Vol. 8 No. 1 (2016)
Article

My Journey Through Discourse

Janelle Simpkins
Athabasca University
Bio

Published 2016-03-10

How to Cite

Simpkins, J. (2016). My Journey Through Discourse. Journal of Integrated Studies, 8(1). Retrieved from https://jis.athabascau.ca/index.php/jis/article/view/200

Abstract

This paper intends to take the reader on a journey through discourse, uncovering issues of body image through the use of autoethnography and discourse analysis. The reader is taken on a journey through my experiences with discourse analysis and how body image and identity are formed within discourse. Throughout my research I have come to recognize that my body, and in extension, my identity is more a site for construction, resistance, and reproduction of dominant social, economic and political discourses. As I start to interact with social theory, I realize that my identity has been formulated, although passively, in discourses of which I had no knowledge or understanding. I begin to understand that even before I was aware of theory/discourse I was/am a subject of it, passively impacted by it, and a living representation of it. This realization prompts me to explore how my negative body image is a result of my interpellation of dominant ideology and how my current health and fitness goals might be criticized by some feminist discourses. I decide to embark on a journey of understanding between my body, my identity, and their relationship with feminist discourse.