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Primarily, in this essay, I will be looking at the concept of childhood, body image, and contemporary society, and how they are projected in today’s society. Michel Foucault’s ideas of biopower will help us understand the connections between today’s society and childhood body image. I will be focusing on how Foucault’s perception of biopower is relevant and how it can help us understand the pressure of society on body image by girls and boys. I will then discuss my research proposal which is targeted to raise awareness of the pressure of society on girls and boys today and the issues of body image in society. ‘Are there gender differences in the perception of body image?’ is the question that I wish to answer by using Foucault’s theories to add context and understanding.
Dissatisfaction with one’s body image is a major factor in today’s society, with many suffering from low self-esteem, poor mental health, and destructive potential towards themselves. A report reflected on this, ‘A twelve-year-old girl dreads going into school each day, refusing to put her hand up in class so she doesn’t draw attention to how she looks,’ and ‘A teenage boy risking liver and kidney damage abusing steroids to boost his pecs and abs.’ (YMCA, Reflections on body image, 2012). This shows how individualized power can be abused from such a young age, being vulnerable and easily influenced and demonstrating the complexity of the dynamic between power and us. Foucault’s idea of biopower can be used to understand that societal standards have caused unachievable and unrealistic goals for audiences causing people to feel dissatisfied, which could cause a domino effect within society, especially in school when one person starts dieting and using the gym, or jogging, others may believe that they are unhealthy and need to lose weight, therefore, they become trapped and start to copy, which could be very harmful to that individual.
Power is very dispersed and multidirectional, and Foucault’s main idea of biopower was that knowledge is a set of concepts and ideas that do things, change people’s behavior, and change structures within society. Teenagers are constantly faced with the ‘perfect’ version of themselves. As Foucault emphasizes it’s a power advantage of social control and becomes the ability to act on something. Teenagers become so consumed by this idea, that they are willing to be swept up in these social norms and the knowledge that they now know from social media especially since it changes the way they think about the subject, and in time it becomes reality, that this is the way to live chasing a body that has been delivered through photoshop, and internally becomes a mask of delusion that what they are doing is anything but healthy. As (Dreyfus and Rainbow 1983:189 p.325) suggested, teenagers become obsessed and fixed on this idea of needing the perfect body which results in them being subjectively controlled, by the media, especially as many platforms such as ‘Instagram’ where influencers are posing with what looks like the ‘perfect’ body, which in turn influences teenagers to follow the same pursuit, as they idolize these celebrities and influencers and essentially want to become them.
The University of California study found that ‘up to 80% of nine-year-old girls studied organized their own lives around dieting, jogging daily, and counting calories obsessively.’ (Bordo 1989. p 26). (Foucault 1977. p.23) referred that power and knowledge imply one another, therefore the more knowledge gathered the greater the power possessed to act, knowledge changes the way we think and alters reality and for teenagers, it changes what they do, which is trying to achieve unrealistic goals of themselves as other people’s actions can act on other people’s actions, and we internalize responsibility on how we look. Social media platforms are one of the worst sources such as ‘Facebook’ and ‘TikTok’ advertising products such as ‘weight loss pills’, and ‘weight loss teas’ use ‘protein shakes’, etc which are very easy to get hold of, and the wrong amount of these could cause explicit harm to teenagers. There are also several health apps on phones promoting workouts, and several different diets, many claiming to be the best at weight loss, and this again is a trap for societal norms, it creates a false reality that teenagers grasp onto without any knowledge and it becomes a whirlwind of misinformation and almost has a panopticon effect as many women especially reflect on the way they should behave under the surveillance and control of society, to reach specific goals. As Crawford 1984: 70. p. 26), that the quality of having too much or too little fat on the body is a victim of self-denial as they listen to their mind over their body ignoring the fact that they might be unintentionally starving themselves of important nutrients that they need to be able to function, to achieve their perception of ‘normality’ they change everything about themselves to ‘fit in’.
