“IT’S JUST GYM”: PHYSICALITY AND IDENTITY AMONG AFRICAN AMERICAN ADOLESCENT GIRLS by STEPHANIE M. MCCLURE, MPH Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation Adviser: Dr. Eileen Anderson-Fye Department of Anthropology CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY May, 2013 CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES We hereby approve the dissertation of Stephanie M. McClure Candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy degree*. (signed)_____ Eileen P. Anderson-Fye, EdD_________ Chair of the committee ______Atwood D. Gaines, PhD, MPH______ _________Janet W. McGrath, PhD________ ________Jonathan Sadowsky, PhD________ (date) October 31, 2012 *We also certify that written approval has been obtained for any proprietary material contained therein. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES__________________________________________________________iv LIST OF FIGURES________________________________________________________ v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS___________________________________________________vii ABSTRACT______________________________________________________________ix CHAPTER 1 – CULTURAL SYSTEMS AND PHYSICALITY 1 SECTION 1.1 – PROLOGUE SECTION 1.2 - AT THE INTERSECTION OF MYTH AND EXPERIENCE SUBSECTION 1.2.A - ENVIRONMENT AND ACCULTURATION SUBSECTION 1.2.B - TEASED INTO SILENCE SUBSECTION 1.2.C - THE ETHOS OF ACCEPTABLE PRESENTATION SUBSECTION 1.2.D – NON-HOMOGENEOUS RACIALIZATION SUBSECTION 1.2.E - MUFFLED AGENCY SECTION 1.3 – CONDITIONAL LESSONS SECTION 1.4 – MODELING PHYSICALITY-INFORMED IDENTITY SECTION 1.5 – THE STUDY SECTION 1.6 – A ROAD MAP CHAPTER 2 – ADOLESCENT SETTING, ADULT STAGING 49 SECTION 2.1 - INTRODUCTION SECTION 2.2 – COMMUNITY, DESIGN AND METHODS SUBSECTION 2.2.A - COMMUNITY SUBSECTION 2.2.B - METHODS SUBSECTION 2.2.C - RECRUITMENT SUBSECTION 2.2.D – PARTICIPANT IDENTIFICATION SUBSECTION 2.2.E – TERMINOLOGY SUBSECTION2.2.F – SAMPLE DEMOGRAPHICS SUBSECTION 2.2.G. – DATA COLLECTION SECTION 2.3 – THE WHOLE ELEPHANT CHAPTER 3 – UNMASKING THE SALIENCE OF GENDER 75 SECTION 3.1 - INTRODUCTION SECTION 3.2 – AN UNEXPECTED FINDING i SUBSECTION 3.2.A – PROWESS UNDERGIRDS “LADY” SUBSECTION 3.2.B – MANLY ACTS AS MANLY LOOKS SECTION 3.3 - CONSTRUCTING PHYSICALITY THROUGH GENDER SECTION 3.4 - PHYSICALITY, PREFABRICATION AND ENACTED NARRATIVE SUBSECTION 3.4.A – GENDER AND THE MANLY WOMAN SUBSECTION 3.4.B – CLASS AND THE BLACK LADY ` SECTION 3.5 – RESISTING MANLY, EMBRACING LADY, TRANSFORMING BOTH SECTION 3.6 – CONCLUSION CHAPTER 4 – PERFORMING, CONFORMING, RESISTING: PHYSICALITY AND THE NEGOTIATION OF IDENTITY 126 SECTION 4.1 – INTRODUCTION SECTION 4.2 – FROM UNEMBODIMENT TO BODY AGENCY SECTION 4.3 – QUERYING UNEMBODIMENT SECTION 4.4 – PE CLASS STRUCTURE AT PROGRESSIVE STEPPES HIGH SUBSECTION 4.4.A – PE ENGAGEMENT – INSTITUTIONAL SUBGROUPINGS SUBSECTION 4.4.B – PE CLASS ENGAGEMENT AMONG STUDY PARTICIPANTS SUBSECTION 4.4.C – WHO’S A PLAYER? SECTION 4.5 – SOCIAL DYNAMICS, EMBODIMENT AND ATHLETICS SECTION 4.6 – CULTURE IN PERSONS OR PERSONS IN CULTURE? SECTION 4.7 – FLESHING OUT UNEMBODIMENT SUBSECTION 4.7.A – THE MULTIPLE CONSTRUCTIONS OF GENDER SUBSECTION 4.7.B – ACCOUNTING FOR CLASS SECTION 4.8 – POLICING THE