A Phenomenological Analysis of Weight Loss Experience among Women in Naghadeh City

Despite some differences among the cultures in looking at beauty in the past, the modern society has provided a unique beauty ideal for the body shape that is slim. In recent decades, the slimming phenomenon, as an ideal of beauty derived from the western culture, has changed the meaning and definition of the body among women in transitional societies. Slimming for a woman is considered as being, alive and a part of a woman's perception of her being. A few decades ago, pictures of women covered the magazines in various shapes and sizes, while in today's magazines and media, there are only pictures of tall and slender women )Dinc & Alisinanoglu, 2010(. The emphasis on slimming has been transferred from the media to the daily life of people and has become widespread among the public. It is called "the tyranny of slenderness" (Chernin, 1981, cited by Fitzsimmons-Craft, 2012: 43). In Iran, during the past decades, the ideal body has been a slim body (Safavi, 2009:129 cited by Khani Hanjani & Alvand, 2017: 20).  Published reports from the study area (Naghadeh city in West Azerbaijan province) show the tendency of women to industrial drugs (Rah-e Dana Information Network, 2016) and using pills and capsules to lose their weight. The diverse range of slimming techniques, from invasive procedures such as surgery and medication to dieting, constitutes the daily experience of a large number of women in Iran. Slimming, as the main dimension of body management, along with its other aspects including the use of cosmetics and surgery, have been reviewed, while an independent and specific study has not focused on the meaning and the experience of women from losing weight.  

In the present study, a qualitative method, with an emphasis on the phenomenological procedure was used to assess the slimming phenomenon as a state of being. The data were collected using the interview and observation techniques based on saturation criteria among 19-50-year-old women in Naghadeh. Van Manen’s method was used to analyze the data. In this study, a selective approach was used to extract the themes. Based on this approach, sentences with semantic meanings were identified. After transcribing the interviews, the thematic coding method was used to reach the categories and the open coding was used to expand the mentioned categories. After conducting 17 interviews, the data were saturated. The credibility of the research was ensured using the members’ and colleagues' reviews. In order to get the transformability of the data, a comprehensive description of the participants' conditions, including age, marital status, education, and employment were provided. Also, to get the dependability of the data, referential adequacy was used so that the direct quotes of the participants could be provided.

Analyzing the perception of women from weight loss as an ideal beauty showed 5 main themes including the distinction, physical program, the moral construction of the body, the rejection of the abnormal body, and the construction of visual identity. Also, after analyzing the reasons for women's tendency to lose weight, 3 themes were identified: male habitus dominance, pretense and consumption, and attractiveness as a means of participation in power. In general, slimming, in addition to being the ideal body shape and the final aim of colorful diets is also considered as a symbol of the degraded presence of women in the society since it indicates the dominance of the bodily definition of women in the society. The internalization of slimming by women also shows a strong perception of physicality among women. It shows that being a woman is perceived as a physical object. Thus, slimming is a phenomenon that reveals the ways and reasons of femininity as a physical object. The theme of ‘male habitus dominance’ in clarifying the reasons and ways of the dominance of this perception from a woman serves as a link between other themes. Under the influence of the male habitus dominance, men and women define and classify women with their bodies. Slimming, as a kind of norm and identity is internalized and the body becomes the center of investment and marking due to increasing normative pressures, abnormal body rejection, and media representations. For example, the procedures of distinction and luxurious presentation redefine themselves by disregarding the usual and common food at parties, strict and expensive selection of healthy food items, justifying the adherence to a health and fitness diet, and so on. The body is so important that the investments are formed according to age conditions and stimulates a sense of ontological security in the person. Medical pieces of advice also accompany the process by linking obesity to disease and weight loss to health. The moral perception of weight loss calls obesity a weakness in controlling the appetite and weight loss as self-improvement and success. Of course, by investing in the body through enduring slimming diets and constant exercise and excessive manipulation of their body, women benefit from the physical capital while they are being enslaved in their bodies. The complex system that defines women by their bodies, and forces women to follow the expectations of this system, gives them the opportunity provided through the ideal body. In this situation, it is suggested that to get out of this problem, through culturalization, control, and serious review of the socialization process in the younger generations, there should be effective changes in the norms and meanings that strengthen the body-centered view of women. Also, by promoting the status of women, removing the barriers to women's participation in the society, and allowing them to access the economic and social capital, we can alleviate women's extreme reliance on their physical capital.