Poststructuralists accept-per more traditional ac-
counts-that Western societies and individual experi-
ences are structured by a variety of pervasive distinc-
tions, such as mind/body, rational/irrational, and male/
female. Rather than viewing these distinctions as re-
flecting inherent characteristics of reality, poststructur-
alists view them as social constructions situated in a
field of interpersonal relationships, cultural institutions,
economic interests, power relationships, gender rela-
tionships, class divisions, and other ordering principles
of social life (Bourdieu 1984). These distinctions-as
systems of cultural meanings-stand in a coconstituting
relationship with the social order. They provide "con-
ditions of intelligibility" that regulate how the society
may be rationally organized and which social differences
*Craig J. Thompson is assistant professor of marketing at the School
of Business, Grainger Hall, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis-
consin 53706. Elizabeth C. Hirschman is professor of marketing at
the School of Business, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
08903. The authors thank David Mick, Linda Scott, and Doug Holt
for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this article.
? 1995 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc. * Vol. 22 . September 1995
All rights reserved. 0093-5301/96/2202-0002$2.00
139
140 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH
are to be regarded as meaningful and/or appropriate.
Conversely, sociocultural institutions implement these
systems of cultural meaning through policies, laws,
knowledge statements, and technologies that shape and
transform the nature of social life (Dreyfus and Rabi-
now 1982).
We propose that a poststructuralist perspective on
the nature of body, self-concept, and consumer moti-
vations offers important conceptual and methodological
benefits to consumer research. From a theory-building
standpoint, our poststructuralist model provides a
framework for integrating three forms of interpretive
analysis that have been deployed productively in con-
sumer research. It follows the logic of hermeneutic re-
search by seeking to systematically highlight shared
cultural meanings that underlie the understandings ex-
pressed by individual consumers (Thompson, Pollio,
and Locander 1994). Second, our model incorporates
insights from research on the ideological dimensions of
consumption behavior (Hirschman 1993; Murray and
Ozanne 1991)-that is, the processes by which systems
of cultural meanings, values, and beliefs create and
propagate power relationships between social institu-
tions and individual consumers. Third, it makes use of
the logic of discourse analysis to interpret consumer
texts in relation to binary opposition and narrative
structures that have been established over the course of
consumer society's sociolinguistic history (Culler 1982).
Some of the questions that follow from this third logic
of interpretation include, What distinctions (if any) are
naturally drawn between self and body? How do those
distinctions affect consumer choices, activities, and
preferences? What types of rhetorical statements struc-
ture consumer understandings of their bodies and self-
conceptions? What key binary oppositions structure
consumers' self understanding? and What historical
linkages exist between consumers' perceptions and mo-
tivations and the cultural legacy of dualistically based,
socially shared meanings and practices?
In regard to substantive contributions, a poststruc-
turalist perspective on the body-as a text of cultural
meaning-offers important insights into the cultural
underpinnings of consumers' desires, motivations, and
the symbolic meanings they attach to products and ser-
vices (Joy and Venkatesh 1994). This poststructuralist
account holds important implications for research on
the use of consumption as a means to create self-identity
(Belk 1988; McCracken 1988). We further propose that
exploring the sociocultural influences of dualism offers
new insights into the historical processes by which con-
temporary consumer culture has emerged. Other con-
sumer phenomena that are situated within this web of
historical meanings and conventions include consumer
rituals of self-care (Rook 1985), consumers' pursuit of
beauty ideals (Bloch and Richins 1992), and dark-side
behaviors such as eating disorders (Hirschman 1991).
Finally, this research builds on an emerging stream of
consumer research that explores the sociohistorical
foundations of consumers' contemporary attitudes, be-
liefs, and behaviors (Belk 1992; Hirschman 1988;
Thompson et al. 1994).
A POSTSTRUCTURALIST ACCOUNT
OF THE SOCIALIZED BODY
Method of Data Collection and Analysis
Semistructured interviews (see, e.g., Hirschman 1992;
Mick and Buhl 1992; Thompson, Locander, and Pollio
1989) ranging from 30 minutes to two hours in length
were conducted with 30 consumers; 16 were female and
14 were male. The two 30-minute interviews were con-
ducted with children under age 10, whose attention
spans were short. All other interviews exceeded one and
one-half hours. The ages of the participants ranged from
6 to 54 and were roughly analogous for men and
women. With one exception (a woman of Asian descent)
all our participants were Caucasian. All participants
were members of middle and upper-middle socioeco-
nomic classifications. For reasons of confidentiality, all
participants are referred to by pseudonyms throughout
the article. Further, the participants' occupations are
described in terms of general occupational category
rather than specific job description.
Interviews were conducted by the researchers and two
research assistants who had been trained in interpretive
research methods. The research assistants were under-
graduate students (one male, one female) who had ex-
celled in an interpretive methods course taught by one
of the senior researchers, and both assistants were
working with this researcher on their honors thesis. Both
were given extensive instruction and supervision by the
senior researcher. Both are now employed by marketing
research firms as qualitative researchers.
With only four exceptions, researchers interviewed
persons of their own gender, because it was believed to
be more comfortable for the interviewer and participant
alike to discuss the intimate details of one's body within
a same-sex context. Participants were all acquaintances
of the researchers who interviewed them, which greatly
facilitated the natural flow of conversation. Participants
were assured of their anonymity and were given access
to their transcribed interviews for correction and/or
amplification. The interviews were transcribed verbatim
from audiotapes. However, any identifying names or
references were replaced with pseudonyms.
Prior to the interview, the researchers described the
purpose of the inquiry as an exploration of "self-image,
body image, and self-presentation." Interviewers had
in hand a six-topic outline of the areas to be covered,
which began with the general question: "Let's first talk
about your appearance. What parts of your appearance
do you like and/or dislike?" All those to whom we spoke
were able to respond to this, and several did so with
remarkable frankness, much as Schouten (1991) found
in his study of cosmetic surgery consumers. Over the
THE SOCIALIZED BODY 141
course of the interview, the researcher extended the dis-
cussion to include specific body parts that the partici-
pant liked or disliked, the participant's preferences and
beliefs regarding his/her apparel, food preferences and
beliefs, exercise practices and beliefs, and finally the
roles of the mass media, friends, and' family in influ-
encing his/her sense of body image.
Within these general topic areas, interviewers at-
tempted to phrase follow-up probes in concert with the
participants' descriptions. The planned interview for-
mat frequently had to be modified, because the partic-
ipants' descriptions tended to integrate these various
issues. Within the field of their understanding, body
image, appearance, apparel, food, and exercise were
most often described as an interrelated whole. During
the interviews, the participants appeared comfortable
and extremely interested in the topics presented.
In keeping with the poststructuralist perspective uti-
lized in the inquiry, the interviews provided socially
grounded discourse anchored in each participant's per-
ceptions of self as communicated-and constructed-
within a supportive dialogue.
As the interviewing process neared completion, a
second senior researcher was invited to join the project
to provide gender balance to the interpretive team. The
use of cross-gender research teams has been advocated
in consumer research as a means to increase sensitivity
to gender issues that are often manifested in consumer
texts and to provide better balance among differences
in interpretive perspectives that may derive from gender
(Bristor and Fischer 1993; Hirschman 1993; Stern
1993). The male and female senior researchers each read
through the entire set of 30 transcripts independently
on several occasions, in an effort to develop thematic
categories and to identify salient metaphors participants
used to describe perceptions of their bodies and related
consumer activities such as grooming, dieting, clothing
choices, health concerns, appearance anxieties, and ex-
ercise regimens.