GROUNDS OF RELATIONSHIP SECTION 4.9 – SEPARATION AS RESISTANCE SECTION 4.10 – RESISTANCE, IDENTITY AND BODY AGENCY: TWO EXAMPLES SECTION 4.11 – CONCLUSION CHAPTER 5 – DISCERNING, CONSTRUCTING, DERIVING: SCHEMATIC NARRATIVE TEMPLATES OF PHYSICALITY 218 SECTION 5.1 – INTRODUCTION SECTION 5.2 – EMPLOTTING PHYSICALITY SECTION 5.3 – POPULATING THE FIELD OF PHYSICALITY AND IDENTITY SUBSECTION 5.3.A – GO HARD OR GO HOME SUBSECTION 5.3.B – CONTROL IS FUN SUBSECTION 5.3.C – THE UNWITTINGLY UNFIT SUBSECTION 5.3.D – BIG GIRLS DON’T SWEAT SUBSECTION 5.3.E – SHARED BORDERLANDS AND BORDERLAND INHABITANTS SUBSECTION 5.3.F – A MULTIPLE OCCUPIER SECTION 5.4 – MAKING MEANING OF TEMPLATES AND MULTIPLE OCCUPIERS ii SECTION 5.5 – OVERALL LESSONS CHAPTER 6 – FRIENDS OVER FITNESS: PHYSICALITY AND PERSONAL NETWORKS 283 SECTION 6.1 – INTRODUCTION SECTION 6.2 – CULTURE, RELATIONSHIP AND BEHAVIOR SECTION 6.3 – NETWORK ANALYSIS SUBSECTION 6.3.A – PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND RELATIONSHIP SUBSECTION 6.3.B – IMPORTANCE OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY/TEMPLATE CATEGORIES SUBSECTION 6.3.C – IMPORTANCE OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY/NETWORK CONNECTEDNESS SECTION 6.3 – LIMITATIONS AND DISCUSSION SECTION 6.4 – CONCLUSION CHAPTER 7 – CLAIMING PHYSICALITY AND HUMANITY 303 SECTION 7.1 – SUMMARY AND IMPLICATIONS SECTION 7.2 – LIMITATIONS SECTION 7.3 – NEXT STEPS SECTION 7.4 – FINAL THOUGHTS APPENDICES 318 APPENDIX A – PARTICIPANT IDENTIFICATION BY TEMPLATE APPENDIX B – INTERVIEW GUIDE I APPENDIX C – INTERVIEW GUIDE II APPENDIX D – PERSONAL NETWORK GRID APPENDIX E – PARTICIPANT ANTHROPOMETRICS APPENDIX F – COLLAGE IMAGE COUNT APPENDIX G – PARTICIPANT YEARS IN DISTRICT APPENDIX H – HOUSEHOLD INCOME BY CENSUS TRACT APPENDIX I – SAMPLE DEMOGRAPHICS APPENDIX J – PHASE I SURVEY BIBLIOGRAPHY______________________________________________________ 354 iii List of Tables Chapter 2 Table 2.1 – Participant template identification table 61 Chapter 4 Table 4.1 – BMI categorization for the sample compared with the 139 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System Table 4.2 – PE Class Categorization 146 Table 4.3 - Side-by-side comparison of BMI, institutional 170 categorization, and states of unembodiment (body agency) Chapter 5 Table 5.1: Meta-matrix example 229 Chapter 6 Table 6. 1 – Proportion of relationship in which physical activity 296 was important by closeness category iv List of Figures Chapter 1 Figure 1.1 – Conceptualization of context 34 Figure 1.2 – Dialectics of identity 37 Figure 1.3 – Identity model, gender foregrounded 39 Figure 1.4 – Identity model with focus on self-experience 46 Chapter 2 Figure 2.1 – Identity model with high school as foregrounded 52 context Chapter 3 Figure 3.1 – Focus group free association images 83 Figure 3.2 – Collage, CF4 85 Figure 3.3 - Collage, CF45 88 Figure 3.4 – Collage, GH60 94 Figure 3.5 –Dialectics of “appropriately gendered appearance and 97 deportment” Figure 3.6 – Range and boundaries of gendered physicality 97 Figure 3.7 – Collage, BG36 98 Figure 3.8 – Collage, UU14 113 Figure 3.9 – Collage, BG18 116 Figure 3.10 – Collage, GH43 124 Chapter 4 Figure 4.1 – Identity model, setting-focused 133 Figure 4.2 – Dissonance between self-experience and self- 147 representation Figure 4.3 – Dissonance between context and self-experience 147 Figure 4.4 – Collage, GH60 154 Figure 4.5 – Collage, GH43 157 Figure 4.6 - Collage, UU2 160 Figure 4.7 – Collage, GH5 171 Figure 4.8 – Context and self-representation muffle self- 185 experience (the shading of the elements represents their volubility) Figure 4.9 – Collage, UU50 187 Figure 4.10 – Collage, GH16 191 Figure 4.11 – Self-experience↔self-representaion consonance 192 (exhibited by GH16) Figure 4.12 – Collage, MO55 209 v Chapter 5 Figure 5.1 – Identity model with gender as dominant context 220 Figure 5.2 – Quadrants of physicality 221 Figure 5.3 – Physicality scatterplot 223 Figure 5.4 –Collage, GH25 235 Figure 5.5 – Collage, CF28 243 Figure 5.6 – Collage, UU32 248 Figure 5.7 – Collage, BG54 262 Figure 5.8 – Collage MO26 273 Chapter 6 Figure 6.1 – Elements salient to physicality revealed by analysis 285 Figure 6.2 – Duration of alter relationship 289 Figure 6.3 – Collage, UU19 294 Figure 6.4 – Variance in importance of PA to relationship by 298 template category vi Acknowledgements It is said that no one succeeds alone, and I am certainly no exception to this truth. On the journey of my doctoral education, I have been blessed with the support of my family, especially my father, James McClure, who faithfully supplemented my meager income and funded my pilot research project; and my mother, Joan McClure, who was the chief recruiter for my pilot project. They also supported me in myriad other ways, but their participation in the pilot project made their faith tangible. I have also enjoyed the support of many old and new friends. I wish to particularly acknowledge Carrie Sayers, who was always available for a grounding chat to help me keep my eyes on the prize. Thanks to Patty Wolford and Lauren Lanham for always showing up to help, whatever the task. Corine Sinnette and Nadia El-Shaarawi were key listeners and encouragers. Thanks to Ruth Magtanong and Zoey and Joey for the regular neighborhood walks that helped me keep going, and to Eric Kightly for his stats help in the early days of data analysis. Mike Rueschman gave me the marvelous gifts of setting up my database, transforming my accelerometer data, and gently guiding my analysis of the same. Liza Pappas, my writing partner and dissertation-crunch coach, was a godsend as I approached my submission deadline. Finally, I owe a great deal of the coherence of this work to the careful reading and thoughtful critiques of my Dissertation Fight Club partner, Bridget Haas. Through their questions, suggestions and critiques, my committee and professors have helped me find the anthropology in the research question with which I vii entered graduate school, and the anthropologist within myself who could answer that question. Thanks especially to Eileen Anderson-Fye, Atwood Gaines, Janet McGrath, Jonathan Sadowsky and Renee Sentilles. I am deeply grateful for the generous financial support I have enjoyed from Case Western Reserve University, the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation. Their funding was not only a critical part of making my dream of doctoral education into a reality; it was also demonstration