‘What underwear do I like?’ Taste and (embodied) cultural capital in the consumption of women’s underwear

Introduction

In 2006, the Journal of Consumer Culture published a brief series of articles on women’s underwear and its role in terms of both advertising and use. The latest article in particular was a dialogue between Dee Amy-Chinn, Christian Jantzen and Per Østergaard (Amy-Chinn et al., 2006) reflecting on cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary debates around the role of women’s underwear. Some of the debates the authors exchanged were around the meaning-versus-doing function of underwear, the eroticisation of underwear, and how the consumption of women’s underwear could progressively be analysed using different theoretical frameworks, such as that of Pierre Bourdieu’s work on habitus and distinction.

Since then, attention around these debates has been almost non-existent, despite the continuous growth of mass and media culture’s commentaries that underwear is a crucial part of the ‘underneath’, and an important part of women’s construction of female identity. For example, research from market analysis company Mintel Marketing Intelligence (2011) suggests that there is an effort to introduce new products in the market so that women consumers buy underwear for ‘reasons other than just replacement’ (2011: report homepage, par. 1). Moreover, reality makeover shows, at least in UK television, testify to underwear’s importance not only in shaping women’s bodies and working together with the outer dress to enhance women’s appearance, but also in generating physical and psychological sensations such as self-confidence and sexiness, which seem central to women’s performance of female identity (Tsaousi and Brewis, 2013).

This paper seeks to continue the discussion around the role of women’s underwear in constructing female identity, but also aims to add to the field of sociology of consumption by paying attention to how mundane body work, such as choosing the ‘right’ underwear, can be seen as a tool in constructing female identity. Considering the wealth of literature that addresses other, more visual parts of women’s dress (Entwistle, 2001; Entwistle and Wilson, 2001; Gillen, 2001; Keenan, 2001) or how fashion links with identity formation (Brydon and Niessen, 1998; Entwistle, 2000a, 2000b; Finkelstein, 1991), underwear has been largely neglected in this respect. Notable exceptions are the Jantzen et al. (2006) and Amy-Chinn et al. (2006) articles, as well as Merl Storr’s (2002, 2003) ethnographic research on Ann Summers parties.

The data presented here are from my doctoral thesis, which focused on how underwear can function as a source of (re)constructing female identity, and how the women participants ‘learn’ to choose the ‘right’ underwear for the right occasion in order to fashion elements of their female identity accordingly (Tsaousi, 2011; also see Tsaousi and Brewis, 2013). In this paper, I specifically use Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, taste and cultural capital (particularly embodied cultural capital) as a framework for understanding women’s consumption choices in underwear. In this paper, underwear is considered as part of women’s embodied cultural capital, which is then transformed into other forms of capital; namely economic, social and symbolic. I am, however, intentionally emphasising gender and how this embodied cultural capital aids these women in supporting the various elements of female identity they are called upon to play out in their everyday lives. While I recognise how Bourdieu’s concepts of cultural capital and taste are underpinned by class structures, and that different classes ‘invest’ different levels of cultural capital in order to mark their distinction (Bourdieu, 1984), I choose to privilege gender as the primary classification mechanism in social life in my attempt to understand how underwear is used as a resource, a tool or a practice in women’s daily efforts to construct a sense of ‘who I am as a woman’ and of ‘doing’ gender (Gherardil, 1994).

In what follows, I explore my participants’ choices in underwear in my attempt to understand how habitus-specific capital and taste can determine these choices, as it differentiates their assumptions about underwear’s role and function in their daily life, and thus distinguishes the different mobilisations of underwear in their attempt to construct their female identity. The themes of the analysis include a discussion around my participants’ taste in underwear in relation to what it ‘does’ for them, but also how it connects to their overall sense of style and taste; how they recognise their mothers’ influence on their choices in underwear; and finally how they use underwear in relation to their outerwear, and how it supports this dress in the different contexts or fields they move in and out of in their everyday lives.

I begin by situating my analysis on underwear within a Bourdieusian framework, and by arguing that we can use Bourdieu’s notions of habitus, (embodied) cultural capital and taste to understand women’s embodied experiences with underwear.

