'Few of us are potential Miss South Africas, but ... ': Psychological discourses about women's bodies in advice columns

Journal/Book: S Afr J Psychol. 1996; 26: P O Box 1758, Pretoria 0001, South Africa. Bureau Scientific Publ. 162-171.

Abstract: This article explores the psychologized interstices between the appearance of women's bodies and their 'inner selves'. Using a Foucauldian analysis with feminist undertones, several ways in which psychological discourses are deployed in 'crises' of 'physical unattractiveness' in advice texts, are examined, The work of Wendy Hollway on the positioning of women and men in heterosexual relationship practice is taken, critically, as a starting point, This positioning of women is situated within a web of psychologized knowledges and practices which labour to divide women's bodies from their inner psyches/selves. Psychologization is discussed in terms of the rewards of power offered women for subjection; and the ways in which it resists feminist arguments about the social, ideological or discursive framing of women's bodies, while holding conventional gendered positionings and heterosexual relationship practices in place.

Note: Article L Wilbraham, Univ Durban Westville, Dept Psychol, Private Bag X54001, ZA-4000 Durban, South Africa

Keyword(s): PSYCHOLOGY; DISCOURSE

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