Ouch! – a logotherapeutic discourse of butch and tattooed in China |
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| Authors: | Wing‐sun Liu Nam‐kai Liu Richard Elliott |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Institute of Textiles and Clothing The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom Kln., Hong Kong;2. School of Management University of Bath Bath BA2 7AY, UK |
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| Abstract: | - This is a study of a small group of self‐identified butch lesbians in their consumption of tattoos. The emotion‐laden experience of negotiating social symbolism and self‐identity (Elliott, 1997 ) in the context of hyperrealism (Baudrillard, 1983 ) has given rise to what Frankl ( 1984 ) has described as “existential vacuums.” Frankl suggested that these “existential vacuums” can be filled with a higher level of meaning. An artifact of consumption, the tattoo, is used by the informants in this study as a component of bricolage in the DIY process of constructing a new self (Elliott, 1997 ), with the entire process of being tattooed – particularly the hyper‐stimulation and pain of the procedure – further “existentializing” a new existence of “imagined masculinity.” This new existence that transcends suffering and assigns new meaning to life is the principle idea of Frankl's logotherapy (Frankl, 1984 ; Barnes, 2000 ; Blair, 2004 ).
Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
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