Bourdieu’s framework

Bourdieu’s work has contributed to various legacies and disciplines, but notably his work on habitus, fields, taste and capital attracted much attention in the fields of consumer culture and sociology of consumption. His contribution was mainly to explain the links between objective structures and subjective experiences, and the development of the metaphoric model of social space. According to this model, there is an integration of contextual structures and practices, which shows that these structures cannot function unless they are embodied by individuals. Bourdieu’s notion of habitus shows this exact embodiment of practices and structures, and demonstrates the ways in which the social world exists in the body (Bourdieu, 1977; Reay, 2004b). Bourdieu argues that the habitus is:

… a socialised body. A structured body, a body which has incorporated the immanent structures of a world or of a particular sector of that world – a field – and which structures the perception of that world as well as action in that world. (Bourdieu, 1998: 81)

My participants’ different taste in underwear is also expressed in terms of the stocks of cultural capital they possess. Indeed, within Bourdieu’s model of social practice people learn to embody and carry with them volumes of different ‘capitals’. Bourdieu’s concept of capital is a relational concept (Reay, 2004a), thus it cannot be understood in isolation from its different forms: economic (the monetary capital that one has); cultural (legitimate knowledge of a particular field, for example knowledge of the history of fashion); social (important relations with key players in the field); and symbolic (the prestige that individuals have in their fields) (Crossley, 2001; Entwistle and Rocamora, 2006; Jenkins, 1992). For cultural capital in particular, Bourdieu has emphasised that it is helpful in understanding embodied behaviours and experiences of agents in the field. Cultural capital includes dispositions or competences that can be ‘exchanged’ for other forms of capital according to social settings, for example literacy, posture, accent and other abilities that suffice in a particular context in order to ‘impress’ others (Bourdieu, 1986). Depending on the different volumes of cultural capital individuals carry, it can initiate and sustain identities and create group boundaries (Lamont and Molnár, 2001; Warde, 1994), but it can also mark social distinctions (Katz-Gerro, 2002).

Cultural capital is also vital in terms of the cultural competences people acquire when they practice their ‘sense of distinction’ through the lifestyle and consumption choices they make. Cultural competence is the habitus ‘capacity to produce classifiable practices and works and the capacity to differentiate and appreciate these practices and products’ (Bourdieu, 1984: 170). Part of individuals’ cultural competence is the ability to distinguish between legitimate stocks of cultural capital, the ability to master the social skill of using the acquired cultural capital, and also the skill to deploy these ‘abilities’ in order to advance in social situations (Murdock, 2000). Cultural competences are primarily reproduced via family and educational systems. According to Bourdieu, it is via the former in particular that children acquire the primary habitus and cultural capital (Huppatz, 2012; Reay, 2004b). As Silva stresses:

… cultural capital [fulfils] the social function of legitimating social differences and establishes that it is produced (as taste, knowledge and ability), as well as consumed, in certain legitimate areas sanctioned by culture (e.g. painting and music), or in personal areas (e.g. clothing, furniture and cookery), where early familiarization establishes legitimacy. Familiarization guarantees a ‘natural’ acquisition of social dispositions as an essential ingredient for the transmission of social positions. Home and family are central to these areas of personal life, where women, as mothers and homemakers, play a crucial role in individual early development, and ensure the transmission of particular values of cultural capital, which cannot be guaranteed otherwise. (Silva, 2005: 84)

For this paper, embodied capital is particularly important, as it indicates that a person has various dispositions, including her bodily hexis, which articulates or demonstrates a legitimate knowledge of the field. However, the term capital assumes that this knowledge can be exchanged for a form of compensation that suits that person’s goals. For example, fashion ‘gurus’ are usually individuals who have those required dispositions that enable them to distinguish fashionable styles and who have a specific bodily hexis (their personal style of dress and overall appearance) that is a visible marker of their social standing. They can then exchange this knowledge for monetary compensation, that is, economic capital, when they style other people as part of their job.

