That Swimsuit Reveals You: Body Image and Bathing Suits of Florida Women
The cover design is artwork by Danielle Storey which includes a turquoise Aztec mask with feathers, Minoan mask with a white face and red and green head adornment, a gold Egyptian death mask, and a turquoise, obsidian, and shell mask from Teotihuacan. The logo, name, and ISSN of the New Florida Journal of Anthropology is also included.
pdf

Keywords

Body Image, Swimsuits, Race and Ethnicity, Florida Women, Anthropometry

Abstract

Swimsuits are the most revealing garment that American women wear publicly. Yet wearing them affects how women feel about their bodies and attractiveness. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from convenience samples of Florida women and analyzed in terms of five strata: Competitors (competitive swimmers, beauty-pageant contestants, swimsuit models); College students (Afro-Caribbean, Asian, Black/Afro-American, Hispanic, White); and Adult women (North Florida Black and White; South-Beach Hispanic, and pregnant, as well as older women (doing water aerobics). Anthropometric data (BMI, waist circumference, waist-hip ratios, and bust-waist ratios) were collected and related to Figure Rating Scales and body descriptors, preferred and actual body shapes and sizes, and swimwear types and usage by situations (one-piece, two-piece, bikini, and thong worn in the presence of family and friends or on the beach and in private). Results, matching the literature show participants: (1) overestimate their body size and shape discrepancy from cultural ideals; (2) are affected by the media-depicting “thin ideal. Details of swimwear usage show that for Black and some Hispanic women, constructions of attractiveness are changed to laud larger size to mediate body dissatisfaction and enhance swimsuit use. For Asian women, conservative values rather than body size affect swimsuit usage. But even competitors who enjoy the benefits of swimsuits, as well as women of all ages (body-dissatisfaction continues throughout the lifespan) and ethnic/racial groups, still express body dissatisfaction.

https://doi.org/10.32473/nfja.v2i1.124046
pdf

By submitting to the New Florida Journal of Anthropology, the author(s) agree to the terms of the Author Agreement. All authors retain copyrights associated with their article contributions and agree to make such contributions available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license upon publication.

Florida OJ Author Agreement (University of Florida)

The following agreement takes effect upon acceptance of the Submission (“Submission”) for publication in the New Florida Journal of Anthropology:

I hereby grant to the University of Florida (“the University”) the non-exclusive right to retain, reproduce and distribute the Submission in whole or in part, in print and electronic format and in any medium. This agreement does not represent a transfer of copyright to the University.

The University may make and keep multiple copies of the work for purposes of security, backup, preservation and access; and may migrate the work to any medium or format for the purpose of preservation and access.

I represent and warrant to the University that the work is my original work and that I have the authority as sole author or I have the authority on behalf of my co-authors to grant the rights contained in this agreement. I also represent that the work does not, to the best of my knowledge, infringe or violate any rights of others.

I further represent and warrant that I have obtained all necessary rights to permit the University to reproduce and distribute the work, including any third-party material. Alternatively, I represent that my use of any third-party material is allowed because the material is not in copyright or I have performed a fair use analysis and reasonably believe my use is permitted. Any content owned by a third party is clearly identified and acknowledged within the work.

I grant these same rights to New Florida Journal of Anthropology. Additionally, I grant the right to both the University and New Florida Journal of Anthropology to enter into agreements with third-party entities and the rights necessary to host, print, index and abstract the Submission.

Open Access and Self-Archiving

The New Florida Journal of Anthropology follows an open-access publishing model, meaning that all articles will be publicly accessible on the Internet immediately upon publication.Authors may share the submitted manuscript (preprint) of the Submission on the Internet at any point before or after publication, with a citation and link to the final version of record to be added as soon as the issue is available. The author may disseminate the final peer-reviewed version at any point after publication.

Creative Commons License

The New Florida Journal of Anthropology applies a Creative Commons CC BY-NC 4.0 license to encourage sharing and reuse of content and to maximize the impact of published research. By publishing in the New Florida Journal of Anthropology, authors agree that the terms of this license will be applied to the Submission. The George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida (copyright@uflib.ufl.edu) may be able to offer additional information.

By granting this license, authors acknowledge that they have read and agreed to the terms of this agreement.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...