Date of Award
Spring 5-2014
Degree Type
Honors College Thesis
Department
Anthropology and Sociology
First Advisor
Amy Chasteen Miller
Advisor Department
Anthropology and Sociology
Abstract
The selection of body altering products available to twenty-first century women is easily accessible and widely utilized. These products, though, are vastly different from those once available to their female predecessors. Although women’s bodies have been sites for societal pressure and control for centuries before the twenty-first, American girls in this century experience body image norms and pressures in qualitatively different ways than girls who came before them. Of particular interest to this study is the differing bodily experience of early twentieth century women to that of twenty-first century women.
The trading in of corsets and floor-length dresses for razors and bikinis is a key change in terms of this research. By using a historical context as well as sociological theory and methods, this research aims to understand women’s current body trends, especially those pertaining to genital alteration as they relate to societal pressures and genital self-esteem levels. As such, this project seeks specifically to examine women’s beauty routines and practices, especially relating to genital alteration, societal pressures, and genital self-esteem. As such, this project seeks to understand the bodily experiences of women and the bodily choices they make and why. Emergent themes this thesis explores include: beauty routines: mom and the media; puberty stories; intimate partner expectations; female genital self-image; and the ideal vagina.
Copyright
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Recommended Citation
Hammons, Amber L., "Body Image and Beauty Routines Among College Women: Genital Grooming and Sexual Attitudes" (2014). Honors Theses. 232.
https://aquila.usm.edu/honors_theses/232