ABSTRACT

Drawing on the conceptual frameworks of Bourdieu and postfeminism, this article analyses extant tensions between young women’s gendered habitus and the health-related learning spaces of Physical Education (PE) and Instagram. We draw on data from a two-phase qualitative research project with thirty-seven young women (aged 15–17) from three secondary schools in Spain who self-defined as physically active and engaging with exercise content on Instagram. Data obtained through focus groups and semi-structured interviews reveal how these young women’s subjectivities are formed through negotiating the gender ‘rules of the game’ within these key pedagogical fields. Notably, most participants were critical of their learning in PE, which mainly remains a traditional masculine field. By contrast, they valued Instagram as an engaging space in which to learn about fitness to transform their bodies toward the feminine ideal. This involved a constant process of self-optimization, including the development of the ‘right’ mental dispositions, fitting strongly with their gendered habitus. Within this paper, we have developed the concept of ‘postfeminist habitus’ to explain the participants’ engagements with health-related content on Instagram, which through language of choice and empowerment, disciplined the young women to achieve the normative body as a marker of success. We argue that while there are notably different patterns of engagement with PE and Instagram, in both spaces there is evidence of symbolic violence that reproduces the gender order. We conclude by suggesting changes that might make PE a more meaningful and hybrid learning space for young women.

摘要

本文借鉴布迪厄和后女性主义的概念框架，分析了年轻女性的性别习惯与体育 (PE) 和 Instagram 的健康相关学习空间之间现存的紧张关系。我们利用来自西班牙三所中学的 37 名年轻女性（15-17 岁）的两阶段定性研究项目的数据，她们自我定义为身体活跃并参与 Instagram 上的锻炼内容。通过焦点小组和半结构化访谈获得的数据揭示了这些年轻女性的主体性是如何通过在这些关键教学领域内协商性别“游戏规则”而形成的。值得注意的是，大多数参与者对他们在体育领域的学习持批评态度，这主要是一个传统的男性领域。相比之下，他们将 Instagram 视为一个引人入胜的空间，可以在其中学习健身，从而将自己的身体转变为女性理想。这涉及一个不断自我优化的过程，包括发展“正确”的心理倾向，与他们的性别习惯非常吻合。在本文中，我们提出了“后女性主义习惯”的概念来解释参与者在 Instagram 上与健康相关内容的互动，通过选择和授权的语言，训练年轻女性成为成功的标志。 . 我们认为，虽然 PE 和 Instagram 的参与模式明显不同，但在这两个空间中，都存在再现性别秩序的象征性暴力的证据。