Author: Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
Midlife Women's Perceptions of Their Changing Bodies, an Ethnographic Analysis
Author: Midlife Women's Perceptions of Their Changing Bodies
Author: Elizabeth M. BanisterPublisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
The purpose of this study was to document, from a developmental perspective, midlife women's perceptions of their changing bodies within the larger cultural context, and to use ethnographic research as a tool for researching midlife women. The central question guiding the analysis of midlife women's lives was: What are midlife women's perceptions of their changing bodies? The self-reported experiences of 11 midlife women (ages 40-55) were obtained and the data analyzed using Spradley's (1979) Developmental Research Sequence Method. Data were collected by using individual and group interviews. During the individual interviews, three kinds of ethnographic questions (descriptive, structural, and contrast) were used to explore how each woman conceptualized her experiences. After the individual interviews were completed, three consecutive group interviews were conducted. The group interviews provided a context for determining the women's shared meaning of their changing bodies at this pivotal time of their development. To solidify the credibility of this qualitative study, the understandings derived from the study were subjected to member checking and the application of content analysis. Four general themes emerged from the analysis of the data. The first two themes--the media and medicine--involved aspects of the culture that most influenced the women's interpretations of their changing bodies and were, therefore, structural in nature. The second two themes--loss, and redefining of self (including the development of self-care)--involved the more personal aspects of the women's narratives such as reflected meanings and attitudes. Results of the study indicated that the midlife period in a woman's life encompasses a broad spectrum of experience, full of contradiction and change. Issues of loss, change in role functions, cultural influences that perpetuate ageism and sexism, ambivalence, strong emotional responses, lack of consistent information about menopause and sexuality, questioning, critical reflection, coping mechanisms, redefining self self-care--all played a central role in the women's lives during this important time of transition. Midlife events prompted the participants to question and challenge traditional cultural expectations about female roles and behavior; and in this way they reinterpreted their experiences and created new meaning from them. The women reformulated their self-definitions from that of caregiver to care receiver, from caring for others to caring more for oneself. This could be seen as a major developmental change in the women's lives, since through this process of facing the challenges of midlife, the women moved from self definitions that were based on negative cultural stereotypes to self definitions that were based on an affirmation of their ability to experience the events of their existence as autonomous individuals, less bound by stereotypes than they had been before. Health professionals can attempt to examine some of their own biases and assumptions about midlife women that could influence their treatment of, and attitudes towards, these women. Furthermore, health professionals are in the position to help their midlife clients question and become critically aware of the social, historical, and political context that defines women's midlife experience, so that midlife women need not take for granted the established interpretation of their physical changes. Suggestions for further research are included.
Dissertation Abstracts International
Author: Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Dissertations, Academic
Languages : en
Pages : 784
Book Description
American Doctoral Dissertations
Author: Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Dissertation abstracts
Languages : en
Pages : 776
Book Description
Sociological Abstracts
Author: The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies
Author: Chris BobelPublisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811506140
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1041
Book Description
This open access handbook, the first of its kind, provides a comprehensive and carefully curated multidisciplinary and genre-spanning view of the state of the field of Critical Menstruation Studies, opening up new directions in research and advocacy. It is animated by the central question: ‘“what new lines of inquiry are possible when we center our attention on menstrual health and politics across the life course?” The chapters—diverse in content, form and perspective—establish Critical Menstruation Studies as a potent lens that reveals, complicates and unpacks inequalities across biological, social, cultural and historical dimensions. This handbook is an unmatched resource for researchers, policy makers, practitioners, and activists new to and already familiar with the field as it rapidly develops and expands.
Women and Ageing
Author: Margaret O’NeillPublisher: Routledge
ISBN: 100024461X
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 162
Book Description
This edited collection considers the ways older women’s life narratives redefine culturally imposed conceptions of what it means to grow older. Drawing on research from age studies as well as social and cultural gerontology, the contributors explore the subjective accounts and diverse voices of older women. In doing so, they examine the tensions between older women’s social identities versus their individual narratives. In their chapters, the contributors acknowledge, explore and contextualise women’s experiences of growing older, thus counterbalancing the often one-sided, negative representations of ageing perpetuated by dominant cultural discourse. They focus on diverse forms of life writing including memoirs and (auto)biography, digital and visual forms of life narrative as well as autoethnographic accounts. As the chapters in this collection demonstrate, life writing by and about older women often necessitates opening out literary forms and modes of critique, searching for narrative and performative strategies, and creating spaces in which to inscribe subjective experiences. Relationships, intergenerational connections, and visual and material cues are often integral to these analyses, which assert the richness of older women’s life narratives. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Life Writing.
Abstracts of the Annual Meeting -- American Anthropological Association
Author: American Anthropological AssociationPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Anthropology
Languages : en
Pages : 698
Book Description
Journal of Health Education
Author: Pole Dancing, Empowerment and Embodiment
Author: S. HollandPublisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230290434
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 221
Book Description
This book provides an international, multi-disciplinary empirical account of pole classes and how they fit into wider discourses about bodies and gender, and age and fitness. In particular, the book explores how women initiate agency and espouse liberation and empowerment through something as seemingly problematic as pole classes.