Underwear and Bourdieu’s theories

Bourdieu’s theory of habitus, fields and capital has been a very useful framework for the study of dress and fashion in general (Entwistle, 2000a; McRobbie, 1998; Rocamora, 2002); indeed because as consumption practices, they are also embodied practices, defined as systems of choices according to the ‘lived experience of the woman, her class, race, age, occupation and so on’ (Entwistle, 2000a: 37). Specifically when it comes to studying dress,

… habitus enables us to talk about [it] as a personal attempt to orientate ourselves to particular circumstances and thus recognizes the structuring influences of the social world on the one hand, and the agency of individuals who make choices as to what to wear on the other. (Entwistle, 2000a: 37)

Underwear in this paper is also seen as an important part of the cultural field of fashion, and I propose that underwear is part of a woman’s embodied cultural capital according to the requirements of the field she is situated in, and that this can be seen in various ways. Since it is usually hidden from view, it can support women’s dress and bodies in everyday life; in specific situations where dress is converted into other forms of capital, underwear works towards achieving that. An illustration of the above situation would be the conversion of dress from physical capital to social capital in the field of Hollywood cinema and at particular events such as the Oscars. The outerwear of women at this event is imperative in showing their social position, as well as their cultural, social, symbolic and economic capital. The particularly extravagant dresses that women participants wear must be supported with the necessary underwear (when it is needed of course) in order for the dress to ‘perform’ in this highly and strictly surveilled field.

‘Push-up’ bras are another example of how underwear can work as embodied cultural capital for women. The famous advertisements for Playtex Wonderbra in 1994 featuring Eva Herzigova wearing a push-up bra show how the bust can be shaped and then objectified to fit social imperatives around sexiness. The breasts are indeed objectified as the advertisement’s slogan – ‘Hello Boys’ – shows. The Wonderbra push-up bra has been further developed by other underwear specialists and is now available in the market as an Ultra bra or Miracle bra. It functions as a ‘natural’ enhancement of breasts, and creates the illusion of a bigger and more ‘lifted’ bust. With the illusion of a different bust size or shape, women can use their appearance to achieve other forms of capital; for example, a small-breasted television news presenter would appear more feminine if she has a bigger bust, especially since news presenters are usually shown from the waist up.

The example of the Wonderbra also illustrates how underwear is as an important part of the cultural field of fashion. The variety in women’s underwear, such as the push-up bra, minimiser bra, sports bra and others, shows that there is space for development of new cultural products because dynamic social and cultural settings allow for such developments. Underwear specialists are (relatedly) involved in creating products that target specific segments of the market, such as pregnant women or women doing sports – different types of underwear that are targeted to support women’s bodies in their different life stages or during specific activities. As the concept of cultural field suggests, it is a network of sites (shops and Internet retailers), texts (adverts) and agents (producers and consumers) amongst whom there must be a general appreciation of the ‘rules of the field/game’ and of the products it produces (Maguire, 2008). Each woman’s habitus is likewise important as it comprises the dispositions that have an effect on their taste in underwear; the use of push-up bras, for example, shows a dialogical relation between the field of fashion and habitus. Its production is juxtaposed with the habitus-specific practices that women engage with in their attempt to fit into social imperatives around femininity; that is, accentuating their bosom. As Entwistle (2000a) suggests, this entails a sense of agency, as women are active agents in the transformation of their bodies into sources of capital within specific fields.

Methodology

The empirical data presented here were gathered from five focus groups and three interviews during 2007 and early 2008, which was the empirical research of my doctoral thesis. All participants were invited to choose either to take part in a focus group or a one-to-one interview. On some occasions the choice was determined by practical reasons such as busy time schedules. These two methods were selected based on the assumptions that people’s experiences, understandings and interpretations construct social reality, and that in order to capture a glimpse of this ‘reality’ is to interact with them. I found social interaction particularly important for this research, and hence the choice of focus groups as one of the methods. As Seale (2004:194) argues

… focus groups […] are not simply a means of interviewing several people at the same time; rather, they are concerned to explore the formation and negotiation of accounts within a group context, how people define, discuss and contest issues through social interaction.

