Christina Westbrook, 2024 graduate, stands proudly at the Fine Arts Plaza.
Photo by her father, Brett Westbrook
Who doesn’t like humor, especially when the subject is awkward? Christina Westbrook, one of this year’s winners of the Burgess Award, used humor when addressing the subject of bras in her essay “Beneath the Fabric: An Ethnographic Exploration of the Meanings Behind Bras,” which she wrote for INTL-I 305 Global Beauty Regimes: The Political Economy and Cultural Politics of Beauty taught by Senior Lecturer Nica Serena Kousaleos.
It was important for Christina to make her interviewees comfortable so that they could express themselves with ease. Christina says, “I find comfort in humor and having shared experiences of awkwardness in wearing or not wearing a bra publicly or in private proved to be an outlet to share humorous thoughts or experiences, which ultimately led to deeper insight and conversations about the themes in my ethnography.”
Christina, who graduated this past May, majored in International Studies focusing on Central Eurasia. “Beneath the Fabric” was written during the Fall semester in 2023. However, Christina continued researching and honing her paper for an additional three months. Dr. Kousaleos states, “Christina had already written an excellent final ethnography for the class utilizing the frames and theories we explored in the course with her collaborators. She then extended the learning goals of the class by reading more deeply and consulting librarians for more resources. The final version utilizes the methodologies of contemporary ethnography, prioritizes the voices and experiences of the collaborators, maintains a global perspective, and is grounded by the research of senior scholars in fields associated with her topic.”
An ethnography is the study of human culture, and what better culture to study than your own. In her introduction, Christina explains, “This ethnographic study seeks to discover nuanced relationships that people share with their bras and to offer more of an understanding of a commonplace yet symbolically significant piece of clothing.” After explaining who her interviewees are, she provides an overview of her research: “My participants revealed a recurring theme of the inherent sexualization and objectification of breasts. In addition to research by Martin and McGladrey’s objectification theory, my participants also expressed challenges in disconnecting their breasts from societal ideas, which leads to anxiety and self-objectification.”
Christina’s own personal experiences and conversations with friends and family led her to the topic. She says, “The shared feelings my sister and I experienced led me to believe that this was an area worth investigating, especially in consideration of other facets of bra-wearing, such as queer experiences, and experiences through motherhood.” The research addresses social expectations and norms, implications on wearing or not wearing a bra, and the size of one’s breasts. As Christina writes in her essay, “The bra is a symbol of transition and also conveys a complex relationship between personal and societal norms and expectations.”
The ethnography doesn’t simply explore norms and puberty. Christina discusses how consumerism shapes not only bras, but feelings and expectations as well. In addition, Christina explores how breastfeeding, breasts’ intended purpose, is impacted by the “sexualization and objectification of breasts.” She also addresses the transgender experience.
“I loved being able to research more about body surveillance and self-objectification... I tend to focus on embodiment topics potent to women and assigned-female-at-birth bodies,” Christina explains. Having previously done research on menstruation, she says, “This research on bras has strengthened my understanding of how people, particularly women, observe themselves from an outsider’s perspective, almost as if consistently in an ‘out-of-body’ experience.”
The bra is a symbol of transition and also conveys a complex relationship between personal and societal norms and expectations.
Christina Westbrook
Rewarded each year by IU Libraries, The Sam Burgess Undergraduate Research Award highlights the best undergraduate research on the Bloomington campus. Criteria to win includes a demonstration of outstanding use of library resources. Besides the research, a methods essay explaining the resource discovery, utilization, and synthetization must be included with the application. Along with a faculty nomination, there needs to be “evidence of significant personal learning and an understanding of the process of research and inquiry.”
In her methods essay, Christina states, “The wealth of resources available through the library made this research possible, and my ethnography validated and explained the experiences of my participants with existing research.” She deftly interweaves the materials from experts with her findings from her “close ones.”
“Putting this all together, I was consistently reminded of how crucial access to research and diverse perspectives are in understanding these unique areas of the human experience,” Christina writes. She strongly advises students discuss their research with instructors, who can inspire new routes that develop the research further. “For help in expanding research, I also absolutely suggest meeting with one of IU’s librarians. Their suggestions were incredibly helpful to me in finding applicable research for this type of ethnography.” Help with research can be found throughout the IU Libraries, especially in the Learning Commons, West Tower, Wells Library.
You can find Christina’s work and other Burgess winners’ research on IU Scholar Works. Another great source for undergraduate research is the Indiana University Journal of Undergraduate Research.
Applications for the Burgess Award are opened the first month of spring semester, and eligible research is from the previous calendar year (2024 for the 2025 award) so that research currently being written for a class has a chance to compete. Former and current winners, including Christina’s, may be found on IU Scholar Works.
