Risky Objects: Illustrating Situated Body Image Experience

This autoethnographic PhD research utilises personal experience of eating disorders as a lens to critique broader culture. Poor body image will affect most Western women and girls; it is part of our everyday being. Western ideals have been used to construct race, sex, and class hierarchies, and continue to influence our cultural discourse. Although ideals shift over time, the white, thin ideal has been unwavering and othering.

Like the body, the home has also become idealised. Although the home can be experienced as a place of comfort and familiarity, struggles can hide in plain sight. Through object illustrations mimicking domestic ware, I invite the audience to sit at my childhood dinner table.

Illustration must communicate with an audience and through my object illustrations I aim to develop a methodology to engage groups of women in critical dialogue on body image. However, this topic risks causing distress meaning a balance between sensitivity and honest testimony is needed. By illustrating open and fragmented narratives I try to create objects that engage audiences while avoiding potential retraumatisation. Each group provides feedback to inform the following round of this reflective and iterative practice. This article describes the first group engagement where I consider how emotion and affect can generate affective resonance.