Throughout this process, we talked with one another
on a regular basis about jointly discerned themes and
meanings. At the conclusion of the interpretive process,
the first draft of the complete manuscript was provided
to four participants (two women, two men) for their
comments, which are incorporated in the present article.
Simultaneously, comments were also sought from three
academic peers experienced in interpretive research
methods.
The conceptual model and interpretation presented
in this article reflects the culmination of a hermeneutic
process (Hirschman 1992; Thompson et al. 1994).
Methodologically, this logic was implemented by means
of a part-to-whole process in which researchers seek to
gain a holistic understanding of each interview tran-
script while also iteratively noting similarities and dif-
ferences across transcripts. In a more conceptual sense,
a hermeneutic logic also presumes that understanding
develops as earlier readings of a text serve to inform
later ones and, reciprocally, later readings recognize and
explore patterns that had not been previously noted.
Our interpretations were therefore neither fully deduced
in an a priori fashion nor induced in the classical sense;
rather, they emerged from an interplay between our
initial preconceptions and the insights and unexpected
results that arose through the actual conduct of the
study.
The genesis of the project was the proposition that
consumers' experiences and perceptions of their bodies
should have profound influences on their consumption
behaviors and the meanings attributed to products and
services relevant to body image issues. As the study un-
folded, not only was this proposition supported, but it
became clear that consumers' self-perceptions were
structured by a multitude of dualistic conceptions. We
then gravitated toward a poststructuralist orientation
to better understand the sociocultural underpinnings
of these dualistic consumer perceptions.
From a poststructuralist perspective, participant re-
flections are viewed as personalized expressions of larger
sociocultural discourses. Thus, the interpretive task be-
comes one of identifying the sociocultural conditions
that enable understanding to seem intelligible and/or
personally significant to the participants. Accordingly,
we sought to identify the key cultural meanings that
were expressed by the participants. This first level of
interpretation enabled the researchers to become im-
mersed in the interview transcripts and to develop a
reliable understanding of the experiences described by
the participants. We developed three binary themes that
highlighted the key experiential issues common to the
participants' understanding of their bodies, their self-
concepts, and the consumption activities directed at al-
tering or enhancing their sense of body image.
We then undertook a second level of analysis that
sought to situate these phenomenological themes within
a poststructuralist framework. The purpose of this sec-
ond level of analysis was to highlight cultural processes
that shaped these patterns of consumer meanings and
to provide a richer historical account of the taken-for-
granted cultural assumptions that were implicit to the
participants' viewpoints. The model that emerged from
this second stage of interpretation is presented in Figure
1. While our etic terms did not flow directly from the
data, we do feel that there are demonstrable linkages
between the etic concepts and the viewpoints expressed
by the participants. We therefore believe the etic ac-
count remains well grounded in the emic meanings ex-
pressed by the participants.
Before presenting the specific dimensions of the
model in detail, we would like to describe its general
logic. The model represents movement from abstract
levels of meaning to very specific consumer experiences
that we propose constitute the socialized body. The logic
of this organization is in keeping with McCracken's
(1988) meaning transfer model, which proposes that
cultural meanings constitute an abstract of systems of
FIGURE 1
A POSTSTRUCTURALIST MODEL OF THE SOCIALIZED BODY
The Social Construction of the Dualistic Self
Processes of Socio-Cultural Influence
PROCESSES OF NORMALIZATION THE OPERATION
OF~~~~~~~~~~
AND PROBEMIZATIN TIlE ISCIPLIARY GAZ
beliefs, values, and ideals that become experientially
real through their embodiment in specific consumer
activities, objects, and media images and icons. Al-
though the specific facets of the model can be distin-
guished in the interview data, we propose that they op-
erate in a simultaneous and mutually supportive
manner. For example, dualistic beliefs are manifested
in all facets of the model, but they operate at different
levels of specificity and harbor different implications
for consumer self-perceptions.
The dualistic metaphysic represented at the top of
the model refers to a system of fairly abstract assump-
tions and conceptions that constitute a culturally per-
vasive way of interpreting reality. This abstract system
of thought is in turn expressed in a wide array of specific
beliefs, social practices, culturally shared meanings, and
of particular interest to the present article, dualistic
conceptions of self. As we will show, this conception of
selfhood gives rise to a particular ethic of self-control
that emphasizes a moralistic obligation to control the
body through discipline and rationality. In this cultural
context, the body comes to be seen as a material object
distinct from one's essential self. For the participants
in this study, their desire to control the body as object
became entwined in a nexus of significant personal
meanings, anxieties, and, importantly, motivations to
use certain products, buy specific styles of clothes, and
engage in body-focused consumer practices, such as ex-
tensive dietary and exercise regimens.
The latter portions of the model denote specific pro-
cesses that shape the type of self-control that consumers
desire to assert over their bodies. As noted by Foucault
(1980), a person's sense of being a volitional subject
who can exercise self-control presupposes a high degree
of self-awareness. Conversely, this self-awareness arises
through socialization in cultural beliefs, standards, and
normative values that define the aspects of one's life
that should be controlled. Therefore, the self-aware
subject is simultaneously subject to a multitude of so-
ciocultural influences. These influences can range from
the pronouncements of culturally sanctioned experts
(such as medical doctors statements about healthy or
unhealthy eating habits) to subtle social pressures to
conform to a particular "look." A poignant illustration
of this latter form of sociocultural influence is offered
by the reflections of a 54-year-old male participant for
whom graying and thinning hair-a culturally salient
sign of aging-evoked insecurities over his profes-
sional standing. As he stated, "It's always a problem
as you get older that people say, 'hey, you are an old-
timer, you're ready to go out the door.' And people are
being asked to retire all the time and leave for other
reasons. There's always a pressure to keep a younger
look on."
In the following sections, texts from the interview
dialogues will be used to illustrate and support each
aspect of the model. As we will show, this complex of
cultural processes can invest seemingly minor losses of
self-control (e.g., "bingeing" on a bag of potato chips
or skipping a planned workout) with a high degree of
symbolic importance. Second, they inspire a consumer
orientation that tends to magnify the significance of
physical changes and deviations from culturally ideal-
ized body types.
The Dualistic Metaphysic and Its
Somatophobic Couplets
Dualism has been one of the most widely discussed
and debated philosophical distinctions in the Western
intellectual tradition (Derrida 1982). Its genesis is often
traced to the works of sixteenth-century philosopher
and mathematician Rene Descartes. Accordingly, the
terms dualism and Cartesianism are frequently treated
as near synonyms. While offering a convenient histor-
ical summary, the tendency to treat dualism as Des-
cartes's invention greatly oversimplifies its sociohistoric
genealogy (Foucault 1978). Although dualism as a co-
herent philosophical system was most clearly articulated
by the major philosophers of the Enlightenment era, as
a practical metaphysic, it presides over a system of cul-
tural distinctions that have long structured everyday
life in Western culture (Romanyshyn 1989).
