Pole dances influence in brazilian womens self-esteem

• Grant number: 24/02722-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2024
• End date: March 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Elizabeth Joan Barham
• Grantee: Ana Júlia Moreira Santos
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Self-esteem is a concept that englobes the way individuals see themselves and understand their importance in the world. The process of building self-esteem can be influenced by various factors, the cultural environment in which the individual is inserted being one of those.With that being, visual representations of beauty in the media are a central issue in shaping an individual's ideal of appearance and, consequently, their self-esteem. When it comes to women, the formation of the ideal of beauty is even more complex as it also involves the formation of the ideal of femininity, being largely influenced by misogyny. So, the relation between thinness and today's beauty standards along with the pressure to uphold those expectations, causes the construction of female self-esteem to be closely linked to body image and, therefore, affected by it. One of the techniques used by the beauty industry to achieve this standard is physical exercise. Thus, despite exercise being a factor in improving quality of life, the beauty industry has transformed environments that should be for practicing sports into spaces for worshiping the idea of the perfect body, which can bar people with non-standard bodies from accessing these places. On the other hand, pole dance studios seem to be an exception to this reality. The high self-esteem associated with pole dancing shown in some studies, together with the demonstration of the efficiency of this modality in developing strength, endurance and flexibility in others, demonstrate the potential for it to be a physical exercise with various positive impacts on the physical and mental health of its practitioners. With this in lieu, this study aims to analyze the impact of pole dance on the self-esteem of female practitioners through semi-structured interviews conducted remotely.