ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the conversations of the author and Jennifer. They have discussed about the ways they can use their bodies for power. Jennifer explained about the qualitative tradition in communication studies. It explores a critical feminist phenomenological exploration of dialectical discourses involved in the construction of the ill and well body, the fat and fit body, and the docile and athletic body. Through this auto ethnographic account, the author explores the struggle to resist the hegemonic pressures on women to use their bodies as physical capital through following diet and exercise strategies to achieve unrealistic, Western-idealized, tiny body sizes. The chapter discusses current research which explores media effects of body image in today's woman by offering a personal auto ethnographic understanding of the tensions involved achieving a 'desired' weight while resisting cultural influences on that desire. This narrative provides a provocative and deep understanding of the personal, interpersonal, and cultural issues involved in the female embodied self.