The selection of the women participants was based on my overall research design, which assumes that women continuously exemplify a particular aspect of their female identity according to the context, field or, in the case of my participants, stage of life they are in at the time the research took place. This idea is what I have called elsewhere identity opseis, from the Greek word όψη, which means ‘a side of’ or ‘an aspect of’ (Tsaousi and Brewis, 2013). The terms was coined and used with the purpose of emphasising or ‘hailing’ those different versions of a self which can be presented according to different situations (Gillen, 2001). It is important here to reiterate that this term was used extensively in my doctoral thesis, from which the data of this paper had arrived. The methodological design was based on my assumption of a socially constructed self and identity. Thus I argued that as part of the ongoing project of female identity, different situations, such as stages of life, contexts and activities, can emphasise different versions of female identity. These include colleague, mother, friend or lover (see also Elliott, 2001). My emphasis here is on the female identity project as variegated, and one that shows the multiplicity of the different ways of being a woman. Therefore it is important to understand women’s experiences in the multiple roles they play in various contexts each day, performing diverse sides of identity. The aim behind these choices was to ‘hail’ different aspects of women’s identity, and understand how women mobilise underwear to support them in the identity they are trying to exemplify.¹

Focus group one (F1) comprised women who work as university English tutors. Focus group two (F2) was also university staff who worked as administrators. The third group (F3) comprised of new mums who had given birth 4–5 months prior to the data collection. Focus group four (F4) comprised of players from the University of Leicester Women’s rugby team. Finally, the fifth group (F5) were women from a Widows and Divorcees group (WADs), and who were all above the age of 66. Two of the interviews conducted were with women gym clients (I1 and I2) and the third interview (I3) was with a gym instructor. Table 1 gives biographical data for the participants. Interviews lasted on average an hour and focus groups between an hour and a half and two hours. For both focus groups and interviews, a similar interview schedule was followed, with exceptions of questions relating to the particular identity opseis the participants were exemplifying, and all were recorded after the consent of the participants and then transcribed. The similar interview guide enabled me to discuss similar topics in both the interviews and focus groups and data were analysed according to emerging themes. The data that follow are chosen specifically to demonstrate the relatedness of Bourdieu’s notions of habitus, capital and taste with how these women make assumptions about the underwear they choose to buy and wear, and how these assumptions affect how they discursively construct their selves as women.

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Table 1.

Participants’ biographical data.*

Pseudoname	Age range	Marital status	Occupation	Ethnicity
Focus group 1 (F1): University tutors
Abby	36–45	Married	English tutor	White British
Kate	46–55	Divorced	English tutor	White British
Paulette	26–35	Single	English tutor	White British
Wendy	36–45	Married	P.T. English tutor  and secretary	Asian
Focus group 2 (F2): University administrators
Caitlyn	26–35	Married	International Officer	White British
Julie	26–35	Co-habiting	International Officer	White British
Karen	26–35	Single	International Officer	White British
Samantha	26–35	Married	P.T study abroad adviser	White British
Focus group 3 (F3): Mothers
Jen	26–35	Married	Events manager	White British
Kayla	26–35	Married	Sports manager	White British
Kelly	26–35	Married	Charity marketing officer	White British
Kerry	26–35	Married	Laboratory manager	White British
Laney	26–35	Married	Sales development manager	White British
Liz	26–35	Married	Campaign coordinator	White British
Tara	26–35	Married	Chartered accountant	White British
Focus group 4 (F4): University of Leicester Women’s rugby team
Becky	18–25	Single	Student	White British
Denise	18–25	Single	Student	White British
Ellie	18–25	Single	Student	White British
Helen	18–25	Single	Student	White British
Sam	18–25	Single	Student	White British
Sharon	18–25	Single	Student	White British
Vicky	18–25	Single	Student	White British
Focus group 5 (F5): Widows and Divorcees
Claire	66+	Widowed	Retired (still working)	White British
Jane	66+	Divorced	Retired	White British
Marcy	66+	Divorced	Retired	White British
Mary	66+	Divorced	Retired	White British
Lauren	66+	Widowed	Retired	White British
Louise	66+	Divorced	Retired (still working)	White British
Phyllis	66+	Widowed	Retired	White British
Ruth	66+	Widowed	Retired	White British
Suzan	66+	Widowed	Retired	White British
Interview 1 (I2): Gym instructor
Amy	26–35	Single	Gym Instructor	White British
Interview 2 (I2): Gym client
Erica	46–55	Divorced	University administrator	White British
Interview 3 (I3): Gym client
Christie	26–35	Single	P.T. sales assistant	White Mediterranean

Judgements and taste in underwear

My participants’ likes and dislikes in underwear was an important theme in my focus groups and interviews. The word taste was hardly mentioned; however, in a Bourdieusian sense, taste was discussed in many different ways; for example, as the judgements they receive from or make about others, how they classify their selves or how they classify others, their sense of style or their overall sense of what they like in underwear, that is, different types of underwear, including its colours or materials. Their taste in underwear allowed them to interpret the different meaning of the various types of underwear, and to mobilise them accordingly in their female identity project.

