Training for body and emotional work: the gendered experiences of mothers

Training for body and emotional work: the gendered experiences of mothers Emma Wainwright Elodie Marandet Fiona Smith Centre for Human Geography, Brunel University, London

Introduction • Popularity of courses among mothers: “Its stuff that girls can relate to, you know, without wishing to be sexist or anything but it is. It’s not like when you sat at school at the back of the physics class or something”. (FG, Curing) “Well that’s the mother’s instinct. They have a caring nature” (Tutor 3)

Introduction • Focus on body work categories of ‘curing’ and ‘pleasuring’ (after Wolkowitz, 2006): • Aromatherapy massage and reflexology • Indian head massage and full body massage • Based on 30-month ESRC-funded project: • The body-training choices, expectations and experiences of mothers in West London

Aims • How are the bodily and emotional learned and experienced? • How is the space of the classroom used to teach these skills? • How do these courses link to perceived gender and maternal idientiy?

Body work and emotional labour Whether it be in the field of basic nursing, massage, beauty therapy or sex work…contemporary sex/gender power relations tend to relegate the hand-on care of others’ bodies, and the spaces they occupy, to women. (Oerton, 2004: 561)

Body work and emotional labour Bodywork is…intimately linked with women’s bodily lives through motherhood and nurturance. Because women do this work for babies and children, these activities are generalised as female. (Twigg, 2000: 407)

The classroom-salon • “The salon is made to be a realistic working environment, so that once they're ready, you know, they've done their practice and we've done a mock assessment, and we feel that they're ready to do the public, then we turn it into a salon, where we book appointments, the public book in and they come in for a treatment, and that's how they get assessed, is by doing the treatment on someone they don't know” (Tutor 2)

i.Looking the part: a uniform(ed) body • Being professional: “You know, you're not sort of… a mess you know, 'cause you've got… for this sort of field, you've got to look the part, you know, so you've got to look sort of smart and clean, you know, clean and everything tidy, or someone will come in and think, oh…”. (Tutor 2) “to be organised really, you know, so that everything's in its place”. (Tutor 2)

ii.Setting the scene: mind and body • Emphasising the academic: “beauty, they don't realise how wide a range of things you learn. You know, if they think it's just having a facial, it's not you know. And plus, the stuff you learn with it, you know, you have to learn about the skin, the muscles, the bones… and there are quite a few universities and places that do degrees, like in cosmetic science, find out how make-up's made, or holistic therapies” (Tutor 2) “when you think holistic side of things people aren’t so aware of the amount of theory that goes with it.” (FG, curing)

ii.Setting the scene: mind and body • A space of relaxation • Recreating the salon environment in the classroom • Calm and tranquility “we set the environment, we have soft music playing, the lights are dimmed, you know… it's all very nice”. (Tutor 2)

iii. The consultation: talking about feeling • More than the body: Tutor: “It’s not just a simple body massage” (Observation of full body massage class) “It’s like a whole package isn’t it, it’s not just the physical thing that you do to them”. (FG, curing) • Collecting the client: “They have to bring the clients up and they do the treatment … It just really gets them ready for real working life in a salon”. (Tutor 1)

iii. The consultation: talking about feeling • Verbal communication: “the body massage and even the reflexology you want the client to RELAX so we just tell them … be aware some clients just talk and talk and talk but then you have to know the limits where to stop it.” (Tutor 3) “It’s about when you have your clients you don’t just treat them like a number you know treat them as if they are your only sort of client. Very, you know show them that you are caring and if there is any problems to give them, to show them a sympathetic reaction um you know give them a space of their own where you can talk to them. You know a personal area where you can talk to them, make them feel like nobody else is listening”. (FG, curing)

iii. The consultation: talking about feeling • The performing student: -“Making them feel confident in you. You know greeting them with a smile you know making them, a friendly manner, giving them a very friendly manner and polite”. - “It’s making them feel special”.(FG, curing)

iii. The consultation: talking about feeling • Feminised talking “I was born that way” (FG, pleasuring) • The ‘experienced’ student “And they do the consultations better because they are slightly older or even the ones that have um been put in to that caring role earlier seem to be able to ask, they understand why we ask the questions on a consultation. The very young ones that aren’t mothers they are just children themselves and they don’t understand why we ask certain questions”. (Tutor 1)

iii. The consultation: talking about feeling • An emotional encounter: “when you are in a little cubicle completely private and somebody is asking you questions and they say oh how are you feeling sort of emotionally, how are you feeling emotionally, are you very happy at the moment? And sometimes that might be enough but they start to say oh whatever and they tell you all their problems. And the girls can’t run out to us they have to deal with it”. (Tutor 1)

iii. The consultation: talking about feeling • An emotional encounter: “they have to cover a range of people to pass, they have to do someone nervous, or someone non-nervous, and you can tell by body language. We teach them about body language, you would tell if it's a nervous person, they might not look you in the eye, so it's down the student really, to make them feel at ease, that's part of what they're taught to do”. (Tutor 2)

iv. The bodily: touching and controlling • Nakedness: “when they have to turn from their back onto their stomach, there's a certain way of holding the towels in the position they do, so that nothing shows, they have to learn how to do that properly, so that nothing exposes any parts of the body”. (Tutor 2) “And you know when we are in the class that cubicle here and sometimes (the tutor) ask us to move the curtains so that she can observe everyone. So its like to be naked in the public is very difficult for me”. (FG, pleasuring)

iv. The bodily: touching and controlling • Limits of touch: ““Reflexology is the foot. So the foot is … it’s intimate but is different from the body massage … it’s only up to half the calf so that is okay.” (Tutor 3) “And we teach them with a man, how to approach the man because certain areas in a man can be stimulated more easily than a woman so we teach them all those things”. (Tutor 3)

iv. The bodily: touching and controlling • Controlling feelings: “I think by the time you take up reflexology you have to like, you have to be prepared to touch anybodies feet so. Most people are like ‘ah’ at the beginning so…” (FG, curing) “Yeah I mean if it was really bad you couldn’t stand it you can suggest politely that you go and have a little wash but obviously in a very tactful sort of way. …Yeah, yeah that’s mentioned yeah. You wouldn’t say hey your feet stink.” (FG, curing)

Some conclusions... • Training spaces as highly feminised • Mothers’ wider geographies of care • Science and professionalism vs. stereotypes of care • What of men in these spaces?

Training for body and emotional work: the gendered experiences of mothers