My research paper for my senior seminar course is about the perception and portrayal of women’s bodies, and how this leads to unrealistic expectations of skinniness and causes eating disorders/body dysmorphia. To find secondary sources, I decided to google search different things. I searched different things like “obsession with the body”, “male expectations of the female body”, “jealousy amongst friends due to weight”, “weight biases”, etc. These searches led me to great sources that discussed multiple topics in which I will be talking about within my paper.
A lot of the sources also match key moments within my primary sources. For instance, the dynamic between Lizzie and China—Lizzie longs for validation from her friend, and internally compares her weight to China’s. The sources I found explain the psychological reasoning as to why she does this. My secondary sources also show how social media and expectations of women’s bodies affect Lizzie’s way of viewing herself. I was surprised to find sources about the Victorian and Renaissance period, and to learn about the physical harm from corsets and surgery. It’s appalling to me that women feel like they have to go to such extreme lengths to be accepted as beautiful. I had an enjoyable time doing this research, and know that my secondary sources will support my claims about women’s bodies.
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