Most of the scientific literature concerning former high-level athletes is devoted to their professional retraining. There are comparatively few empirical studies dealing with their body representations and practices. Based on Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical framework, this article presents the results of an interview survey with 30 former high-level athletes. It shows that their relationships with their bodies result from their specific body trajectories, marked by family socialization and social background, sports socialization, injuries, and the possession of different forms of capital. In contrast to mondains, who have relatively stable body trajectories, oblates are marked by less homogeneous socialization and see their body trajectories divided between a form of personal dissatisfaction on the one hand and a feeling of saturation with their sport on the other.

No abstract

The aim of this article is to outline how the aesthetic experience of individuals constitutes nowadays a way of "doing" gender for them (West and Fenstermaker, 2006). Using the results of a qualitative survey carried out in France between 2013 and 2014 (32 women, 28 men), we will focus on one type of aesthetic practices: the dress choices of women. Ever since their childhood, women are encouraged to think about the image they express themselves through their clothes. This is why, their reflexivity on this subject is intense. After presenting the normative precepts that frame feminine appearance today, after highlighting the importance of aesthetic gender norms that promote certain dressing practices and condemn others, we will bring forward the multiple ways of living their gender role via their dressing practices of the women we met. Through their dressing choices, women appropriate their bodies. Whether they are in a process of adequacy or distance with the gendered beauty standards, their speeches and practices reveal how the construction of a certain appearance via clothing (moving during their life) is a central element of their identity building.

Si les représentations et pratiques corporelles des sportif·ve·s de haut niveau sont bien connues, on ignore encore largement ce qu’elles deviennent lors de l’après-carrière. Reposant sur une enquête auprès de 30 ex-sportif•ve•s de haut niveau, cet article propose de décrire, au travers de trois portraits, les processus de socialisation constitutifs de rapports au corps spécifiques. Les résultats montrent que les rapports au corps de ces individus peuvent être rapportés, pour partie au moins, à l’articulation entre la socialisation familiale liée à l’origine sociale et la socialisation sportive.

No abstract