“Not the Tracksuit, Please, It Sends the Wrong Message”: The Role of Body Image in Shaping Subjectivity in the Working

Abstract

The subject of the article is the importance of classed representations in shaping the attitude towards the body and constructing their own subjectivity by people from the working class. The text is based on a qualitative analysis of individual in-depth interviews with working-class women and men, as well as reality shows with the participation of the working class: Project Lady and Warsaw Shore. Contrary to previous studies (Skeggs 1997), in the light of the conducted analyzes, class representations are a negative point of reference not only for women, but also for the majority of adult men from the working class. The study shows that while it is difficult to reconstruct the representation of an attractive body that would be the object of desire and aspiration of the studied group (middle-class patterns of caring for the body are not accepted uncritically), the key in the construction of subjectivity is is striving to distinguish oneselves from the representation of the working class functioning in popular culture (the figure of chavs) and from people who are at the bottom of the social structure (homeless and bums).