Abstract

Why do Hamilton College students eat the way they do? Based on in-depth, semi-structured, interviews with 12 Hamilton students I searched for the major influences. My results suggest that there are variabilities between people’s habits, but there is a relationship between gendered popular culture and local peer influences that shape each person’s habits. Men and women eat differently, this is not questioned; however, the habits between athletes and Greek members showed variability as well. Athletes mainly eat based on performance, and Greek members typically follow popular cultures’ notion of an ideal body image: women should be thin and men should be muscular. My findings largely support the literature on eating behavior, however, it adds nuance into the culture at a small liberal arts college that previous studies often overlook.

Type of Work

Thesis - Limited Access

Department or Program

Sociology

Institution

Hamilton College

Degree

Bachelor of Arts

Date of Graduation

5-2018

Faculty Advisor

Jaime Kucinskas, Stephen Ellingson

Notes

Access to this thesis is limited to Hamilton College, Clinton, NY.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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