A mother’s underwear ‘hang ups’ …

Cultural capital is shaped by two major types of variables: economic resources (e.g. income, class) and cultural resources (e.g. parental cultural capital, education). In fact, and as discussed before, cultural capital – that is, types of dispositions, meanings, behaviours and qualities of style – are primarily transmitted through the family (Reay, 2000). Even though dressing styles (particularly underwear choices) are less obvious aspects of embodied cultural capital, they are imbedded into our dispositions, and of course our cultural background and family trajectories (Rafferty, 2011). Indeed, my findings suggest that parental cultural capital, and specifically mother’s cultural capital, has been imperative in the choices my participants make regarding their underwear:

Christie (I3): I don’t remember what I did when I was younger but I know I always had one white and one black bra. I think it’s my mother’s fault. She was very boring too, underwear-wise. She was always wearing the same beige bra and I mean literally the same. She would always buy the same underwear of the same brand, a Marks and Spencer’s one. So I guess that made me not to give much attention to underwear.

The involvement of their mothers as an important factor influencing these women’s choices was evident elsewhere in my data:

Samantha (F2): […] But when I go shopping, clothes shopping with my mum, she’s always saying ‘have you got proper pants [on] today?’ [They laugh] And I’m like ‘Mum you don’t have to see my bottom’ [All laugh]. Yeah, she’s funny. But I think I get a lot of my mum’s … erm … sort of underwear erm … what’s the word?

Karen (F2): Hang-ups?

Samantha (F2): Yeah, from my mum. Yeah, I probably have a lot of those from my mum.

Caitlyn (F2): Why?

Samantha (F2): Cause me and my mum are very similar; I mean she … she’s kind of a large, busty lady … and erm … she’s … erm … she’s very much ‘underwear serves a purpose’ and … you know … you just need a bra to just pull your boobs in and that’s it. She’s not gonna particularly look pretty and she certainly won’t be putting it on for my dad’s benefit [Laughter]. I think when you grow up with that and you go shopping with your mum … you know … and your mum just hands you over a white bra or a cream bra […].

In a similar vein, the WADs women refer to their mother and how they have been influenced by them in their choices of underwear not so much now, but mostly when they were younger:

Claire (F5): I don’t know, I think it bothered me years ago. It doesn’t bother me so much now. Because in my mother’s era they were all more measured and all wearing tighter garments.

Susan (F5): Yeah, it was this thing about pulling up at the back with all the bones and everything.

Claire (F5): So when she was alive I was more aware of what I was wearing, but now as long as I’m comfortable, it doesn’t really bother me that much.

Importantly, and in closing of this section, my participants seem to be relating their mother’s influence on the underwear they wore with their overall sense of taste and, because of underwear’s attachment to the body, with their overall body image. Indeed, the women who did elaborate on how their choices in underwear, and what they consider underwear’s function to be, were those that have admitted to low self-confidence and body image. Such findings of course can be conceptualised in many different ways, but for the purpose of this paper I argue it demonstrates clearly how a mother’s embodied cultural capital and dispositions, such as modes of thinking (body image), can take the form of emotional capital (Rafferty, 2011; Reay, 2000, 2004a, 2005) and also be transmitted to the daughter. Rafferty indicates that ‘emotional investments [from the family] are highly likely to have a significant impact upon the child’s psycho-affective development, and specifically in terms of self-worth’ (2011: 246).

‘Does my bra show?’

