“Presentable for the outside world”: Social class, cultural capital and body image amongst White working-class women in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Women’s body image is influenced by sociocultural factors. Given that social class shapes people’s sociocultural environments and socialisation experiences, little is known about how social class influences women’s body image. Moreover, given that existing body image literature tends to recruit early adult middle-class populations, working-class women’s body image experiences remain underrepresented in appearance research. The current study aims to broaden the understanding of women’s body image by examining how working-class women in early adulthood make sense of their bodies and appearance using an interpretative phenomenological approach. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 cisgender, heterosexual, White working-class women (21–35 years old) in the United Kingdom. Our findings highlight how theWhite working-class women in our sample were passively situated in positions where they lacked choice and control over the events that take place in their lives (Superordinate Theme 1). Within these contexts, they made sense of the importance of adhering to group norms to avoid social penalties (via appearance; Superordinate Theme 2), and viewed appearance as a form of capital that garners intrinsic gains and extrinsic benefits (Superordinate Theme 3). Our findings reflect the uniqueness of our sample of younger working-class women’s body image experiences and highlight the importance of emic research in giving voice to underrepresented populations.