Belonging, Becoming, and the Female Body: A Phenomenological Hermeneutic Inquiry into Overweight Women's Experience of Belonging in Western Contexts
Abstract
The purpose of this study, which utilized a phenomenological hermeneutic methodological framework, was to gain a deeper understanding, through the lived experience of self-proclaimed overweight women, of the sense of belonging. Five middle-aged women participants participated in group gatherings as well as one-on-one interviews with the researcher, where the experience of belonging was the central focus. The data was then analyzed via an hermeneutic framework guided by Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics. Findings from this research revealed that overweight women face some powerful tensions as they come to terms with their growing bodies. An exploration of language and dominant discourses presented diverse and disparate meanings of specific words as well as grand ideals. Borrowing from van Manen’s work, four lived existentials (lived space, lived, time, lived body, and lived relation) are explored in a form of interpretation to gain deeper understanding of one participant’s words. Stigma and shame are explored, leading to the suggestion that living under a highly negative stigma can lead to a form of embodied shame (Bouson, 2009). Heidegger’s notions of homelessness, abiding, and homecoming are considered in coming to better understand the experience of moving between belonging and not, as the participants’ bodies became factors that cast them from their familiar lives into a form of abiding homelessness, in which each participant has had to find her own way. More conversations with and between like and different individuals, I conclude, are necessary in breaking through silences and allow for deeper understanding of self and other. Additionally, this research speaks to the need to draw attention to the grand narratives, and to explore and listen to other, non-dominant, and perhaps, more meaningful discourses.
Description
Keywords
Education, Education--Curriculum and Instruction, Education--Early Childhood, Education--Elementary, Education--Health, Philosophy, Anthropology--Physical, Gender Studies, WomenÕs Studies, Education, Public Health
Citation
Beierling, S. P. (2017). Belonging, Becoming, and the Female Body: A Phenomenological Hermeneutic Inquiry into Overweight Women's Experience of Belonging in Western Contexts (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/25107