Outperforming iBodies: A Conceptual Framework Integrating Body Performance Self-Tracking Technologies with Body Image an
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FEMINIST FORUM REVIEW ARTICLE
Outperforming iBodies: A Conceptual Framework Integrating Body Performance Self-Tracking Technologies with Body Image and Eating Concerns Rachel A. Berry 1 & Rachel F. Rodgers 1,2 & Jenna Campagna 1 Accepted: 19 October 2020 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Recently, the use of digital self-tracking devices has increased exponentially. Although these devices are positioned as healthtools, an emerging empirical literature has started to document relationships between the use of such technologies and body image and eating concerns. To date, however, these explorations have not been guided by an integrated theoretical framework. The present manuscript aimed to fill this gap by providing a framework to guide and stimulate this area of research. The proposed framework integrates elements of critical sociocultural theories that have been successful in accounting for the development and maintenance of body image and eating concerns and other body change behaviors, including theories of Biopower and those that highlight the role of objectification and self-surveillance, and it extends them to describe how self-tracking devices, and specifically body performance tracking tools, may contribute to pressures to monitor, discipline, and mold the body to unrealistic appearance ideals through the consumption of products and services. The framework focuses on how these processes promote the pursuit of an outperforming ibody, a perpetually optimizing body that leverages technological advancement to fine-tune its appearance and performance. In addition, the integrated framework describes the role of gender, and how women may be disproportionately vulnerable to their negative effects. Thus, such devices may be unhelpful to vulnerable individuals and perpetuate cultural discourses that hinder positive embodiment. The framework laid out here will hopefully contribute to stimulating research in this area. Keywords Self-tracking . Wearables . Fitness tracking . Body image . Eating disorders . Thin-ideal internalization . Appearance . Biopower
Within the past 15 years, digital tracking technologies such as websites, smartphone applications (“apps”), and wearable devices that track an individual’s biometric data, including food consumption, activity, sleep, heart rate, and more, have become increasingly commonplace. These technologies are intended to serve a wide range of purposes. In the present article, we will focus on body performance self-tracking technologies, that is, those technologies with the purpose of
* Rachel F. Rodgers [email protected] 1
APPEAR, Department of Applied Psychology, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115, USA
2
Department of Psychiatric Emergency & Acute Care, Lapeyronie Hospital, CHRU Montpellier, Montpellier, France
monitoring the user’s food consumption and energy expenditures. We will use the term digital self-tracking devices or technologies to refer to digital self-tracking more broadly and bo
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