Foucault’s theories of control and power within society have helped understand when an individual isn’t able to fit into the norms of society it can have crushing effects on mental health. ‘38% of men say they would give up a year of their life for the perfect body.’ (YMCA, Reflections on body image, 2012). The hysteria around body image has revealed damaging and destructive behavior within teenagers because influences are leading them to unjustified poor mental states because they are so consumed with society. (Bordo 1989:21 p. 29). Teenagers become more and more possessive over the idea, and they feel ashamed and disappointed if they can’t reach their goals because in their mind they know what they should be doing to lose weight. (Conrad 1994:392 p. 26). Falling outside societal norms and standards can deem individuals to be deviant and categorized as being unhealthy and overweight on purpose, which is ridiculous and is a damaging factor within itself, therefore, there is no wonder teenagers feel obliged to be within society’s expectations. (Crawford 1984:71 p. 29). On the other hand, some have become so obsessed with their weight, watching how many calories they eat, etc, it has caused them to have physical problems such as anorexia. This awful illness is constraining and their quality of life has changed dramatically, their mental and physical health has been compromised. Although at first, the individual wouldn’t recognize it and would see it as a factor of empowerment as they are losing weight and are coherent with societal demands, it’s all an illusion masking the real damage that could and has been made to some people, (Bordo 1989:15. p. 29) Foucault suggests people are fixed on perfection and satisfaction, and within our culture as human beings, we are made subjects, which is a form of power to easily control society. Society is fixed on discipline and is aimed to keep society’s behavior under control. Within society, forces are placed upon women to act and adapt to a certain way to please males with their social definition of a woman.
Foucault’s theory of biopower is very convincing when helping to understand knowledge and power within society.Rolee of society plays a substantial part in who we become and a notion of a large group in society who all believe in the same thing, which has become a necessity in their reality and has formed a societal standard for other people, helps explain how body image is interpreted within boys and girls. Having the complex dynamic between power and ourselves, and the knowledge we use in a practical way to achieve our goals is placed upon teenagers by themselves and by society and we harvest that responsibility to create a ‘perfect’ image of ourselves. This shifts the use of power and we almost become like robots. They get caught in meaning and feelings that are not their own and are spoken by the society’s language because that’s all we know and that is what we want to believe to achieve standards and not to fall out of society. Although Foucault’s biopower theory is a good way of understanding how society is controlled, I believe that it lacks theories on other aspects such as biology. We as humans have other aspects that affect us daily such as work, stress, illness, environment that we are brought up in, and most importantly we do make choices for ourselves. Foucault’s theory is rather singular whereas we live in a very multidirectional way.
When considering the research question two questions were instantly focused on what we wanted to find out, it had a strong foundation that was clear and ‘doable’. The questions were ‘Are there gender differences in perceptions of body image?’ and ‘What factors influence perceptions of body image, does social media have an effect on body image?’. We decided on these questions for the research proposal as they have a strong foundation to be able to provide us with effective and purposeful data. We will be focusing on females and males between 14 – 18 years old, as their social media will be heightened with advertisements, pictures, and so on, of weight loss products and the image of a ‘perfect’ body. We will ask questions that will make it easy for us to gather the different perceptions between males and females about their body image if there are any. We will also ask what they think is the biggest influence on body image in today’s society and if they think that it has an impact on today’s society.
Our design frame is comparative research as we are comparing two genders on their perceptions of body image. We have chosen a stratified sample to ensure we have 50% males and 50% females as there will be a hundred participants in the research. A stratified sample is also free from bias and therefore produces a reliable and representative sample. We also decided on a stratified sample to ensure a clear representation of both genders and their representation of body image. It will also be interesting to compare the younger age group of the school with the eldest as we can see not only how gender affects body image but age as well. We will ensure our sample by asking the school to randomly pick names from their register, therefore, there will be no bias. The school that we will ask to participate is Ysgol Syr Hugh Owen, a Welsh secondary school, where Welsh is the first language for many in the school, there the data collection would be mainly in Welsh, but we also know that some people prefer to write in English or understand English better, therefore when we would send the letter and the email we would ask what language they would prefer to answer in. This will make the participant feel more comfortable that their needs are being met.
