Video and Multimedia

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Video Links

  • Inside the Body Beautiful: How Cosmetic Surgery Works
    This documentary examines the physiological and psychological changes that happen to young people as they strive to alter their appearance. This video examines why young people seek out cosmetic surgery at such a young age.

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  • Growing Up Online
    Jessica Hunter developed an online persona for herself that bore little resemblance to the one she presented at school. Online she was known as model and artist Autumn Edows. This program explores the reasons she created an alternate identity and how she feels about that identity. Her experience raises questions about authenticity and whether there is in fact such a thing as a “real” or “true” self. 

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  • The Do Not Enter Diaries: Ethan Z
    The Do Not Enter Diaries (donotenterdiaries.com ) is a series of short videos in which teens offer tours of their bedrooms and explain the significance of their décor and possessions. In this video, Ethan Z shows viewers around his room. 

       

Audio Links

  • In Brazil, Nips and Tucks Don't Raise an Eyebrow
    This podcast from NPR examines the fact that Brazil has just surpassed the United States as the place with the most cosmetic surgeries performed in the world, even though it has fewer people and collectively less disposable income than the United States.

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  • This American Life 121: Twentieth Century Man
    One thing that makes our country different from most others is this idea that you can recreate yourself as someone you'd prefer to be: sell everything off, head out West, start a new life. But what happens if you're too good at it? Over the course of his life, Keith Aldrich was a child of the Depression in Oklahoma, a preacher-in-training in booming California, and an aspiring Hollywood actor; in the 1950s, a self-styled Beat writer and then a man in a gray flannel suit; in the 1960s, a member of the New York literati and then a hippie; in the 1970s, a denizen of the suburbs with a partying life and a born-again Christian when the Moral Majority helped put Ronald Reagan in office. This program is devoted to the story of Keith's life, as told by one of his nine children, Gillian Aldrich. Keith's life is not only a history of most of the major cultural shifts in the second half of the twentieth century; it's also a case study of the question "What happens if you're too good at transforming yourself?"

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  • This American Life 75: Kindness of Strangers
    A significant portion of social life is influenced by the images we form of others and the images others form of us. This program presents stories of the kindness or unkindness of strangers, and where it leads. All of the stories take place in the city most people think of as the least kind city in America: New York.

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Web Resources

Professional Resources

  • Sociology of Emotions
    Although it is not their exclusive interest, members of the American Sociological Association (ASA) Section on the Sociology of Emotions often study self-presentation issues. 
     
  • Erving Goffman: Interaction Ritual
    Goffman outlines in several essays (Interaction Ritual) approaches to human interaction from a dramaturgical perspective. To Goffman, all forms of interaction are kinds of performances. This site analyzes the various concepts that are related to the concept of dramaturgy.
     
  • Study of Symbolic Interaction
    Symbolic interactionists are disproportionately likely to study self-presentation and impression management. See Symbolic Interaction, the official journal of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction (SSSI). 

Other Resources

  • Body Ritual Among the Nacirema
    This article, written by Horace Miner, describes American rituals from an outsider’s point of view. This article highlights the concepts of impression management and dramaturgy as well as image making.
     
  • Advertising Age
    Much commercial advertising (print and broadcast) is aimed at selling “images” as much as selling “products.” Consumption of the product being advertised ties the consumer to a particular image being sold. Advertising Age is a trade magazine for those working in the advertising industry and is considered a preeminent source of marketing, advertising and media news, information, and analysis. 

One major way in which people manage other’s impressions is through body modification, notably but not exclusively cosmetic (“plastic”) surgery. The following groups promote this practice.

  • Plastic Surgery Statistics
    Statistics on trends in plastic surgery—by type, by gender—are available from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons’ National Clearinghouse of Plastic Surgery Statistics at the ASPS website. 
     
  • Body Modification Ezine
    Not all body-altering rituals and practices take place under the “official” rubric of plastic surgery. Piercing (other than ears) and tattooing are becoming increasingly popular among “mainstream” Americans. 

What about those whose body size does not meet cultural standards? Two organizations exist that advocate on behalf of these individuals.

  • The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA)
    The NAAFA is a nonprofit human rights organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for fat people. NAAFA has been working since 1969 to eliminate discrimination based on body size and provide fat people with the tools for self-empowerment through public education, advocacy, and member support (self-characterization). 
     
  • Understanding and Challenging HIV Stigma
    The “Understanding and Challenging HIV Stigma: Toolkit for Action” toolkit was designed for NGOs, community groups, and HIV educators to raise awareness and promote actions to challenge HIV stigma and discrimination. Based on research in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Zambia, the toolkit contains more than 125 exercises (self-characterization).