This project examines the relationship between gendered identities, virtual communities, and material bodies, with an emphasis on eating disorders and self-injury practices. The use of the internet to represent and foster particular categories of material bodies, such as the anorexic, the fitness buff, and the self-injurer, has gained substantial visibility due in part to the proliferation of visual imagery presented through social networks. I analyze written and visual texts within specific social networks to assess their function and potential impact on individuals and larger communities. Drawing from Donna Haraway's cyborg theory, N. Kathryn Hayles' posthuman, Judith Butler's performativity, feminist poststructural analysis, and the notion of augmented reality, this project explores how individuals rely on social networks, images, and technologies to provide supportive environments for, as well as modify and maintain, specific gendered bodies. Applying feminist interpretations of Foucault's concepts of discipline and "docile bodies," primarily the research and critiques of Susan Bordo, Anne Balsamo, and Armando Favazza (among others), I examine how image sharing and interactions via social networks and communities affect material bodies and function as forms of social control, normalizing and encouraging ultra-thin bodies and dangerous behaviors, including eating disorders, overexercise, and cutting. I also explore subversive strategies of resistance enacted both within and beyond pro-ana and self-injury communities to counter negative messages and promote positive body image in girls and women.

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Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2017-02-20T14:16:20Z No. of bitstreams: 1 vanessaalkminreis.pdf: 859126 bytes, checksum: acdd49ed3871e00b7d6534cd730e7bee (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2017-02-20T20:46:59Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 vanessaalkminreis.pdf: 859126 bytes, checksum: acdd49ed3871e00b7d6534cd730e7bee (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2017-02-20T20:47:12Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 vanessaalkminreis.pdf: 859126 bytes, checksum: acdd49ed3871e00b7d6534cd730e7bee (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-02-20T20:47:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 vanessaalkminreis.pdf: 859126 bytes, checksum: acdd49ed3871e00b7d6534cd730e7bee (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-04-04 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Investigação sobre os modos de expressão possibilitados pela expansão das redes informatizadas no século XXI. Análise de websites pró-anorexia e bulimia (personalizadas nos fóruns online como ana e mia) com o objetivo de compreender os efeitos (a) sobre os conteúdos veiculados, uma vez que são disponibilizados em rede, e (b) sobre os links se estabelecem neste ambiente de enredamento tecnológico, no qual cada nó – pessoa, assunto ou máquina – está em permanente disponibilidade à conexão. Com um referencial teórico que abrange Teorias da Comunicação, Ciências Sociais e, sobretudo, Psicanálise, agregam-se conhecimentos que, como nós de uma rede, se conectam, complementam e proporcionam bases para o estudo destes acontecimentos. Como objeto de nossa pesquisa, elegemos um escopo de websites, blogs e redes sociais representativos do movimento virtual pró-anorexia e bulimia que possibilitam descrever de modo original características importantes (nem sempre visíveis) desse fenômeno comunicacional típico da sociedade ocidental contemporânea. / Research about the ways of expression made possible by the widespread global computer networks in the 21st century. Analysis of pro-anorexia and bulimia websites (conditions personalized in online forums as ana and mia) aimed to an understanding of their effects (a) on the broadcasted contents, once they are available online, and (b) on the links that are established in that technological networking environment, in which each node – person, subject or machine – is in permanent availability for connection. With a theoretical basis that involves Communication Theories, Social Sciences and, above all, Psychoanalysis, we bring together knowledges that, as nodes of a network, connect, complement and offer grounds for the study of these facts. As an object for our investigation, we elected a range of websites, blogs and social networks that represent the online pro-anorexia and bulimia movement, and allow an original description of important (but not always visible) characteristics of this communicational phenomena so typical of the western society.

No / This book takes a novel approach to the study of male eating disorders – an area that is often dominated by clinical discourses. The study of eating disorders in men has purportedly suffered from a lack of dedicated attention to personal and socio-cultural aspects. Delderfield tackles this deficiency by spotlighting a set of personal accounts written by a group of men who have experiences of disordered eating. The text presents critical interpretations that aim to situate these experiences in the social and cultural context in which these disorders occur. This discursive work is underpinned by an eclectic scholarly engagement with social psychology and sociology literature around masculinities, embodiment and fatness, belonging, punishment, stigma, and control; leading to understandings about relationships with food, body and self. This is undertaken with a reflexive element, as the personal intersects with the professional. This text will appeal to students, scholars and clinicians in social sciences, humanities, and healthcare studies, including public health.