From this poststructuralist perspective, standard
conceptions of "mind," "self," and "body" are regarded
as social constructions (rather than directly reflecting
states of reality) that have been formed, perpetuated,
and transformed through cultural discourses and the
activities they motivate (Bourdieu 1984; Foucault
1980). As a few examples, mind/body divisions have
served as structuring concepts for Western medical sci-
ence (Romanyshyn 1989), socioeconomic divisions be-
tween labor and professional classes (Bourdieu 1984;
Hirschman 1993), the social construction of gender
identities (Bordo 1993), and a plethora of promotional
themes (Featherstone 1991). In regard to this latter cul-
tural domain, salient illustrations of dualism-as a
practical metaphysic-are offered by the ubiquitous
images of observable, objectified bodies (and body parts)
commonly found in commercial advertisements (Ewen
1988; Firat 1991), the ideology of "mind over body"
widely espoused in weight-loss and self-help programs
(Spitzack 1990), and the multitude of products and
medical procedures promoted as a means to enhance
the appearance of the body (Gergen 1991; Schouten
1991; Wolf 1991).
Figure 1 presents some of the key distinctions that
make up this long-standing cultural orientation. As
noted by Berman (1989), a commonality among these
various distinctions is a kind of "somatophobia," that
is, a fear that a person's "essential" nature (i.e., spirit,
mind, selfhood) remains trapped in a material body
fully subject to the forces of nature. From this perspec-
tive, dualistic thinking manifests a desire to escape the
body and the forces that operate on it. From the Platonic
view that truth and beauty exist in an unchanging realm
of disembodied ideals, to the Judeo-Christian ideal of
an eternal spiritual life free from the limits of the body,
to contemporary conceptions of the mind as the center
of personal identity, the Western intellectual tradition
expresses a longing for a disembodied transcendence.
Each of the dualistic couplets shown in Figure 1 has
been culturally scripted in a manner such that one side
of the dualistic division is ascribed a controlling and/
or dominant status over its opposing complement (Joy
and Venkatesh 1994). This dualistic orientation un-
derlies a pervasive cultural ideology of control in which
the rational, masculinized self uses its knowledge and
technologies to manage and control the other side of
the dualities. Researchers adopting a more critical ori-
entation have shown how this ideology of control has
manifested itself through socioeconomic and political
disparities between men and women and the bourgeois
and working classes (Hirschman 1993). For present
purposes, however, we would like to focus on the more
psychologically based manifestations that result from
the specific couplet of mind/body.
Dualism and the Ideology of Self-Control
As noted by Dinnerstein (1976), the "mucky, hum-
bling, limitations of the flesh" have always stood in
contrast to our intellectual capacity to envision an ex-
istence that transcends the constraints of our biology.
From a dualistic view, the body that changes in un-
wanted ways and eventually deteriorates over time is
readily seen as a natural object to be controlled by rea-
son, knowledge, and technology. To those socialized in
a dualistic belief system, this desire to resist the forces
of nature (particularly aging) may seem self-evident and
in need of no further explanation.
However, this "natural" desire is contingent on three
primary sociocultural values and beliefs that follow
from the ethic of control implicit in the dualistic cou-
plets previously noted. The first is the long-standing
cultural idealization of youthfulness; to be forever
young is perhaps the most commonly expressed form
of the desire to transcend the limits of the body. Second
is the dualistic view of the individual as an essential self
whose true identity is not constrained by the body in
which s/he is housed. In a culture that values youth, it
is expectable that our essential transcendent selves
would also happen to be constructed in youthful terms.
Third is the Cartesian ideal that knowledge (and the
technology it inspires) not only allows the natural world
to be controlled by the rational realm, but also liberates
the transcendent self from the various forces of nature.
In contemporary Western culture, individuals have
been ascribed a near moral imperative to use knowledge
144
JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH
for the productive purpose of managing the forces of
nature. Although this technocratic legacy is now being
increasingly challenged, the desire to control nature
through technological intervention is central to Western
conceptions of resource management, economic de-
velopment, and medical science, to name a few prom-
inent manifestations (Gergen 1991; Romanyshyn
1989). Furthermore, a great many consumption activ-
ities reflect a desire to control natural forces, particularly
those resulting from the inevitable passage of time and
the equally inevitable prospect of aging and eventually
dying (Belk 1988). From the consumption of hair-col-
oring products, hair-loss remedies, skin-care products
designed to obscure signs of aging, and finally cosmetic
surgery, the culturally pervasive desire to control the
process of aging has been translated into a multi-billion-
dollar cosmetic industry (Scott 1993a; Wolf 1991).
This cultural bifurcation between an enduringly
youthful inner self and the aging body underlies a con-
sumption ideology in which the use of products and
services offered by the cosmetic, beauty, medical, and
fitness industries is portrayed as a decision to take con-
trol of one's life and reconstruct a youthful appearance
(Bordo 1993; Scott 1993a). These promotional dis-
courses reiterate that the correct lifestyle and the correct
application of consumer technologies offer a means to
resist the forces of nature that might otherwise affect
the body. This cultural orientation also renders the pas-
sive acceptance of "natural bodily deterioration and
the bodily betrayals that accompany aging . . . as signs
of moral laxitude" (Featherstone 1991, p. 178). This
dualistic orientation can be seen in the reflections of
Evelyn, a professional woman in her mid-fifties:
Evelyn. I'm getting a bit on the wrinkled side. I'm con-
sidering plastic surgery. What's stopping me from it is
cowardice, actually.
Interviewer. Tell me what all you've thought about so
far.
Evelyn: What I've considered really is a face-lift and
eyes. . . . About three years ago I went to my ophthal-
mologist and asked him to recommend a plastic surgeon,
which he did. I went to see the plastic surgeon, who de-
scribed the face lift. I then decided that I would never go
in to do that.
Interviewer: What was it that happened?
Evelyn. It was terrifying. This is real major surgery.
You need zillions of stitches and staples and God knows
what. And it's a long recovery period. This is a real op-
eration. This is not minor stuff. Nipping and tucking is
a really inappropriate way of describing it. It's big-time
surgery.
Interviewer: Was it the surgery you were afraid of or
the recovery time?
Evelyn. It was the pain from the stitches. It was the
pain and the stitches, yeah, that scared me, because I've
had surgical procedures on my face and it's very traumatic
and it is, the skin is very painful. So I decided that that
wasn't it. But now I'm rethinking it. I'm contemplating
it again. I found a plastic surgeon and I think I would be
happy with her. So I'm giving it some thought. It's on
the table as an idea. I would like the results. It really is
the pain that I'm afraid of.
This passage expresses Evelyn's desire to recapture a
more youthful appearance and the anxieties over the
physical trauma that such a transformation entails.
Underlying this desire and anxiety are a series of taken-
for-granted cultural discourses. The first is the ideal of
controlling the body and its related sense of moral ob-
ligation to do so. Thus, her hesitancy to pursue this
technological means of body control is construed as a
sign of cowardice, rather than as a rational concern over
its pain, risks, and a potentially long period of conva-
lescence. Second is the cultural idealization of feminine
beauty that imposes an even stricter set of demands on
women to maintain a more youthful appearance (Bordo
1993). In her interview, Evelyn clearly expressed a sen-
sitivity to these cultural demands, particularly in regard
to her body shape. However, her consideration of facial
surgery seemed more directly tied to a sense of main-
taining control rather than conforming to aesthetic
standards; that is, she perceived facial wrinkles as a sign
of a body out of control:
Interviewer: Is your face an important feature to you?
Evelyn: No.... I'm convinced that people never
look at your face anymore. I'm convinced that people,
particularly men, look at your body. I'm absolutely con-
vinced of it. So my face isn't that important but the wrin-
kles are starting to bother me. I'm getting more of them.
