Women’s body representations across the life course: A comparative study in Southern Brazil

Abstract

The aim of this study is to observe how women of different ages represent their bodies and the changes they undergo across their life course. The research is based on the theory of social representations, idealized by Serge Moscovici. A total of 201 women between 25 and 88 years old from southern Brazil participated in the research. The methodological instrument consists of a questionnaire containing free associations, sentence completion and selection of images. The processing and classification of the data were done by the software Evoc (2000) and content analysis. The results showed differences between the age groups. Younger women represented the body according to aesthetic references and manifested the desire to monitor the body. Older women related the body more frequently with notions of health, social relationships, and leisure. The memories of a younger body and anticipations of an older one reflected the conventions about ageing. The study also shows that concerns about bodily limitations and age-related diseases were frequent in all age groups and may guide behaviour and attitudes towards the body. The study can inform policymakers on the needs and expectations of a growing ageing sector of the population in Brazil and worldwide.

Keywords:

• Age
• body representations
• body appearance
• social representations
• women

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the women that participated in this study and Sara Esser (MSc) for her work in proofreading the manuscript.

Ethical approval

Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the Universidade Federal da Fronteira Sul Ethics Committee (approval number: 91848218.3.0000.5564).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.