That I cannot Tell You Either: An Autoethnographic Illustration Practice.

My doctoral research concerns how using illustration, clay and the museum can come together to explore women’s body image through two case studies. One case study addresses western idealised body image discourse by responding to gendered visual messaging in museum collections, the other utilises my personal experience of poor body image and eating disorders within the childhood home. I aim to bring both case studies together to demonstrate how cultural discourse affects macro and micro experience.

Illustration is “a ‘working art’ that visually communicates context to audience.” (Male, 2017, p.5). Moving beyond the page challenges a discipline concerned with context and dissemination when creating audience specific work (Doyle, 2014), however, the intimacy and close engagement with an object illustration may prompt discussion and reflection within the audience when illustrating experiences of body image. Illustrating domestic objects depicting body image experience situates the home as where my body image preoccupation began; conversations occur, family dine together, and gendered behaviour is formed. Encountering seemingly familiar objects (Fig. 1) out of context may prompt disconcerting feelings within the viewer, placing a spotlight on body image conversations within the environment where identity develops.


Culture can be understood as a series of practices that produce and exchange meaning within society (Hall, 1997). Although there may be many interpretations of any topic, it is expected that women in western society will experience and interpret representations of body image messaging in similar ways (Hall, 1997) as “...cultural meanings are not only ‘in the head’. They organize and regulate social practices, influence our conduct and consequently have real, practical effects” (Hall, 1997 p.3). Peers, parents, and the media affect our body image (Keery et al. 2004). Living environments can prove a particularly difficult and complex negotiation when developing identity and a woman’s body (Fig.2). A family which highly regards appearance and cultural ideals can impact on a daughter’s view of herself, potentially leading “to greater difficulties with disordered eating and weight concerns” (Kluck, 2010 p.8; Fig. 3). As body dissatisfaction has become somewhat normal (Grogan, 2017) and an almost expected conversation amongst women (Lin et al., 2021), this research suggests it may be beneficial to design illustration workshops that places body image issues as a manifestation of a societal issue with non-clinical populations.


References:

Doyle, S. (2014) Acknowledging a ‘missing history?’. Journal of Illustration, 1 (2), 177-187.

Grogan, S. (2017) Body image. Understanding body dissatisfaction in men, women and children. 3rd ed. Oxon: Routledge.

Hall, S. ed. (1997) Representation: cultural representations and signifying practices. London: Sage Publications.

Keery, H., van den Berg, P. and Thompson, K, J. (2004) An evaluation of the Tripartite Influence Model of body dissatisfaction and eating disturbance with adolescent girls. Body Image, 1, 237-251.

Kluck, S, A. (2010) Family influence on disordered eating: the role of body image dissatisfaction. Body Image, 7, 8-14.

Male, A. (2017) Illustration: A Theoretical & Contextual Perspective. 2nd ed. London: Bloomsbury.

Lin, L., Flynn, M. and O’Dell, D. (2021) Measuring positive and negative body talk in men and women: the development and validation of the Body Talk Scale. Body Image, 37, 106–116.