In this article, the author considers the challenges associated with the investigation of sensitive and socially charged issues. Drawing on a qualitative study of older women's body image and embodied experience, she discusses how societal ambivalence toward older women's bodies and appearances shapes and constrains the establishment of rapport between a young researcher and the study participants. Exploring the internalized anxiety expressed by the women, she investigates how life history narratives, multiple interviews, photographs, location of the interview, self-disclosure, information sharing, provision of assistance, student and stranger statuses, collaborative interviewing, and impression management combine to enhance rapport and ease the women's sense of discomfort.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Abell, S. C., & Richards, M. H. (1996). The relationship between body shape satisfaction and self-esteem: An investigation of gender and class differences. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 25(5), 691-703.
2.
Arber, S., & Ginn, J. (1991). Gender and later life: A sociological analysis of resources and constraints. London: Sage.
3.
Berger, P. L., & Luckmann, T. (1967). The social construction of reality: A treatise in the sociology of knowledge. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
4.
Blumer, H. (1969). Symbolic interactionism: Perspective and method. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
5.
Bordo, S. (1993). Unbearable weight: Feminism, Western culture and the body. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
6.
Brown, C., & Jasper, K. (1993). Introduction: Why weight? Why women? Why now? In C. Brown & K. Jasper (Eds.), Consuming passions: Feminist approaches to weight preoccupation and eating disorders (pp. 16-35). Toronto: Second Story.
7.
Brumberg, J. J. (1997). The body project: An intimate history of American girls. New York: Random House.
8.
Burgess, R. G. (Ed.). (1982). Field research: A sourcebook and field manual. Boston: Allen and Unwin.
9.
Burgess, R. G. (1984). In the field: An introduction to field research. Boston: Allen and Unwin.
10.
Burnside, B. (1988). Gerontology's challenge from its research population: Updating research ethics. In J. E. Thornton & E. R. Winkler (Eds.), Ethics and aging: The right to life, the right to die (pp. 194-207). Vancouver, Canada: University of British Columbia Press.
11.
Cotterill, P. (1992). Interviewing women: Issues of friendship, vulnerability, and power. Women's Studies International Forum, 15(5/6), 593-606.
12.
Ellis, C., Kiesinger, C. E., & Tillmann-Healy, L. M. (1997). Interactive interviewing: Talking about emotional experience. In R. Hertz (Ed.), Reflexivity and voice (pp. 119-149). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
13.
Finch, J. (1984). “It's great to have someone to talk to”: The ethics and politics of interviewing women. In C. Bell & H. Roberts (Eds.), Social researching: Politics, problems, practice (pp. 70-87). London: Routledge Kegan Paul.
14.
Fowler, H. W., & Fowler, F. G. (Eds.). (1995). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English (9th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
15.
Franzoi, S. L. (1995). The body-as-object versus the body-as-process: Gender differences and gender considerations. Sex Roles, 33(5/6), 417-437.
16.
Furman, F. K. (1997). Facing the mirror: Older women and beauty shop culture. New York: Routledge.
17.
Gagné, P. (1992). Appalachian women: Violence and social control. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 20, 387-415.
18.
Gagné, P. (1996). Identity, strategy, and feminist politics: Clemency for battered women who kill. Social Problems, 43, 77-93.
19.
Geertz, C. (1979). From the native's point of view: On the nature of anthropological understanding. In P. Rabinow & W. N. Sullivan (Eds.), Interpretative social science: A reader (pp. 225-241). Los Angeles: University of California Press.
20.
Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory. Chicago: Aldine.
21.
Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
22.
Hazan, H. (1994). Old age: Constructions and deconstructions. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
23.
Hertz, R. (1997). (Ed.). Reflexivity and voice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
24.
Hesse-Biber, S. (1996). Am I thin enough yet? The cult of thinness and the commercialization of identity. New York: Oxford University Press.
25.
Hoffman, J. E. (1980). Problems of access in the study of social elites and boards of directors. In W. B. Shaffir, R. A. Stebbins, & A. Turowetz (Eds.), Fieldwork experience: Qualitative approaches to social research (pp. 45-56). New York: St. Martin's.
26.
Hurd, L. C. (2000). Older women's body image and embodied experience: An exploration. Journal of Women and Aging, 12(3/4), 77-97.
27.
Jaffe, D. J., & Miller, E. M. (1994). Problematizing meaning. In J. F. Gubrium & A. Sankar (Eds.), Qualitative methods in aging research (pp. 51-64). London: Sage.
28.
Klein, R. D. (1983). How to do what we want to do: Thoughts about feminist methodology. In G. Bowles & R. D. Klein (Eds.), Theories of women's studies (pp. 88-104). London: Routledge Kegan Paul.
29.
Lee, R. M. (1993). Doing research on sensitive topics. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
30.
Lofland, J. (1971). Analyzing social settings: A guide to qualitative observation and analysis. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
31.
Lopata, H. Z. (1980). Interviewing American widows. In W. B. Shaffir, R. A. Stebbins, & A. Turowetz (Eds.), Fieldwork experience: Qualitative approaches to social research (pp. 68-81). New York: St. Martin's.
32.
Mies, M. (1983). Towards a methodology for feminist research. In G. Bowles & R. D. Klein (Eds.), Theories of women's studies (pp. 117-139). London: Routledge Kegan Paul.
33.
Myers, P. N., Jr., & Biocca, F. A. (1992). The elastic body image: The effect of television advertising and programming on body image distortions in young women. Journal of Communications, 42(3), 108-133.
34.
Oakley, A. (1981). Interviewing women: A contradiction in terms. In H. Roberts (Ed.), Doing feminist research (pp. 30-59). Boston: Routledge Kegan Paul.
35.
Reinharz, S. (1992). Feminist methods in social research. New York: Oxford University Press.
36.
Roberts, H. (1981). Women and their doctors: Power and powerlessness in the research process. In H. Roberts (Ed.), Doing feminist research (pp. 7-29). Boston: Routledge Kegan Paul.
37.
Shaffir, W. B., Stebbins, R. A., & Turowetz, A. (Eds.). (1980). Fieldwork experience: Qualitative approaches to social research. New York: St. Martin's.
38.
Siegal, D. L. (1992). Women's reproductive changes: A marker, not a turning point. In L. Glasse & J. Hendricks (Eds.), Gender and aging (pp. 53-57). Amityville, NY: Baywood.
39.
Smith, D. E. (1987). The everyday world as problematic: A feminist sociology. Boston: Northeastern University Press.
40.
Tewksbury, R., & Gagné, P. (1997). Assumed and presumed identities: Problems of self-presentation in field research. Sociological Spectrum, 17, 127-155.
41.
Thomas, W. I. (1972). The definition of the situation. In J. G. Manis & B. N. Meltzer (Eds.), Symbolic interaction: A reader in social psychology (2nd ed., pp. 331-336). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
42.
Wearing, B. (1995). Leisure and resistance in an ageing society. Leisure Studies, 14, 263-279.
43.
Whyte, W. F. (1982). Interviewing in field research. In R. G. Burgess (Ed.), Field research: A sourcebook and field manual (pp. 111-122). Boston: Allen and Unwin.
44.
Wolf, D. L. (1996). Situating feminist dilemmas in fieldwork. In D. L. Wolf(Ed.), Feminist dilemmas in fieldwork (pp. 1-55). Boulder, CO: Westview.
