Embodied boarders: Snowboarding, status and style.
Citation
Export citationThorpe, H. (2004). Embodied boarders: Snowboarding, status and style. Waikato Journal of Education, 10, 181-201.
Permanent Research Commons link: https://hdl.handle.net/10289/6225
Abstract
The body is a symbol of status, a system of social markings and a site of distinctions. Drawing on documentary and visual sources, combined with participant observations, this article explores the body as a signifier through an examination of numerous cultural practices used by snowboarders to distinguish themselves from non-snowboarders and each other. In examining embodied snowboarders I firstly analyse their cultural tastes and styles of dress, language and bodily deportment. Secondly, I consider how boarders earn symbolic capital through demonstrations of commitment, physical prowess and risk taking. This analysis implicitly views the body as a social phenomenon, that is, it conceptualises the body as a possessor of power, a form of status, a bearer of symbolic value and a form of physical capital. The body now plays a central role in producing and reproducing social groups and the "embodied boarder" is an important case study for understanding how contemporary youth both construct and make sense of their worlds.
Date
2004Type
Publisher
Faculty of Education, University of Waikato
Rights
© 2004 Waikato Journal of Education. It is posted here by permission for personal use.
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- Education Papers [1457]