They're more obvious. They're multiplying and also get-
ting bigger. Growing and multiplying at the same time.
So, I think it might be fix-up time.
Throughout the history of Western culture, the state
of one's body has been interpreted as a material sign of
the moral character "within" (Foucault 1978). In con-
temporary consumer culture, consumers' perceived re-
sponsibilities include careful monitoring and control-
ling not only of the physical appearance of their bodies,
but also of the various foods, substances, and environ-
mental conditions to which their bodies are exposed.
From a poststructuralist perspective, contemporary
cultural discourses, manifested in both scientific texts
and marketing promotions, that articulate an associa-
tion between illness and personal responsibility have
engendered a form of self-understanding whereby it is
natural to experience feelings of guilt for eating "in-
correctly," not exercising, and being overweight, and,
reciprocally, to view these behaviors as signifying a lack
of will, discipline and self-control:
What happens is I'll eat food I shouldn't and I'll pay the
price because I'll see it in my mind that I'll put on weight.
Then I'll feel guilty and get mad at myself for eating that
food. It's a cycle. I try to resist food and I find myself
giving in more at school because I'll go longer between
meals. I'll be so hungry and the easiest thing to eat is
something real bad for me.... I'm a very extremist
person. I just can't have potato chips, I have to have the
whole bag. All or none. (Frank, age 20)
For Frank, junk food is experienced as a temptation
that he cannot consistently resist and as a source of
guilt. His cycle of disciplined resistance and then
"bingeing on junk" (a term he uses elsewhere) has be-
come embedded in his self-conception of being an
"extremist person" who cannot fully control his im-
pulses and desires. In our interviews, male and female
consumers who perceived themselves as being over-
weight (even slightly) frequently described feelings of
guilt and anxiety over their lack of control. This ex-
perience of guilt echoes Ehrenreich's (1989) proposal
that the deep fear of failing-the failure to live up to
the cultural ideal of controlling one's life-is expressed
in a variety of bodily focused anxieties. Thus, the "soft,"
overweight body betrays a failure to discipline and con-
trol one's life.
Entanglement in Knowledge Systems
Owing to our cultural heritage, it is conventional to
view knowledge and technology as empowering and
liberating forces (Foucault 1980). Accordingly, the
knowledge claims offered by scientific research are cus-
tomarily viewed as guidelines to which rational indi-
viduals should scrupulously adhere. This orientation
reflects the Enlightenment ideal of a society organized
in accord with the rules of logic and the prescriptions
of scientific knowledge (Romanyshyn 1989). From this
Enlightenment perspective, knowledge empowers in-
dividuals to take control of their life circumstances.
Poststructuralist analyses, however, indicate that this
Enlightenment conception fails to address the operation
of power that occurs through knowledge systems (Fou-
cault 1980). Thus, poststructuralists are neither for nor
against scientific knowledge. Rather, they simply note
that the inevitable consequence of knowledge is not lib-
eration and empowerment-as commonly supposed-
but rather entanglement in the web of practices, beliefs,
and technologies that knowledge inspires. The logic of
this poststructuralist view is illustrated in the following
commentary by Gergen (1991, p. 15):
Recently, I received an invitation to mental health work-
ers for a conference on addiction. "Addictive behavior
is arguably the number one health and social problem
facing our country today," the announcement read.
"Some of the leading researchers in the field will present
the state of the art research, theory, and clinical inter-
ventions across the addictions: exercise, religion, eating,
work and sex." A century ago people could engage in all
these behaviors without questioning their mental and
emotional stability. If immersions in exercise, religion,
eating, work and sex are questionable today, what will
be left untouched tomorrow?
The issue to which Gergen speaks is that the knowl-
edge claims of the medical and social sciences are trans-
lated into a vast system of linguistic categories, bureau-
cratic documentation, normative prescriptions, and
prohibitions against certain activities. From a post-
structuralist orientation, the key issue is not whether
scientific knowledge is true or whether it allows con-
sumers to better control certain facets of their daily lives
or health. Rather, the interest is in showing how the
ideals and practices that are ostensibly advocated as
tools of control give rise to patterns of social organi-
zation that in turn exert control over the self-perceptions
and actions of those living within them (Dreyfus and
Rabinow 1982).
Nowhere is the dynamic between knowledge and the
sociocultural operation of power more evident than in
consumption contexts. Appeals to the social and med-
ical sciences have served as a major source of promo-
tional messages, particularly since the late nineteenth
century (Gusfield 1992). Many consumer actions are
motivated by culturally sanctioned knowledge claims
regarding how consumption can be used to control the
health and/or appearance of the body (Glassner 1990).
This theme was quite evident in consumers' descrip-
tions, as in the following excerpt from Susan, age 38:
Susan: I have lost 34 pounds recently, and part of it
was that I watch my saturated fat very closely. So we [she
and her spouse] eat more in terms of fruits and vegetables,
and chicken, and, we don't eat a lot of egg products or
meats because of the fat and cholesterol. We just try to
eat a healthy diet. We eat very few chips anymore. We
cut back a lot on fatty things. I use Molly McButter. I
never buy real butter. I buy a lot of Weight Watchers
products, that's probably one of the biggest changes that
I made. Because they have very little fat. There's a history
of heart problems in my family, so I wanted to lower my
fat intake.
Interviewer: Was there anything in particular that pre-
cipitated your deciding, "Well I'm going to change my
buying habits and going to change my diet?"
Susan: Mostly my weight. I was never big. When my
husband and I got married I wore a size three, and with
each child I retained about ten pounds more than I really
wanted to and all of a sudden I woke up one morning
and decided I was tired of being fat. That and the fact
that my husband and I are older and we realized that
some of the things that we could eat and not worry about
when we were younger, you know, we probably needed
to make some changes. The main thing was I wanted to
lose weight. I thought it would be good for all of us, my
children included, to change our eating habits. There's
so many studies about children eating the same kinds of
foods that their parents eat. I mean, what they're fed as
children are the things that they tend to want to eat as
adults. And I didn't want them growing up and being
fat. (Lautgh.)
For anyone even remotely aware of contemporary
public discourses on health and diet, this passage is
completely understandable and indeed commonsensi-
cal. Underlying this straightforward meaning is an in-
tricate network of cultural discourses and associations
concerning the authority of science and the social con-
struction of "good" foods that can be freely consumed
and "bad" foods that symbolize a threat to health and
indeed pollute the body. For example, the phrase "I
never buy real butter" conveys that this item is per-
ceived as an icon of those foods forbidden by the pre-
scriptions of medical science.' In this narrative, Weight
Watchers is the contrasting, rationally justifiable "good"
that can be consumed without the guilt of threatening
the body or transgressing the prescriptions of scientific
authority.
In this passage, fat (both on her body and in food)
stands as a threat to Susan's sense of control and well-
being. Her gradual weight gain is described not only as
an unwanted transformation, but as a sign of a body
(and life) not appropriately controlled. Furthermore,
aging is seen as an uncontrollable process that creates
physical changes that, in turn, necessitate a more vig-
ilant control of one's diet. By carefully monitoring and
controlling fat, Susan regained a sense of controlling
her own body, her own health, and even the future phy-
siques and health of her children.
