Özet:

The body, taken as the meaning of a material being, is not only personal but public. Therefore, it is not independent of social practices, cultural codes, historical transformations, discourses. Thus, questioning how the body is controlled, watched and disciplined by the power relations is important. Following the pastoral power of Christianity and the rational power of Modernism, today’s body has become the area of intervention and domination of several industries such as health, aesthetics, fashion and media. The current power mechanism produced by global capitalism and postmodern consumption culture forces the body to become ideal and this ideal body design wraps all the non-ideal bodies. However, this situation revives the struggle practices against the ideal. Especially the interactive and user-focused structure of the new media enables individuals to produce contents and transmit them to the public area. In the current study, primarily the body-power relations and ideal body design of the consumption culture were discussed on a theoretical context. Then, the Body Positive Movement, which has been propagated through the new media by the women activists in Turkey and in the World as a struggle against the ideal body design, was examined. Finally, a reception analysis questioning the interaction between power relations and signification practices of the individuals was performed. Reception of Body Positive Movement by postgraduate (MSc) students in the areas of Communication Sciences and Women Studies at May 9 and Gazi Universities was examined, after having the students watched a video entitled Achieving an Ideal Body.

Özet:

Body, taken as the meaning of a material being, is not only personal but public. Therefore, it is not independent of social practices, cultural codes, historical transformations, discourses. Thus, questioning how the body is controlled, watched and disciplined by the power relations is important. Following the pastoral power of Christianity and rational power of Modernism, today body has become the area of intervention and domination of several industries such as health, aesthetics, fashion and media. The current power mechanism produced by global capitalism and postmodern consumption culture enforces the body to become ideal and this ideal body design wraps all the non-ideal bodies. However, this situation revives the struggle practices against the ideal. Especially the interactive and user-focused structure of the new media enables individuals to produce contents and convey them to the public area. In the current study, primarily the body-power relations and ideal body design of the consumption culture were discussed on a theoretical context. Then, the Body Positive Movement, which has been propagated through the new media particularly by the woman activists in Turkey and in the World as a struggle against the ideal body design, was examined. Finally, a reception analysis questioning the interaction between power relations and signification practices of the individuals was performed. Reception of Body Positive Movement by postgraduate (MSc) students in the areas of Communication Sciences and Women Studies at Ondokuz Mayıs and Gazi Universities was examined, after having the students watched a video entitled Achieving an Ideal Body.

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