Body: Social-Representational Regard

Abstract

Our focus in this paper is the discussion of the body as an object of research in the theory of social representations, which determines the aim of the theoretical and analytical study. The body is an inherently complex and polymorphous object that lies at the intersection of a number of diverse dimensions (biological-social; body-mind; individual-social etc.). The proposed analysis of empirical facts concerning the social representations of the body obtained within the framework of social representation theory gives us grounds to draw a rather paradoxical conclusion: the social representation theory postulates importance of the body as an object of social representations, privileges this topic for the theory of social representations, specificity of the body as an object of social representations. On the other hand, there are relatively few studies devoted to the study of social perceptions of the body, with such elements as health and beauty turning out to be the key elements around which they crystallize. The paper outlines the lines of further analysis of social perceptions, taking into account the phenomenon of the “mute zone” of social representations.