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Exploring Biculturality and Beauty Standards Through Breast Discourse and Breasted Experience of Sexual Minority Women

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Exploring Biculturality and Beauty Standards Through Breast Discourse and Breasted Experience of Sexual Minority Women University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 5-2014 Exploring Biculturality and Beauty Standards through Breast Discourse and Breasted Experience of Sexual Minority Women Christine Laura Beck University of Tennessee - Knoxville, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes Part of the Counseling Commons, Psychology Commons, and the Sociology Commons Recommended Citation Beck, Christine Laura, "Exploring Biculturality and Beauty Standards through Breast Discourse and Breasted Experience of Sexual Minority Women. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2014. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/2703 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Christine Laura Beck entitled "Exploring Biculturality and Beauty Standards through Breast Discourse and Breasted Experience of Sexual Minority Women." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in Psychology. Dawn M. Szymanski, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: Joseph R. Miles, Gina P. Owens Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) Exploring Biculturality and Beauty Standards through Breast Discourse and Breasted Experience of Sexual Minority Women A Thesis Presented for the Master of Arts Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Christine Laura Beck May 2014 ii Abstract Body satisfaction and embodied experience are fundamental components of women’s mental health. This is especially true for sexual minority women (SMW) who experience the complex demands of biculturality, as they must attend to the appearance ideals of both mainstream and SMW subculture. The current study aimed to investigate SMW’s bicultural experiences of body satisfaction and beauty pressures through a focused exploration of SMW’s breast discourse and breasted experience. Specifically, we hoped to discern more conclusive findings on whether the SMW subculture acts to protect SMW from the negative effects of mainstream, heteronormative beauty standards as proposed by previous research findings. We conducted a qualitative study of 11 SMW with questions focused on a variety of experiential areas including breast development, gender identity, romantic relationships, mainstream culture and media, and SMW subculture. Data analysis resulted in 13 primary themes and 26 subthemes. From the thematic aggregate, a preliminary theoretical model emerged detailing the relationships and interactions among various social and personal-based factors and influences. Results determined that breasts as a gender marker, gender identity, the breast/chest-gender identity relationship, and internalized sexism and beauty codes are the principal factors involved in SMW’s bicultural breasted experience and beauty standard negotiation. These factors, emergent themes, and the preliminary theoretical model are discussed, along with clinical implications, study limitations, and future research directions. iii Table of Contents Chapter I: Introduction.....................................................................................................................1 Chapter II: Literature Review ..........................................................................................................2 Women’s Body Satisfaction........................................................................................................2 Body Satisfaction in SMW Subculture .......................................................................................3 Feminism and Body Satisfaction.................................................................................................6 Breasted Experience....................................................................................................................7 Current Study ..............................................................................................................................8 Chapter III: Method .......................................................................................................................10 Participants and Procedure.........................................................................................................10 Researcher Reflexivity Statement..............................................................................................10 Data Collection ..........................................................................................................................11 Data Analysis.............................................................................................................................11 Data Auditing.............................................................................................................................13 Chapter IV: Results........................................................................................................................14 Breast Development Experiences ..............................................................................................14 Breasts and Coming Out ............................................................................................................16 Breasts as a Gender Marker .......................................................................................................17 Breasts/chest and GI ..................................................................................................................19 Heteronormative Breast Beauty Scripts and Preferences ..........................................................22 Breast Attention .........................................................................................................................24 Breast Comparison.....................................................................................................................29 SMW Subculture Breast Beauty Scripts and Preferences..........................................................32 SMW Subculture Message of Breast/body Acceptance ............................................................36 Breast Perceptions by Self .........................................................................................................38 Dressing Breasts/chest ...............................................................................................................40 Breast Functionality...................................................................................................................41 Navigating and Coping with Breast Beauty Scripts ..................................................................43 Conceptual Model......................................................................................................................46 Chapter V: Discussion ...................................................................................................................58 Clinical Implications..................................................................................................................61 Limitations and Future Research ...............................................................................................62 List of References ..........................................................................................................................65 Appendices.....................................................................................................................................70 Appendix A................................................................................................................................71 Appendix B ................................................................................................................................72 Appendix C ................................................................................................................................73 Appendix D................................................................................................................................74 Vita.................................................................................................................................................75 1 Chapter I Introduction Body satisfaction and embodied experience are fundamental components of women’s mental health. This is especially true for sexual minority women (SMW) who experience the complex demands of biculturality, as they must attend to sexual orientation based minority stressors and the appearance ideals of both mainstream and SMW subculture (Beren, Hayden, Wilfley, & Striegel-Moore, 1997). These sometimes conflicting ideals can create heightened stress and unique internal conflicts for SMW (Beren, Hayden, Wilfley, & Grilo, 1996; Beren et al., 1997; Kelly, 2007; Myers, Taub, Morris, & Rothblum, 1999; Pitman, 2000). There have been numerous studies conducted to investigate body satisfaction and appearance norms exclusively in SMW culture (Beren et al., 1997; Kelly, 2007; Myers et al., 1999;
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