The Body as a Social Construct: The Kosovan Context on 'Beauty' and 'Look' from the Perspective of Women and Girls in Kosovo (original) (raw)
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International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2021
Introduction: Adolescents and young women become increasingly aware of their bodies through images presented to them through social structures during their developmental stage. These images may drive them toward unhealthy behaviors including overeating, starving, and skin bleaching. This paper is part of a study that examined the Older Adolescent Banyankole Girl’s Response to the socio-cultural constructions of body image in The Ankole Region, Uganda. It aimed to understand the self-perceptions of adolescent girls of their body image within Ankole society. Methods: The study collected narrative interviews of 30 adolescent and young adult females (16–24) recruited from various institutions of learning as well as the Ankole community of southwestern Uganda. Results: Adolescent girls’ perceptions of beauty were influenced by pull and push factors that included beauty expectations, beauty comparisons, relationships, and dietary habits that keep them oscillating between traditional and c...
The term "beauty" has been a key category of aesthetic thinking for a long time. Relevancy of beauty of art, represented in ancient times by Plato's transcendental theory of beauty or more factual inductive beauty of empirically oriented Aristotle and many others thinkers, placed beauty as a priority category of the world, including the world of art. Modern approaches primarily follow Kantian and Hegelian idealistic aesthetics of beauty, however, the state of today's art world, or in the broader context, the aesthetic world of the 20th century, doubt beauty and even dethrone it from its pedestal. Does it make sense today to examine about beauty of art? Has beauty as an attribute of art not ended its journey together with the idea of the end of art? The paper aims to follow the connotations of beauty losing its place in art in the context of the end of art (Hegel and Danto) or end of its history (Belting). Contemporary new thematization of beauty after a century dominated by the ugly or the sublime in art (from Kant's and Lyotard's point of view) is an important shift showing beauty not only as a remnant of history but rather as a vital source that is worthily gaining renewed attention and new varieties with the spread of interdisciplinary approaches.
International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE)
Body is a complex and polymorphic object that lies at the intersection of a number of dimensions: natural-social-cultural; individual-social; body-soul; flesh-spirit; private-public; visible-invisible; decent-indecent; real-virtual; health-illness. If the body is in the heart of psychological research, lay thinking analysis rests somewhat in the shadow of this research line. Following the ideas of the social representations theory, the aim of study was to reveal how the body was represented in groups of young and older Russian women. A total sample consisted of 314 Russian females (N=258 females formed the group of young females from 18 to 25 years old, Mage=19.73, SDage =1.56; N=56 females formed the group of older females aged from 39 to 55 years old, Mage=45.63, SDage =4.68). The snowball technique was used in order to recruit the participants, they were invited to fulfil the online questionnaire. A free-association technique was used. The data were analysed by using prototypical...
THE BEAUTY SYNDROME: A STUDY OF BEAUTY AND GENDER IN INDIA
A thing of beauty is a joy forever", said the famous poet John Keats. Not only Keats but most of us also appreciate and admire beauty, although it may be in many different forms. For instance, one can even find flowers, paintings or cars very beautiful and attractive. However, in common parlance, the words beauty and beautiful have become synonymous with women. We are taught from childhood that men are handsome and women are beautiful. It is conditioned within us. This is substantiated by the response that I got from one of the girls I had interviewed. When I asked what comes to her mind when she hears the word beautiful, she answered, 'a beautiful woman'. At the outset nothing seems wrong or of much importance, but in this association with beauty and its pursuit, women are most often implicated negatively. This paper argues that beauty practices like the use of cosmetics (lipstick, fairness cream, etc.); grooming (waxing, pedicure, manicure, etc.) and various kinds of plastic surgeries enhance the process of commodification of women and inculcate in them a belief that if they are not beautiful according to the standards set by society, then they are worthless.
OPINION BEAUTY OR HEALTH? A PERSONAL VIEW
This paper deals with the question of beauty and health in women. It discusses changing definitions of beauty as a result of influences from the entertainment, beauty and health product industries. Advertisements are seen to be major players in defining beauty through promotion of cosmetic, skin, hair and slimming products. Concerns relating to beauty become inculcated in girls through the process of socialisation as they mature into womanhood. The media plays a significant role in portraying the meaning of beauty through its representation of women. These influences largely influence and alter women's perceptions of their body image and in trying to meet the goals of beauty as represented by the media. This may result in dissatisfaction with their body image. Advertisements can encourage women to indulge in smoking as a fashionable trend or opt for plastic surgery in attempts to acquire beauty. This paper concludes with implications of the issues relating to changing perceptions of beauty and suggests recommendations.
Diversity & Equality in Health and Care, 2015
What is known? • Skin lightening, weight gain and henna are common beauty practices in different parts of the world. • Skin lightening, weight gain and henna as beauty practices can cause adverse health effects. • Skin lightening, weight gain and henna can be considered as tools to achieve the social norms or to internalise ideal body image presented by the media. What this paper adds • • Understandings of beauty practices by young female students in Sudan that pose real and increasing health risks • • The role of place and socio-cultural factors underpinning beauty practices that need to be understood when seeking to address associated health risks Important baseline data that can be used to underpin the development of health-promotion programmes of benefit to Sudanese women.
Who is that Girl? A Mixed Method Study on the Perception of Physical Beauty and Influencing Factors
In this study, the researchers focused on the definition of physical beauty in a Filipino context and the factors that influence it. Media, together with social interaction and culture are known to be among the influential factors. The researchers implemented a mixed method study design where chi square and descriptive statistics was used for their quantitative data analysis which covered perceptions of physical beauty across different age groups. Thematic analysis was done on the qualitative data obtained through interviews, which centered on the respondents' perceptions of physical beauty and the different factors that influence their perceptions of physical beauty. Purposive sampling was used to choose the participants for each age group, i.e., early adolescence (12 -18 years old), later adolescence (19 -24 years old), early adulthood (25-34 years old) and middle adulthood (35-60 years old). The study's results show that perceptions of physical beauty vary across age groups. Fashion and time were findings that surfaced as influencing factors.
Why do women want to be beautiful? A qualitative study proposing a new “human beauty values” concept
PLOS ONE, 2018
This study investigated the underlying reasons women desire to be beautiful in South Korean, Chinese, and Japanese cultures by proposing a new concept called human beauty value (HBV). This exploratory qualitative study includes a literature review in related disciplines and the results from ten focus group interviews. Based on the interviews, this study proposes four dimensions of HBV (i.e., superiority, self-development, individuality, and authenticity) and a hierarchical process among the antecedents (i.e., social comparison, social competition, and social norms), the pursuit of HBV, and the consequences (i.e., emotional, attitudinal, and behavioral aspects). Participants from each culture revealed a unique hierarchical process of HBV that reflects both cultural universality and specificity. The results of this study lead to new knowledge about East Asian women's identities and perceptions of beauty. In addition, the proposed concept, HBV, can broaden the academic lens for beauty-related disciplines.