As a method of research, we have decided upon primary data collection. The reason for this is because the targeted issues can be addressed better and it will be more reliable for our research proposal, than if we were to use secondary data. As our methods of research, we have decided to gather our data by questionnaires. Using questionnaires as our method of research will be effective. There are low-cost rates with using questionnaires and we can gather the information efficiently as using questionnaires is easily distributed through a large population. It will be easier to keep confidentiality between students because the questionnaire will be completely anonymous, and their answers will not be distributed anywhere else only where necessary for the research proposal. Body image can be a sensitive subject, especially with individuals between 14 – and 18, and some may be struggling with body image therefore, it may put the participant at ease knowing they can answer in private and no one will know what they answered. On the other hand, one disadvantage may be dishonest answers as they may feel embarrassed or want to make themselves look better, it is always a possibility. We will conduct these questionnaires in the school making an allotted time for each age group male and female to answer the questionnaire, it will be conducted on computers where the data can be directly sent back to us efficiently, where confidentiality will be maintained. We will also be in the room to observe to make sure that it is taken seriously and that the data will be to the best standard, but we won’t intervene while they are answering the questionnaire as we don’t want to oppose any influences on some students as that wouldn’t be fair, and could compromise the whole research project.
When considering our research question, some ethical issues arise that become barriers. Here are some ethical issues discussed and how to overcome these barriers. When considering the stratified random sampling, we need the consent of the school and their parents to ensure the consent of the participants, especially the participants under 16 as they aren’t legal to give informed consent without an adult, we would do this by contacting the school first to get their consent of a sample for our research, and then individually contact parents with a letter and an email asking for consent for their children to participate, 2 weeks beforehand to ensure they’ve had plenty of time to consent to it we would also send a text and an email a couple of days beforehand, as a reminder. The questionnaire holds an ethical issue of lack of confidentiality, we would protect the students’ identity by making the questionnaires completely anonymous. This can also protect the participants from any danger such as bullying. It will be made clear to the participants that they can withdraw from the research at any time, and they don’t feel obliged to take part. Comparing girls and boys in research will reduce ethical gender bias.
In this essay, I have discussed how body image within males and females is perceived in today’s society. I have delved deep into how society has created standards and societal norms that have become an image of an unrealistic illusion of society, which is consumed by power. Society has become a vulnerable and easily influenced audience, where people are shamed for being outside societal norms. We are being made to believe that we need to look like influencers and celebrities and that is the only way to look, and teenagers are more susceptible to believe that has caused mental health problems alongside physical problems. ‘34% of adolescent boys and 49% of girls have been on a diet to change their body shape or to lose weight’ (YMCA, Reflections on body image, 2012). I have used Foucault’s theories to help understand the surrounding ideas of biopower, knowledge, and power within society and power is an influence on social control where we are disciplined and surveillance about what we are doing, this is why societal norms are so confined and the need to fit in, it’s like living through a magnifying glass. It forces people into unhealthy and self-destructive habits, which ironically makes them unhealthy rather than healthy. Teenagers are constantly surrounded by a ‘better’ version of themselves because it’s always broadcasted on social media, the expectation and goals they need to reach to have perfection and satisfaction, where in reality it doesn’t exist, but as they are so consumed by it becomes reality to them, and that is the consequences of power and knowledge within society.
To conclude, I believe that biopower is a strong scientific theory that helps us understand the relationship between society, societal norms, and standards. Within today’s contemporary society, it is hard to shy away from societal influences and judgment and Foucault’s way of exercising the role of power and knowledge within society is very powerful how reality within society might be an illusion and people are only looking for satisfaction or approval within society. We produce society, but society has a big influence on us and produces us as certain types of people, which is based on how we live our lives constantly influenced by external factors that we don’t consider because it has become our reality, our way of thinking, and how we survive within a competitive society.
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