Background/Purpose: In today's society, adolescent girls continue to lack knowledge about their own bodies in relation to the socially constructed idealized body and have limited understanding of how these ideals influence their embodied identities. If the goal is for girls to deconstruct societal messages about the socially constructed gender ideals and develop their embodied identities for themselves, then researchers need to continue to explore students' thoughts and feelings through their voices. The purpose of this study was to explore girls' identification, understanding, and articulation of socially constructed gender ideals through visual images of girls in motion.
Method: Participants were nine high school girls from one coeducational ninth grade class and a dance and fitness course of 10th-12th grade girls. Data were collected from focus group interviews, picture identification artifacts, and descriptive field notes from observations. Data were analyzed using content analysis and constant comparative method.
Analysis/Results: Results indicated that participants selected images that aligned with their physical activity and social interests, not based on the physical attributes of the pictured individuals. However, through discourse and inquiry, they articulated the ‘acceptable' body and ‘appropriate' physical activities for girls according to the socially constructed female ideal and resisted the images, which did not conform to these gendered expectations.
Conclusions: This study provides insight into girls' conflicted understanding of socially constructed gender ideologies, which include gender roles, expectations, and body representations, and how these mediated messages influence their own embodied identities.
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