Examination of Debra Gimlin’s book Body Work which is an in-depth exploration of American women’s relationships with their bodies.
This paper shows how the author agues that women do not engage in body work (activities like exercise and plastic surgery) in order to conform to a paternalistic, and unrealistic view of beauty that is perpetrated by the popular media. Instead, Gimlin gives the empowering argument that women engage in body work in order to nurture a relationship between the body and self-identity.
“In “Body Work”, Gimlin examines a series of mini-ethnographies in her attempt to understand the complex relationships that American women have with their bodies and their self-identities. She examines four main sites, in collecting research for her book. Gimlin conducted in-depth research and extensive interviews at each location. Gimlin explores a beauty salon, an aerobics class, a plastic surgery clinic, and the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA), a political and social organization designed to empower overweight women.”