Choosing the ‘right’ underwear for the right occasion seems almost a ‘learnt’ skill or ability for these women, and one of the important factors for the ‘correct’ consumption choices was the outerwear–underwear relationship. Wearing the proper underwear underneath meant that they could be either presented properly or feel appropriate to the situation or the field they were in. For example, Tara from the mother’s group mentioned that she has a blue bra to match a light blue blouse she wears at work. She felt that any other colour, for example black or white, would attract more attention than having a similar colour as her blouse. She also felt that it was the ‘right’ colour in terms of demonstrating her ability to match her clothes, especially when at work. Evident in an opposite case was that if a woman wears ‘inappropriate’ underwear then it immediately becomes a topic of discussion and criticism. Indicative was the case of Ruth from the WADs group about when she was employed:

Ruth (F5): I sometimes used to wear a red underskirt when I went to work, and if I was sitting and it was showing then all would go ‘oh she’s got a red underskirt!’

In the same vein, Amy (the gym instructor) chooses underwear that provides physical support, but which corresponds with the sports clothes she wears at work: her body moves and sweats quite a lot in a gym class so her underwear needs firstly to be invisible under her work outfit (thus she mostly wears thongs), and to hold her body while it moves. She also mentioned that it has to be the right underwear in terms of material, as it is important that it absorbs her sweat so that she looks appropriate while teaching fitness classes. Nevertheless, her underwear had to also be as invisible as possible because what she wears is quite tight fitting. As she explains ‘I don’t like to be able to see any underwear myself, let alone my clients’. Amy clearly demonstrates here her feel for the game in the field of fitness, but also this commentary allows us to see underwear as part of her embodied cultural capital, similar to the tutors’ group, since it supports her fitness dress and her body throughout exercising. At the same time, she acknowledges that the right underwear should not be visible as it would distract her clients from her professional identity as a fitness instructor.

Concluding this section, underwear’s connections with outerwear is important to my participants in terms of supporting their overall appearance in the particular settings or fields they move in and out of during their everyday life. Thus, and in relation to Entwistle’s point earlier in this section, these women’s choices in underwear when hidden under the outerwear means situating these women’s bodies in the contextual structures of their daily lives, and their interpretations of what these structures require from them in order to look ‘appropriate’. This alludes to Erica’s comment about her age and her underwear being at some point visible to her students, and societal expectations of what is age appropriate (Tischner and Malson, 2008). It also suggests how the ‘right’ underwear while at work, for example, can be seen as women’s embodied cultural capital since it demonstrates their bodily competences when performing their jobs and thus their habitus dispositions and feel for the game, which in this case is knowing what body work is required for their professional fields.

Discussion and conclusions

This paper presented data collected from an empirical research that sought to understand women’s experiences of choosing the right underwear, and what sociocultural factors affect these choices. A Bourdieusian framework was used to find something about my participants’ choices in terms of habitus-specific factors, such as displaying their (embodied) cultural capital and their taste in underwear. The three themes discussed in this paper include the degree to which these women make aesthetic judgements and display their sense of taste about the underwear they buy, and how they distinguish between the underwear that they need to wear in particular fields; the transmission of their mothers’ cultural capital and taste when it comes to their choices in underwear; and the relationship between underwear and outerwear, and how they use the former to support their dress within specific fields or contexts they move in and out of in their daily lives, such as their workplace.

On the whole, these data suggest that different habitus produce different assumptions about underwear’s role and function, and hence influence these women’s consumption choices. For example, Erica and Christie’s different views about which underwear they buy and its role was a result of their different taste and the volumes of capital (mostly cultural capital) they possess. Christie alluded to her temporary low economic capital as the reason for not buying what she thought to be ‘not so boring’ underwear (not black or white underwear) and of a higher quality, which also meant a more expensive price. However, she also suggested that her consumption choices are also part of her overall ‘poor’ sense of style compared to what is marketed as beautiful, special or sexy underwear. These women’s taste in terms of what they consider as boring underwear was in accordance with Bourdieu’s notion of taste as mostly a sense of distaste. By defining their underwear as boring or ‘just to serve its purpose’, they then acknowledge that any other type of underwear is thus more ‘tasteful’ in terms of shape, material or colour. The differences in taste expressed by these women when choosing underwear were also discussed as differences in the cultural capital they possess. I argued that cultural capital – that is, modes of thinking or quality of style – determines many of these women’s choices, as it legitimises social differences.

