Montaña had a population of about 13,500 at the time of the study, but was expanding rapidly. The city experienced a 150 percent population growth rate between 2000 and 2010. In contrast, Arroyo Viejo was located in an older, more rural part of the community well off the beaten path. The girls in the group, like all the other girls I interviewed, wanted to be thinner than they were.
In the context of talking about girls' clothes during an all-boys focus group, Ricky said, “Some fat girls don't know they're fat because they wear clothes that are too tight.” The other focus group participants responded with comments such as: “It's nasty,” “Once they get a role, it's bad.” Teens said boys would call themselves “fat” and “ugly” around girls, and call other boys “fat” and “ugly” around boys. Not only is this image evoked time and time again in the media, it was often evoked by teenagers in Desert Vista.
They'll go in the circle and whisper, "Guys, she's big!" And the other will say, "Yes, I know" [whispered]. Both boys and girls at Desert Vista participated in the type of mean gossip about friends and classmates for which girls were primarily blamed. During interviews about teasing, boys often recounted direct teasing behavior they witnessed in the boys' locker room.
During the interview, Eddie, a goth/punk boy who styled his hair with a flat iron, said that at the beginning of the school year he was "much bigger" than he is now. She had PE class in the middle of the day and didn't want to have sweaty hair all afternoon. In the second semester, Jamie participated a little more actively for several reasons. Boys and girls who had PE early in the morning told me that they weren't worried about sweating because it was still quite cold at that time.
For example, during an interview about the differences in how girls and boys participate in PE, Kirk, the freshman quarterback, said that girls “just stand around” most of the time. Earlier in the book I discussed gender norms that require boys to be bigger and stronger than girls. Yeah, so I'm just trying to get trained for that and see if they want to put me in the ring.
In the next chapter, I continue to explore the central thematic threads of body image and gender among high school youth by shifting focus to their food-related practices. Wyatt, one of the PE teachers, food and drinks were strictly prohibited in the locker rooms. Like, if you don't eat for lunch, there will be junk food in the classroom and stuff like that.
You know, I'll say I don't care, but then I'll look in the mirror and tell myself it's true.
Learned
Yet language does not tell the whole story. The physical reality of the body, the materiality that Butler refers to in the quote above, cannot be denied. Because this behavior tended to occur in the boys' locker room, those who were victimized did not feel safe dressing up or attending gym class. This is a step in the right direction to promote healthier body image as well as eating and exercise habits among young people.
Since part of my study involved observation and participation in PE classes, it was important that I interviewed students who would be enrolled in the physical education program. I hoped that my presence in the PE classes would serve as a reminder for students to return the signed consent and assent forms, and it did. Even though I waited outside the locker room to ask boys for the forms, I often missed them in the throngs of students rushing out the door as soon as the bell rang.
These ninth-graders also had a better idea of campus teasing culture in the spring than in the fall, when they were new to high school. I wanted to explore this phenomenon from the perspective of a classroom participant, rather than an observer on the sidelines. 2012. Killer Fat: Media, Medicine, and Morality in America's Obesity Epidemic. Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
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