As noted by Glassner (1990), this self-evident, "ra-
tional" linkage between one's current consumption
pattern and the future state of one's health (and ap-
pearance) echoes the legacy of Christian asceticism and
its promise of eventual reward for resisting the temp-
tations of the flesh. Thus, the view that one should live
in accord with the pronouncements of science and
moralistic conceptions concerning the temptations of
the flesh have frequently coalesced into a mutually sup-
portive cultural system of belief. One manifestation of
this system is that a sizable amount of research evidence
questioning the assumed benefits of exercise and weight
control-increased longevity and decreased incidence
of disease-has simply failed to captivate the "public
mind" (see Glassner 1990; Schwartz 1986; Solomon
1985).
This legacy gives rise to an important paradox of
contemporary culture whereby some advertising and
promotional activities represent certain products (par-
ticularly foods) as tempting, desirable goods while others
(and other types of cultural discourse) portray their
consumption in ways that inspire feelings of guilt and
anxiety:
I'm not a health freak in terms of the food that I eat.
[Although] I'm getting better actually. I don't drink as
much soda and I try to cut back on some things. But I
definitely don't look at what my food intake is. I still eat
chicken wings. . . . I'd like to get better, I'd like to watch
what I eat. Not in terms of my weight, but in terms of
health. That is something that concerns me. I'm a young
guy and everyone feels that invincibility. [But] I look at
my dad. My dad is about 47 and I look at all the things
he has to watch. He can't eat beef anymore. He has to
watch his cholesterol intake. I wish I could sit down and
watch what I eat now because I know later it will help.
(Sam, age 22)
Sam's view of his eating habits and their likely con-
sequences is enmeshed in common cultural norms con-
cerning what foods are good and bad (e.g., soda, chicken
wings). While he desires to follow these normative pre-
scriptions, he views himself as still somewhat out of
control (e.g., "I definitely don't look at what my food
intake is"). In this context, the pejorative sense that
might accompany the term "health freak" is moderated
by the connotation of being an ideal (of self-control)
that Sam would like to move closer to.
This ideal evokes a belief that delaying gratification in
the present will be rewarded in the future. This belief is
central to the Judeo-Christian tradition and has been
reinforced throughout our cultural history (Bordo 1993;
Glassner 1990). For Sam, an experience-near manifesta-
tion of this cultural belief is the image of his 47-year-old
father, which looms ominously as a foreshadowing of his
own future self. In this case, the uncontrolled consumption
of bad foods is seen as having precipitated an array of
unwelcome consumption restrictions. The moral impli-
cation of this narrative is clear: exerting more self-control
in the present will be rewarded with more freedom, better
health, and enjoyment of life later on.
In other interviews, this ethos was manifested through
preferences for diet products and desires to work out
more vigorously after having lost control of one's food
consumption. These meanings and associations are not
contingent on the actual truth of the scientific claims.
For example, recent research has suggested that real
butter may be healthier than margarine, which con-
tributes to higher levels of the newest identified dietary
threat to health-free radicals in the blood stream (Sizer
and Whitney 1994). The history of nutritional and
medical research has been marked by many such re-
versals and changes in received opinion. For those who
build lifestyles around these pronouncements, such
shifts can be quite unsettling. One example of such an
experience is offered in the following passage:
I've had problems with cholesterol in the past several
years. It is kind of interesting. I guess it was three or four
years [ago], I did that health check and had my cholesterol
tested. It was like 257 and that indicates that I've got a
problem with cholesterol. So I made an appointment with
my doctor and he said, "Yeah, that's what your choles-
terol was two years ago," and I went, "Well, why is ev-
erybody all of a sudden saying that I have a problem?"
"Well it used to be that they thought 300 was a normal
cholesterol, and now they've decided that 200 is better
for you." So, I went from being not at risk, to being at
risk. It was like, "Oh, this is great, medical science changes
its mind, right in midstream, and I have to change my
eating habits. This is wonderful!" (Alice, age 44)
'From an etic reading, this understanding may also manifest a jux-
taposition of science as a moral authoritv and the sense of sacredness
that animates many consumer meanings (Belk, Wallendorf, and
Sherry 1989). Specifically, the body is rendered a sacred temple
whereas fat (in foods such as butter), despite being "natural," has
been sanctioned as an impure contaminant. In the context of other
social narratives, however (such as the natural foods movement), the
phrase "real butter" could evoke a sense of being a pure substance
rather than being a pollutant (e.g., a source of saturated fats).
The Normalized and Problematized Body
The previous passage from Alice illustrates a phe-
nomenon of particular interest to poststructuralist the-
orists; the processes by which the culture at large estab-
lishes conceptions of the normatively acceptable body
and, conversely, renders problematic physical traits that
deviate from the normative standards (Joy -and Ven-
katesh 1994). One major source of normalization is, of
course, medical science. However, mass media also play
a major role in establishing these normative standards.
Whereas the "norm" often evokes the notion of an av-
erage, the normative body constructed by mass media
images is far from any sense of the average body. Rather,
media images have normalized cultural ideals of phys-
ical beauty and, conversely, problematize any devia-
tions from these ideals (Bordo 1993). Consider the fol-
lowing reflection:
I never felt that I looked right. The styles that I always
want to wear, I always feel like I look fat. I always have
to wear like a long skirt or sweater or at least baggy pants
and a tight shirt. Like I can see outfits that I'd love to
wear, but I know that I could never wear them. I probably
could wear them and get away with it, but I'd be so self-
conscious walking around that I'd be like, "Oh, my God."
Like I always try to look thinner and I guess everybody
does. (Linda, age 2 1)
In accord with this self-critical view of the body, the
consumers to whom we spoke could readily provide an
extensively detailed inventory of the relative attrac-
tiveness of their body parts. A typical account of this
personal inventory is offered by Angela, an 18-year-old
high school senior:
I am pretty content with my hair because I have good
hair. I have good eyesight (laughs) so I don't have to wear
glasses or anything that would make my face look dif-
ferent from what it is. In terms of bad points, well there
is a lot. I got a lot of my father's features. I wish I had
more of my mother's. My hands are pretty square. I have
a kind of a big butt. Then, I don't have that great of a
stomach. I like my arms. They're not flabby, like you see
a lot of people with flabby arms. I like my ankles. It
sounds really stupid, but a lot of people have like these
trunks and its very unattractive. So, I don't have huge
fat ankles. One thing I really hate is that I have large
calves, which I don't like.
Although the objectifying processes of normalization
and problematization have been most widely discussed
in relation to women, our interviews suggest that they
are also manifested in men's perceptions of their bodies:
Benjamin. The biggest thing that I notice in recent
years is if I'm naked and looking in the mirror, I really
don't like the way my waist has changed.
Interviewer: What's happened?
Benjamin: Well, it's not like it's that big a change really,
but it's just kind of harder to keep . . . I don't know
how to describe it, it's like sort of over the sides of my
hips, I feel like there's more flesh than there used to be,
and I don't like it. So when I put on pants sometimes, I
can sort of feel that, you know, oh well, I don't really
like that. And abdominal, you know, like the lower ab-
domen, it's just harder to kind of keep tight. (Benjamin,
age 40)
As with many participants, the image of the "tight,"
"toned," "shaped" body served as the normalized con-
ception of the body and even modest signs of sagging
(such as extra flesh or wrinkles) was experienced as a
problematic development. In the following passage, a
female consumer reflects on her recent loss of 35
pounds. She invokes a common cultural metaphor that
portrays her "real," heavier self as lurking within her
more slender body. She experiences her body as an in-
herently problematic entity that she must continuously
struggle against in order to retain her new-found slim-
ness:
It's hard because I know underneath it all, I am still the
same old person. You know, I am still the bottomless pit
that I always was and I know now that I've lost this weight
it's going to be really hard for me to keep it off, and it's
something that I am going to have to struggle with for
the rest of my life, because I've always struggled with it.