Cultural capital was also understood in this paper as something strongly transmitted by the family, especially the mother, as Bourdieu (1984) advocates. Indeed, as seen previously, my data suggested that early familiarisation, development and ‘passing on’ of cultural capital by the mother influence these women’s choices in underwear. Some of my participants reported that their mother’s ‘boring’ choices in underwear, or considering underwear as merely functional, had profoundly influenced their adult lives. ‘Boring’ underwear has been related in my data with low self-confidence and low body-image, which also speaks to how these women have internalised societal demands for specific body shapes and feminine ideals.

However, on the other hand, it was argued that taste is a mechanism by which individuals distribute their symbolic resources, such as cultural capital, in their struggles to improve their social positions. This also indicates that the types and quality of underwear they would like to consume had they had higher economic capital might be different from what they consumed at the time of our conversation.

Finally, this paper contributes to a limited scholarly discussion around mundane forms of body work (such as buying and wearing the ‘right’ underwear), and the significance of such consumption practices in constructing and reconstructing female identity. Even though it was evident from my data that my participants have learnt to meet societal expectations and distinguish what is appropriate to wear when it comes to different fields or stages in life (e.g. age), they still choose from a myriad of choices in the market: from underwear sections in supermarkets to specialist underwear shops in high streets or online. Thus I argue that habitus-specific consumption practices that are underpinned by women’s taste and volumes of cultural capital can then become gender-specific practices as they ‘fashion’ female identity. Insofar that underwear is visible to others, these women select it according to the situation or field they are in. In this case they are ‘required’ to display their body competence, cultural competence and legitimate competence in the form of symbolic capital and feel for the game because it needs to fit into that context. Nevertheless, and to the extent to which underwear is hidden from view, other factors such as comfort come into play (see Tsaousi and Brewis, 2013). However, even in the case that underwear is hidden, it can work as a form of their embodied cultural capital as it supports their outerwear in the field or context they are in, which in many cases transforms into other forms of capital. All in all, it is mobilised in many cases to support the role they are called to play or the identity they are called to exemplify in their daily lives, thus constructing their female identity in accordance with western expectations about what a woman should be like.

By suggesting that underwear can be seen as form of embodied cultural capital, I have thus contributed to an emerging literature where feminists and other social theorists appropriate Bourdieu’s notion of capital in an attempt to revolutionise it and expand it into other subspecies: for example, the theorisation of emotional capital by Illouz (1997) and Reay (2004a); the expansion of embodied cultural capital to physical capital by Shilling (1991); and to gender capital by McCall (1992) and Huppatz (2012); and also the discussion around female and feminine capital as a form of embodied cultural capital by Huppatz (2009), Lovell (2000) and Skeggs (2004). Indeed, ‘[d]ifferentiating new forms of capital enables theorists to provide a deeper understanding of wealth and inequality and to account for both class and gender processes’ (Huppatz, 2009: 46). Even though the data gathered for my doctoral thesis did not capture behaviours that would allow me to link class structures and gender practices as such, this could be rectified in research projects to come. I do acknowledge this is one of the limitations of my research, however, as mentioned also in the introduction of this paper, I have selected to concentrate on gender and how my participants construct elements of their female identity because I consider gender as the primary classificatory system when encountering others (Brewis, 2005; Gherardi, 1994) and doing gender in social situations as a social dynamic and a process of experiencing the world. Bristor and Fischer (1993) go further to argue that consumption is fundamentally gendered as it is a means of asserting and reproducing gender. Thus the consumption of women’s underwear is indeed fundamentally gendered and becomes a way of experiencing ‘being a woman’.

The research design of this research and specifically the selection of participants on the methodological basis of identity opseis is arguably another limitation of this research, as it excludes other groups of women or indeed other opseis that could say more about the factors affecting women’s consumption of underwear. However, the opseis reflected in my focus groups and interviews were undeniably constrained from access negotiation and the usual ‘conflict between the desirable and the possible’ (Buchanan et al., cited in Saunders, et al., 2009: 71). Nevertheless, the data chosen and presented here allow for an analysis of my participants’ experiences with mundane forms of consumption, such as buying and wearing the ‘right’ underwear through a Bourdieusian lens, thus expanding the limited literature on underwear and its significance in terms of identity and consumption.