I’m intellectually curious and desire to never stop learning. I consistently think of ways our world could be more inclusive and equitable, while my biggest passions in life are accessibility and research— and sharing that with everyone I know :)
feminist User eXperience (fUX), my dissertation
What's Missing?
What Storytelling & User Experience
Can Teach Us About Lesbian Body Image
Click HERE to view my dissertation presentation. This presentation is specifically geared toward a feminist theory audience. If you would like to see the version of this presentation that was presented at amUX in December 2019 and geared toward a UX audience, please reach out to me directly.
My dissertation is at the intersection of user experience (UX), feminist theory, and disability studies. This may seem like an unlikely grouping, but to me these fields are deeply connected—feminist theory teaches us about equality, equity, and intersectionality; disability studies teaches us about accessibility and inclusion; and UX illuminates how we interact and engage with our environments.
I back my UX research methodologies with feminist and queer theory to reframe the way researchers approach the study of human behavior. In my doctoral work, I disrupted views of "standardized measures" designed to be generalizable to "all."
I began studying body image as an undergraduate psychology student in 2004. I quickly realized that the majority of body image research focused on eating disorders (which is not the same thing as body image!) and the experiences of heterosexual women. Luckily, more nuanced research has come out since, but for the most part, body image amongst lesbian women is still largely under-researched and misunderstood.
After conducting both my bachelor's and master's theses on lesbian body image, it became evident that many popular standardized measures are flawed and biased toward a heterosexual, able-bodied sample. This results in inaccurate and misrepresented data, and may ultimately lead to ignoring, misdiagnosing, or mistreating health problems.
How can we know anything about lesbian body image if the tools that we’re using to research body image were primarily built for and by people who identify as heterosexual and cisgender and catered to a heterosexual sample?
Together, the fields of UX, feminist theory, and disability studies relate to and expand upon my predictions—that the foundation of body image research is largely able-bodied, majority white, and staunchly heteronormative, and therefore inappropriate, unsuitable, and unusable for a large population of people, particularly lesbians.
So What?
Women who identify as lesbians are experiencing their bodies in ways that existing measures are simply not designed to see; the answers you receive depend upon the questions you ask. If most of the questions in the standardized measures are overlooking the lesbian population, how can we expect to learn meaningful information about lesbian body image?
By merging the fields of UX, feminist theory, and disability studies, my dissertation reveals the weaknesses of the current standardized body image measures. This has far reaching implications for many fields, potentially transforming the entire process of creating and validating standardized measures.
Standardized Assessments Critiqued in Focus Groups
Want to Know More?
Click here to see my winning entry to Emory's Three Minute Thesis competition, earning first place for the People's Choice award.