I just have to change my whole mentality, the way that
I see food and everything, so it's hard. (Melissa, age 21)
As Cash (1990, p. 63) writes, "Being overweight or
obese is a highly stigmatizing condition in our society
throughout the lifespan." The cultural stigma attached
to those who substantially deviate above implicit body
weight norms often includes the attribution that these
individuals have not exerted sufficient effort and self-
care to avoid such a condition (Fallon 1990). This per-
spective is clearly expressed in the following reflection
from Marcia, a 40-year-old businesswoman:
I mean, you have to look presentable. Like you are turned
off by an overweight news anchor, whether he or she is
male or female. It just looks sloppy. . . . They're not
disciplined or, I guess, they don't care enough about
themselves to protect their health and their well-being.
So you think, well, if they can't take care of themselves,
how can they manage this project?
This attribution can be contrasted to the experiences
of several consumers who saw themselves as having a
weight problem. From their perspective, the problem-
atic condition was often described as being a matter of
genetics rather than a lack of effort, discipline, or self-
care. Nonetheless, they were also aware that others
would often view them as having undesirable character
traits. In either case, our cultural heritage has rendered
the visibly overweight body as a problematic condition
that must be the target of accusation or justification.
These consumer perceptions echo historical analysis
indicating that bodily appearance has often been inter-
preted as symbolizing the moral character of the self
(Fallon 1990). In the spirit of a Calvinistic ethos, our
culture is predisposed to believe that a person's body
size reflects his/her level of self-discipline and work ethic
(see Glassner 1990).
The process of problematization is not restricted,
however, to weight or visible signs of aging. Any devia-
tion from idealized cultural standards can be experi-
enced as a problem having significant personal conse-
quences. Let us also consider the words of Elsa, an
18-year-old, who has purposely styled her hair to cover
a mole at the top of her forehead:
To me it's not there, it's hidden. My bangs cover
it . . . purposely. . During the summer I do not
wear any bangs and you can see it a little bit. Just like
two weeks ago I went swimming and my girlfriend and
her parents, they saw it, and they were laughing, but that
kind of makes me feel self-conscious only because it's on
my head and it's there for life. And it's not really that
I'm self-conscious about it, it's just that people don't
know what to make of it. I say it's a beauty mark, because
that's what it is. So, I don't know, it's just the fact that
people are staring at it is what I don't like. Not that it
matters, you know what I'm saying.
Although Elsa undertakes grooming practices to
physically and symbolically conceal the existence of this
mole-"to me its not there"-its prominent location
often undermines her camouflaging efforts. Although
she tries to normalize its presence by noting that it is a
beauty mark, her comment "people don't know what
to make of it" reflects that problematization entails a
sense of social relatedness. When the usually unseen
mole is suddenly glimpsed by those unaware of its pres-
ence on her face, she experiences a discomforting sense
of objectification in which her public self becomes re-
duced to this physical attribute. Her ambivalence over
this state of affairs manifests the me/not me paradox
fostered by a dualistic worldview. In one sense, public
visibility of her mole does not matter, because it is only
a superficial attribute but, on the other hand, she cannot
fully extricate her essential self from the mark that is
being gazed on.
The following reflection offered by a young woman
recovering from an eating disorder reveals where per-
ceived changes in one's body contribute to a pernicious
cycle of normalization and problematization:
Melissa: It didn't make me feel bad or grossed out, it
made me feel good. Thank God I got that [food] out of
me. When I'd be stuffed and I'd be EWWW, I've got all
this fat inside me and then I'd throw it up and be like,
God I hope I got it all out. Like I would make myself
throw up eight times just to make sure that I got it all
out of me. I did it on Thanksgiving Day last year just so
I could go back again and eat more and then throw up
again, and it's not even that I am eating that much, it's
just that I realize that I couldn't eat the way all of my
friends did. I have a lot of thin friends and they eat a lot
and they don't gain weight. I have no metabolism so I
just couldn't eat the way that I wanted to, but I did any-
way.
Interviewer: So then you would go to throw up?
Melissa: It just seemed so easy. It seemed like wow,
I'll eat that and then I'll just throw it up and it's like I
never ate it. It's like I can eat something without gaining
weight from it. It just seemed like the easiest way. (Mel-
issa, age 21)
This passage highlights the intense desire for self-
control exhibited by individuals with eating disorders.
In a consumer culture that is marked by the competing
images of idealized slimness and the idealization of food
(and the "sensualization" of eating), bulimia sadly can
be experienced as an easy and even empowering alter-
native. The increasingly prevalent incidence of eating
disorders among young women is a complex psycho-
social dilemma that defies reduction to a particular set
of theoretical concepts (see Chernin 1981; Hirschman
1992). Nonetheless, Melissa's description does suggest
that cultural narratives of normalization and proble-
matization are implicated in this dark-side consumption
phenomenon. Her reasoning also reveals a pernicious
logic of problematization: her body lacks the metabo-
lism of others and does not allow her to stay as thin as
her other friends, even though she is not eating as much.
Thus the act of purging the food becomes a way of nor-
malizing her body. Analogously, food is rendered as a
problematic substance-the fat inside her-and eating,
experienced as a feeling of being "stuffed," then be-
comes a type of transgression. Purging food from her
body serves as a symbolic form of purification that re-
turns the self to a more ideal state.
From a poststructuralist perspective, Melissa's state-
ment "God, I hope I got it all out of me" may well be
more than an idle figure of speech. As noted by Foucault
(1979) and others (Spitzack 1990), Western culture has
a long tradition of confessional practices by which in-
dividuals seek to acknowledge and then redeem them-
selves for perceived violations of the moral code. In this
cultural context, it is natural for the Western consumer
(of either gender) to feel impelled to engage in acts of
atonement to assuage and perhaps erase the feelings of
guilt that ensue from moral violations.
Historical research also suggests that the relationship
between eating and the perceived need to engage in
confessional practices is particularly strong for women,
owing to long-standing cultural meanings concerning
femininity and the control of appetite (Spitzack 1990).
As noted by Bordo (1993), American consumer culture
continuously reinforces that men have hearty appetites
and can indulge food with a passion whereas women's
consumption of food is more constrained and subdued
(i.e., ladylike). For example, food advertisements tar-
geted to women frequently appeal to the guilt of in-
dulging in food, and then offer a wondrous product that
can be consumed in a guilt-free manner, such as Weight
Watchers desserts or Mon Cherie candies, which sym-
bolize an acceptable, "small" self-indulgence. In this
cultural context, it is not surprising that eating can ac-
quire a taboo quality for women (see Bordo 1993;
Chernin 1981; Spitzack 1990).
