In our recent 7-day intervention project on female body image, we engaged 6 participants in a multimedia observation and recording exercise to explore how women perceive and evaluate their bodies. This article aims to summarize and reflect on the intervention process, feedback, and potential insights.
Participant Feedback Overview and Analysis
We received 5 complete pieces of feedback which revealed several key points:
- Environmental Impact: Feedback indicated that participants’ body images were universally affected by their surroundings, leading to either positive or negative interactions. External factors from society, culture, or specific groups were shaping their perceptions of their own bodies. Reflecting on Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy, the body is our primary mode of interacting with the world. As participants documented their bodily sensations, they were perceiving and understanding themselves and their environment through their bodies. By closely observing their bodies, they became more aware that the body is not just a physical entity but a subject capable of perception, thought, and interaction with the environment.
- Detailed Observation: During the 7-day diary, participants observed their bodies meticulously, noting every detail which led them to a deeper realization of their body’s uniqueness. Merleau-Ponty’s concept of ‘pre-reflective bodily existence’ highlights that the body is fundamentally connected to the world even before any reflective thought occurs. Throughout the intervention, participants’ bodies influenced their self-image and acceptance even before deep reflection, becoming aware and accepting of their bodies, an embodiment of pre-reflective bodily existence.
- Awakening of Self-Acceptance: The intervention also brought about a positive change. Over time, many participants began to recognize their close relationship with their bodies and started to learn self-acceptance. Participants expressed their body perceptions through language, which aligns with Merleau-Ponty’s view of the body and language as co-generative. Their feedback, conveyed through words about their bodily observations and feelings, also shaped their cognition of their bodies.
Reflections
The reflection on this intervention mainly includes two points:
1) the number of participants and the quantity of their feedback, and 2) the perspective on women’s self-acceptance.
Firstly, in this intervention, I invited 7 participants, of which 6 agreed to participate, and 5 provided proactive feedback within the set time. Particularly, two participants showed great interest in the activity. Compared to the male online seminar, the enthusiasm of female participants was significantly lower. Women are generally not very willing to publicly discuss body topics, and as this was an offline event taking up their time, the 7-day logging format could be seen as bothersome, even though they understood the intent. This wasn’t as engaging for them, especially if they weren’t very interested in the topic of body image. This suggests that for interventions, the flexibility of offline activities is not enough, which also confirms that today’s Generation Z relies more on the internet. This has made me realize the importance of utilizing social media. From a longer-term perspective, my project is very suitable for long-term penetration through social media. The concept of body image is not widely popular in China, and due to cultural and social reasons, it is relatively difficult to advance this topic. (I will discuss specific cases in another blog post.)
Secondly, in my project, the interventions for women are more private and safer. I hope to offer women interventions that feel more secure because when talking about the body, women often think of getting hurt, like malicious comments from outsiders. A safer intervention allows them to interact with me more relaxedly. Self-acceptance is also a relatively private topic. According to the results, I found that women pay very detailed attention to their body image, focusing on details such as fingernails, skin texture, and even how the amount of food they eat affects their weight. This result is important to me as it proves the level of anxiety women have about their body image. I also have some personal experiences; I used to care a lot about whether my nails looked good and would continuously get manicures. However, now I cannot continue this due to some reasons, which initially caused me anxiety. Over time, as I observed my nails daily, I gradually began to accept them and feel they are beautiful even without nail polish. This shows that women’s self-perception of body image is very detailed. From the 7-day log, I can clearly see that some participants are completing a journey of conversation with their bodies by answering the questions I set and through the 7-day logging. I am happy to see such results and hope more women can have this experience. This also means that, according to Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception, I have gained a deeper understanding of the subjective experience of women in the body image intervention process. Therefore, in the remaining time, I plan to design a 7-day body journey booklet for women, also in an electronic version, to allow more women to experience this dialogue with the body and to provide a rich experience for women to understand the body, body image, and the role of the body in culture and society.
In summary, the intervention on female body image provided valuable insights into how women perceive, evaluate, and accept their bodies. It also highlighted the need to tailor future interactions to better suit Gen Z women. One participant’s feedback suggested focusing on specific body parts could yield more effective observations, underscoring the detailed nature of women’s self-scrutiny. Moving forward, this suggestion will be incorporated, recognizing the importance of holistic self-observation. Despite the work ahead, this initial effort points to a promising direction.
Lastly, among the participants’ contributions, one documented a 7-day diet, offering an interesting perspective on body image concerns through food. The other two participants preferred not to have their photos shared on the blog.
Reference：
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1962). Phenomenology of Perception. Routledge & K. Paul.
Participant：MBB
Participant：Yan
Participant：Lin Wang