It's all coming together now. I have a title for my dissertation (the one that I haven't started, because I have not, as of yet, been admitted to a PhD program). The title will be:
Consumed: Internet Culture and Bodily Deviance
Thoughts?
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Field research
One of the great things about being a social scientist is field research. One of my hobbies has always been people watching. I like going to Border's after church on Sunday, sitting outside with a cup of coffee and a magazine or book, and watching all the people go by. There's something reassuring about the infinite variety of bodies in the world, and I always see a kid or a dog who makes me smile.
Which is why it's no great surprise that I love field research. Because most of my research has been historical, I haven't had much of a chance to really perfect my field experience. There's a huge difference between "people watching" and doing real, heavy anthropological/sociological research.
With my doctoral thesis, I had planned on focusing on surveys and interviews. But today it occurred to me that I could do field research on the social perceptions of thin people. We've all seen the (obnoxious, in my opinion) pseudo-field research talk show bits where someone svelte like Tyra Banks puts on a fat suit and suddenly "understands" what it's like to be a fat person in a society that loathes fat people. But how do you do the reverse? And since that's so extreme, how do you do the reverse in extreme? They make fat suits, but they don't make deathly-ill suits. (There's some commentary right in that.) Surely "underweight" people are treated with the same presumption of deafness that "overweight" people experience.
Thoughts are welcome.
Which is why it's no great surprise that I love field research. Because most of my research has been historical, I haven't had much of a chance to really perfect my field experience. There's a huge difference between "people watching" and doing real, heavy anthropological/sociological research.
With my doctoral thesis, I had planned on focusing on surveys and interviews. But today it occurred to me that I could do field research on the social perceptions of thin people. We've all seen the (obnoxious, in my opinion) pseudo-field research talk show bits where someone svelte like Tyra Banks puts on a fat suit and suddenly "understands" what it's like to be a fat person in a society that loathes fat people. But how do you do the reverse? And since that's so extreme, how do you do the reverse in extreme? They make fat suits, but they don't make deathly-ill suits. (There's some commentary right in that.) Surely "underweight" people are treated with the same presumption of deafness that "overweight" people experience.
Thoughts are welcome.
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