The Disciplinary Gaze
The moralistic quality that we propose is implicit in
many consumers' experiences of controlling (or not
THE SOCIALIZED BODY
149
controlling) their bodies speaks to a series of issues that
are encompassed by the poststructuralist concept of the
disciplinary gaze (or panopticism). Foucault (1979) of-
fered this term to characterize a type of social control
that ensues from the feeling of being under constant
surveillance. Under these conditions, the individual
becomes his/her own agent of surveillance conforming
to normative conventions even when not being actually
observed by another. Foucault (1979) traced the origin
of this concept, to a plan for prison design advocated
by the eighteenth-century social philosopher Jeremy
Bentham. In this architectural layout, inmates were to
be isolated in individual cells that could be monitored
from a central observation point. Importantly, the cells
were designed so that inmates could not tell whether
they were actually being observed. The intended effect
was that inmates would act as though they were always
being monitored and, in consequence, become their
own disciplinarians.
Foucault proposed that the disciplinary gaze has
emerged as a major ordering principle of modern social
life. In this contemporary form, it describes "ongoing and
continuous processes which subject our bodies, govern
our gestures, dictate our behaviors, etc." (1980, p. 97).
The disciplinary gaze is an objectifying and moralistic
one that exists everywhere and nowhere. That is, it is
diffused throughout our tacit cultural knowledge of how
we should look, our nearly automatic tendency to ob-
serve and categorize a person as attractive, unattractive,
overweight, and so on, and the pervasive feelings of
anxiousness and even guilt that can so often affect a
person who recognizes that s/he has deviated from a
disciplinary norm. One early manifestation of this pro-
cess in contemporary consumer culture is the natural
foods movement of the mid- 1800s. Leading advocates,
such as Sylvester Graham and J. H. Kellogg, wrote and
lectured extensively on the potential threats to body
and soul that would result from eating the wrong foods,
indulging in carnal pleasures, not exercising, and other
modes of "soft" (i.e., sinful) living (Kimmel 1994).
Thus, the disciplinary gaze differs from the drama-
turgical presentation of self (Goffman 1959)-the most
well-known model of identity management-because
it assumes that behaviors unfold within a self-discipli-
nary matrix, rather than a public stage of roles that
actors enter and exit. As illustrated in the following
passage, the disciplinary gaze has less to do with pre-
senting a desirable image than avoiding the ridicule,
guilt, or other forms of emotional distress that result
from being seen or revealed as deviant:
I would never wear a shirt tucked in. . . . I always wore
it out because I was afraid that my waist was
big. .. Like I must have weighed like 110 pounds all
through high school and I was like five one and I thought
I was a big fat pig. Then I came to college and gained the
"freshman 15" and I've fluctuated back and forth since
I've been here. Every summer I end up going home or
going somewhere and getting on a routine and working
out and I'd lose a good 10 pounds every summer and
feel really good about myself. Then [I] come back to
school and lose the routine and gain all the weight back.
Every year it's the same thing. I feel like I'm cursed. I've
always worried about my body, and I think that I'm def-
initely one of those people that thinks I'm heavier than
I am. And I just won't wear anything tight. I won't wear
tight jeans. I don't wear things tucked in. I don't like it
when a guy touches me, like puts his hand around my
waist . . . 'cause all my weight is in my midsec-
tion. . . . So I feel like when someone puts their arm
around me they are feeling my fat. (Judy, age 21)
Judy's passage reveals a dialectic in which her need
to control the presentation of her body is grounded by
her experience of being unable to control her weight.
Her refusal to wear tight clothes and her feeling of being
cursed represent the operation of the disciplinary gaze.
For her, weight gain reveals a loss of self-control and
self-discipline that is always potentially observable and
is a constant source of worry that she cannot escape.
Although loose-fitting clothing can mask her body-
and its symbolic meanings-from public view, she also
has a strong negative sense of how others would see her.
In this case, physical contact is interpreted as a form of
the disciplinary gaze that renders her body visible. When
men invade the barrier she has metaphorically con-
structed through clothing, her waist-the repository of
her fat-becomes the objectified record of her lack of
control and she feels uncomfortably revealed.
The disciplinary gaze tends to focus individuals' at-
tention on specific aspects of their appearance that do
not conform to the cultural standard. These problema-
tized aspects can then become the object of vigilant and
sometimes obsessive self-monitoring:
Mostly I figured it out so that in my plump wardrobe,
particularly if the styles are with me, people really don't
know. I'm the only one who knows. In my very thin
wardrobe, people will say, well, you know, you've lost
weight. To me that's the highest compliment. I mean, I
am obsessed with body weight. And the clothing has to
in some way either compensate; I mean, I have a full
length of clothing from absolute tenty type dresses where
you could be an elephant underneath and nobody would
know it to very, very form-fitting pantsuits and stuff.
(Rachel, age 53)
In all these cases, the more conventional attribu-
tion-echoing Goffman (1959)-is that individuals
monitor themselves to undertake impression manage-
ment and/or to enhance their own sense of self-image.
From this view, fashion apparel, self-care practices
(ranging from diet to exercise or cosmetic surgery), and
other vehicles of consumer-based identity construction
are essentially self-directed consumer choices that en-
able individuals to accomplish goals and feel more con-
tented with their lives. Thus, the disciplinary gaze does
not oppose this narrative of consumer choice so much
as highlight the legacy of sociohistorical influences that
structure consumers' perceptions of identities that are
desirable (Ewen 1988).
DISCUSSION
Beyond Body Image: The Socialized Body
In its contemporary theoretical usage, body image is
commonly defined as a "mental construction," embed-
ded in a larger mental construction (often termed the
self-schema), that can "deviate substantially from a
person's objective physical characteristics" (Myers and
Biocca 1992, p. 1 16). The theoretical premise under-
lying this contemporary definition is that a person's
corporeal body is meaningfully perceived in relation to
a relevant cognitive structure and, conversely, that this
subjectively constructed image mediates understanding
of the objective body. Therefore, the psychological sig-
nificance of the corporeal body derives from its being
a personally significant object of thought. This stream
of body image research has tended to focus on the prob-
lematic psychological implications that derive from
cultural idealizations of beautiful bodies, such as dis-
torted perceptions of weight, eating disorders, feelings
of personal inadequacy, and lowered self-esteem (Bloch
and Richins 1992; Cash 1990; Richins 1991).
This cognitively focused conception, however, tends
to gloss over the profound experiential significance that
results from the body's being a visible object with cul-
turally salient meanings. "Saying that I have a body is
a way of saying that I can be seen as an object, and that
I try to be seen as a subject" (Merleau-Ponty 1962, p.
167). Through the processes of normalization and
problematization, and the pervasive operation of the
disciplinary gaze, the embodied subject is readily ob-
jectified. Furthermore, -the social world continually as-
serts the meanings by which this objectification occurs:
When I was really little, my parents thought I was an-
orexic because I was really, really thin. So it's really weird
that I went from being really, really thin to being plump
to being average. I had a high metabolism when I was
young. All of a sudden, puberty came and I couldn't eat
everything I wanted and not gain weight and I could tell
that because I couldn't fit into my sister's jeans and that
really distressed me. Because she was two years older
than me and I couldn't fit into her jeans. I was devastated
because technically she was supposed to be larger than
me. I was like "Oh my God, I am so fat." In my sopho-
more year, I told my dad, "I am going on a diet, this is
ridiculous you know." Then it became a lot better when
I started losing weight. I am lot thinner than I was then.
