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A Discussion on English Language Students’ Body Image: Beauty Standards and Fatness
Una discusión sobre la imagen corporal de alumnos/as de inglés: patrones de belleza y gordura
Keywords:
Beauty standard, critical language teaching, fatness, social themes (en)enseñanza crítica de lenguas, gordura, patrones de belleza, temas sociales (es)
In this qualitative study, we intend to discuss how adolescent students in a Brazilian public school classroom define their body image and personalize the themes beauty standards and fatness. Grounded on a critical approach to language teaching, these two social themes were problematized in eight lessons of Ensino Médio (secondary education). The discussion of the empirical material suggests that (1) body image is strongly connected to gendered relations, making life experiences of men and women different based on the bodies they have, and (2) beauty standard and fatness are strongly related to students’ lives since twelve out of nineteen students personalized the themes by telling oppressive stories they went through because of their bodies.
En este estudio cualitativo, nos proponemos discutir cómo alumnos/as adolescentes en un aula de una escuela pública brasileña definen su imagen corporal y personalizan los temas patrones de belleza y gordura. Basándose en un enfoque crítico a la enseñanza de inglés, esos dos temas fueron problematizados en ocho clases de enseñanza secundaria. La discusión del material empírico sugiere que (1) la imagen corporal está conectada con relaciones de carácter general, haciendo que la experiencia de hombres y mujeres sea diferente según sus cuerpos, y (2) los patrones de belleza y gordura están fuertemente conectados a las vidas de los/as alumnos/as, ya que doce de diecinueve alumnos/as personalizaron el tema al contar historias de opresión que ellos/as vivenciaron a causa de la imagen que hacen de sus cuerpos.
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