“Babe your ass is looking tight”: En jämförande studie om kvinnliga utseendeideal, en hälsosam livsstil och den feminina kroppen på hälsobloggar

Abstract

Health and people's wellbeing is an important issue in the Western society today. Moreover had today’s technology changed the way we look at bodies in the fashion industry and in social media. Women’s bodies are sometimes portrayed as “perfect” with help from editing programs, such as photoshop, and does not always mirror what a normal body of a woman looks like. Previous studies show that the Western body ideal for women is a skinny and sexy body that marks the feminine features of women, like breasts, hips and butt. The appearance ideal is shaped by various attributes like clothes and makeup and is often seen in the fashion industry, in commercial advertising and in blogs. This study uses textual analysis and visual analysis to elucidate how the ideal appearance and a healthy lifestyle are presented in three health blogs from Sweden, USA and Australia. The choice of using blogs as empirical material is due to the fact that blogs influences their readers and have readers all over the world. Discourse analysis along with the theoretical perspectives of post feminism and global homogenization are used to discuss how the ideals relate to identity, the discourse of the feminine body and also if a global homogenization of the ideal can be shown. The conclusion is that the appearance ideal in all of the blogs is a feminine, lean body, and in some cases also a sexy body. To get this body the bloggers use different practices, like restricted food intake, regular work outs and attributes like tight clothes and makeup. Individually the bloggers shape their body and identity as healthy, feminine women. If we look at the blogs altogether an effect of homogenization of the ideals concerning the body and lifestyle can be shown.