So I'm doing a little better. (Ann, age 17)
As this passage reveals, the body that is objectifiable
can also be seen as objectionable in many of it specific
attributes. A notable aspect of Ann's reflections is that
her body image dilemma did not arise from an abstract
comparison of her perceived body to some idealized
image. Rather, it manifested itself far more directly and
materially through a pair of jeans that she could not fit
into and the concrete reality of being a larger size than
her older sister. Although the cultural idealization of
thinness is clearly implicit in Ann's experience of being
devastated, the full meaning of having lost her youthful
metabolism was perceived in relation to her sense of
self-identity and her relationships to family members:
I have two sisters and they taunted me when I became
fat. And my dad, he literally went out and bought me
Slim-Fast and a bag of prunes (laughs). I was just like, I
could not believe he bought that. He was supporting the
fact that I was not thin. So that was real big. That was a
kicker.
In this view, "body image"-as an increasingly con-
ventional linguistic term-characterizes the perceptions
a consumer has of his/her body, and these perceptions
are conditioned by a field of social relationships, cultural
ideals, normative prescriptions, and moralistic mean-
ings regarding self-control and discipline. The social
world in which each consumer is embedded operates
to enforce and reinforce this system of bodily meanings
and practices. The result is a form of socialization that
inspires a deeply internalized duty to discipline and
normalize one's body. To be thinner, more toned, less
gray, and less wrinkled, and to hide a variety of imper-
fections are acts of self-care that serve to discipline the
body that has, without conscious consent, deviated from
valued cultural norms of appearance.
To appropriate a classic economic metaphor, the in-
visible hand of the marketplace has other effects than
simply directing markets toward efficient solutions; it
also socializes consumer perceptions in a system of de-
sires (Ewen 1988; Galbraith 1992). As a case in point,
mass-media-induced familiarity, large-scale promo-
tional activities, and the legitimating aura of medical
science are market forces that have served to normalize
a diverse array of enduring and sometimes extreme al-
terations to the North American body such as rhino-
plasty, liposuction, breast implants, lip augmentation,
body piercing, and hair transplants (Bordo 1993). While
such consumer choices may derive from psychological
needs and personal desires (Pruzinsky and Edgerton
1990; Schouten 1991), these personal motivations also
manifest a form of self-discipline in which the consumer
adopts the perspective of an anonymous observer on
his/her own self; therefore, it becomes natural to regard
one's body as a socially visible object that can-and
should-be reconstructed to convey preferred social
meanings (Belk 1988; Featherstone 1982; Turner 199 1).
Another cultural facet of the socialized body is a tra-
dition of cultural meanings that espouse the rewards of
hard work and resistance to temptation. As Feather-
stone notes (1991), contemporary consumer culture has
been marked by a dialectic between asceticism (i.e., self-
discipline as a moral responsibility) and the hedonic
pursuit of gratification and pleasure. Within American
society, this ascetic tradition is commonly characterized
as the Puritan work ethic and underlies many of the
cultural meanings ascribed to consumption activities,
such as in the glorification of willpower commonly
found in weight-loss programs (Spitzack 1990; Turner
1991) to the more recent "Just Do It" campaign by
Nike. It is often suggested that the classic Greek and
Christian traditions of asceticism pursued a higher spir-
itual state whereas contemporary manifestations seek
only to attain a more desirable body (Bordo 1993). The
reflections of our participants, however, indicate that
the construction of a better body was not an end in
itself. Rather, the shape they were in symbolized im-
portant meanings about their personal worth, their po-
sition in a field of social relationships, the merit of their
lifestyle, and perhaps, most saliently, the degree of con-
trol they had over their lives.
In sum, the concept of the socialized body implies
that a complex cultural ideology of the body underlies
consumers' satisfaction with their appearance, their
sense of an ideal or more desirable body, and the con-
sumption activities that these self-perceptions motivate.
This cultural ideology is concretely manifested through
mass media, advertising, everyday beliefs, scientific
pronouncements, interpersonal relationships, and the
course of social encounters. These social influences all
exert a shaping influence on the ways individuals in-
terpret the symbolic meanings of the body and the mul-
titude of attributions about self and others that follow
from these interpretations.2
Rethinking the Postmodern Consumer
In recent years, sociological theorists have proposed
that contemporary consumer culture has entered a new
age-postmodernity (Firat and Venkatesh 1993). Al-
though analyses of the postmodern are now a common
facet of contemporary social theory, much debate re-
mains as to whether these analyses offer viable descrip-
tions of the experiences of those who are supposedly
leading a postmodern life (see Featherstone 1991). In
sociological terms, the degree of correspondence be-
tween the etic concepts used in analyses of postmodern
consumer culture and the emic views of consumers re-
mains in doubt. The viewpoints expressed by the con-
sumers in this study call attention to where the as-
sumptions employed in postmodern analysis may need
to be modified, .at least in regard to the social construc-
tion of self-identity.
It is generally proposed that the state of postmodern-
ity is characterized by three primary cultural conditions:
(1) the absence of unifying metanarratives, (2) the cor-
responding fragmentation of the self-concept, and (3)
the decentering of the subject (Firat and Venkatesh
1993). Although some theorists view these conditions
as troublesome, others adopt a more celebratory ori-
entation that emphasizes the freedom and creativity
possible in the age of postmodernity (Scott 1993b). In
this view, the postmodern consumer is free to choose-
with little sense of enduring commitment-from a wide
range of cultural narratives and identities to become
the person s/he wants to be at the moment of self-con-
struction. Thus, the act of consumption serves to pro-
duce a desired self through the images and styles that
are conveyed through one's possessions (Belk 1988).
Whereas modern self-identity had been defined by the
pursuits of labor and tradition, the postmodern one is
an ongoing consumption project continuously in flux
and in flight from the past and the status quo (Mc-
Cracken 1987).
From our poststructuralist perspective, this rendering
of the postmodern consumer has a decidedly Cartesian
aura. The postmodern consumer is proposed to stand
above the constraints of culture, the ties of history, and
the material reality of the body. From our reading of
these consumers' interviews, however, their self-under-
standings were structured by long-standing cultural
narratives regarding the meanings of the body. For these
consumers, these narratives held profound significance
for their sense of personal history and understanding
of the social world. In contrast to the "unencumbered
self" romanticized in treatises on postmodern con-
sumption, many traditional cultural narratives were
woven into these consumers' self-conceptions and ex-
erted an enduring influence on their everyday con-
sumption activities.
The postmodern consumer is an optimistic theoret-
ical construction, because it implies that each of us can
select identities at will from the catalog of cultural im-
ages-identities that can be "worn" and then discarded,
free from any sense of anxiety or uncertainty. This con-
ception, however, seems far removed from the self-un-
derstandings expressed by the consumers in this study.
They sought to cope with disconcerting physical changes
that could not simply be chosen away. They negotiated
disparities between their current status and the often
idealized conceptions of the normalized body. They saw
their bodies as living records of their life histories and
consumption habits. In all these cases, they expressed
the views of embodied subjects who were very much
situated in a field of historical and social relationships.
[Received November 1993. Revised January 1995.
Brian Sternthal served as editor and John F. Sherry,
Jr., served as associate editor for this article.]
2The aesthetic of the thin body is perhaps most pervasive and com-
pelling in a middle- and upper-class, cosmopolitan, predominately
WASP sociocultural context (Bordo 1993). Further, the issues we
have noted in regard to transformations in male identities may also
be most relevant to this same sociocultural context (Ehrenreich 1989).
In contrast, males and females who identify with different ethnic and
subcultural ideals may aspire to a different set of body norms (hooks
1992). In these cases, the processes of normalization, problematiza-
tion, and the disciplinary gaze may still apply, but their experiential
manifestations may vary greatly.
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