Feminist Figure Girl chronicles the transformation of art history professor Lianne Mc Tavish, from a university professor into an extraordinarily tanned and crystal-encrusted bikini-wearing ‘figure girl.’Figure competitions seek a softer appearance than traditional forms of bodybuilding but still require rigorous weightlifting, an extreme protein diet, and many hours of posing in high heels. While training for a figure show, Mc Tavish combined autoethnographic methods, participant observation, and feminist theory to find new ways of thinking about physique culture and the female body.
The author, who specializes in critical visual culture and the history of the body, explores such contemporary issues as body image, fat studies, identity politics, and ‘postfeminism, ‘ while rethinking fitness culture, diet regimes, feminist politics, reproductive activism, performance art, and the social function of photography. Written in a lively personal style reminiscent of Mc Tavish’s popular blog, she clearly explains the complex ideas stemming from the theoretical work of such writers as Judith Butler, Simone de Beauvoir, Michel Foucault, Iris Marion Young, Edmund Husserl, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. The book also includes many photos documenting Mc Tavish’s physical transformation.
Table des matières
List of Images
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Becoming Feminist Figure Girl
1. Measuring Up: Comparing Bodybuilding, Weight Watchers, and Yoga
2. Embodiment and the Event of Muscle Failure
3. Replacing Feminism: Comparing Prochoice Activism with Becoming a Figure Girl
4. On Stage: Performing Feminist Figure Girl
5. Aftermath: The Photographs in My Purse
Afterword
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
A propos de l’auteur
Lianne Mc Tavish is Professor of the History of Art, Design, and Visual Culture at the University of Alberta. She is the author of
Defining the Modern Museum: A Case Study of the Challenges of Exchange and Childbirth and
Childbirth and the Display of Authority in Early Modern France.
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