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Breaking gendered boundaries? Exploring constructions of counter-normative body hair practices in Āotearoa/New Zealand using story completion

Jennings, Emily; Braun, Virginia; Clarke, Victoria

Breaking gendered boundaries? Exploring constructions of counter-normative body hair practices in Āotearoa/New Zealand using story completion Thumbnail


Authors

Emily Jennings

Virginia Braun

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Dr Victoria Clarke Victoria.Clarke@uwe.ac.uk
Associate Professor in Qualitative & Critical Psychology



Abstract

© 2019, © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. Do women with body hair continue to evoke disgust? Are men without body hair read only as athletes and/or gay? To explore contemporary sense-making practices around apparently counter-normative gendered body hair practice, we developed a two-stem story completion task. We collected stories from 161 undergraduate students (129 women and 32 men) about David, who had decided to start removing body hair, and Jane, who had decided to stop removing body hair. We analysed the data thematically within a constructionist framework, resulting in three themes: secrecy and shame; the personal benefits of going against the grain; and the personal is political. The personal benefits theme included four distinct (gendered) subthemes: increased heterosexual attractiveness; increased sporting prowess; removal of a hassle; and liberation from conformity. These story data gave access to familiar but also somewhat different accounts than those collected through typical self-report measures.

Citation

Jennings, E., Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2019). Breaking gendered boundaries? Exploring constructions of counter-normative body hair practices in Āotearoa/New Zealand using story completion. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 16(1), 74-95. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2018.1536386

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Aug 11, 2018
Online Publication Date Dec 24, 2018
Publication Date Jan 2, 2019
Deposit Date Sep 12, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Qualitative Research in Psychology
Print ISSN 1478-0887
Electronic ISSN 1478-0895
Publisher Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 16
Issue 1
Pages 74-95
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2018.1536386
Keywords depilation, female body hair, male body hair, thematic analysis
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/854752
Publisher URL https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2018.1536386
Additional Information Additional Information : This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Qualitative Research in Psychology on 24th December 2018, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2018.1536386.

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