Habiting and caring for the body

a phenomenological-hermeneutic reading of body positive experiences

Abstract

This research aims to elucidate the ways in which women who have consumed body-positive content throughout their lives are embodying their bodies. The scientific community gives body positivity two main objectives: 1) active questioning of adjectives and discourses about bodies and 2) altering meanings (understandings) about bodies that diverge from exclusionary and empowering aesthetic standards. In an attempt to understand the webs of meaning created about the body and the world by body positive content, we conducted four narratives based on four dialogues with women who had come into contact with this content. At the end of the dialogues, we gained a deeper understanding of the individual and collective process of unveiling the body, the influence and management of the body in love relationships, as well as modes of care learned from society as a whole and from body positive media in particular.