In both the Gloria Steinem reading, "Sex, Lies & Advertising," and Joan Brumberg’s essay, “Body Projects” the one thing that really stood out for me was simply the power of an image, especially in the case of women. It’s really a vicious cycle—women see images of the “ideal” body and type and work to match that, which in turn perpetuates the exalting of this image, which makes advertisers want to portray it. Where does it end? And how much of it shapes our psyches. I would say it shapes it quite a lot. In my opinion, it really all comes back to just that idea of comfort with conventions and how tangled up conventions are with power. Is it possible to have a “bad” outer image and still succeed, or will you always be frowned down upon for your looks? I think it’s easy to say that we would never judge someone like that, but there’s probably very little truth in it. Cal’s discomfort with himself and his intersex condition is an extreme case of this. He knows that regardless of the person he is, he will be judged because he is not gender typical. The fact that he isn’t even sure if his parents could understand and is in fact glad in a way that his father never had to deal with his life as a man is proof of that. Whether a stranger or a parent, there is always going to be judgment when an image is broken.
Brumberg looks at women and their perceptions of body and the “ideal image” and wonders what we can do to stop this from happening. All it manages to do is breed an innate self-consciousness in females that seems to drive their every whim and decision. I don’t think that men are entirely an exception to that—image is universal to everyone—but it is certainly a much higher standard and a much bigger problem with women. And as Steinem points out, these advertisers working in “women’s magazines” are not helping. Is there any way to undermine this power that image is holding? If there is—which, honestly, I’m not sure about—I think you might even find that women would shy away from such a thing, so ingrained in them is that need to be the “pretty” or “skinny” one. The focus may shift from one aspect of the body or the image to another, but that doesn't mean that we are making progress to defying these things. Once again, it’s just the social norms. To break the connection between women and image would be to break down barriers of both history and society, and that takes a lot.
I agree with this in that the power of the body image for women is very problematic in our society. Through the ideal image women are "taught" that they need to look like these women in the magazines and advertsements when they arent even real. In a Pop culture class i took last year we compared the ads before they were altered and the women had completely different bodies, all imperfectons were airbrushed out and the body was altered to perfection. how are we supposed to compete wit non-reality? Yet most women dont know this or want so bad to look like these images that they justify barely eating and working out for hours everyday. to them they are being "healthy" but it turns into such an obsession that in their eyes they will never look good enough. i have friends that cant go through a second of the day without thinking about their body and you especially see this at colgate. i have never seen a group of women that put so much pressure on how they look and will go to any and every extreme to make sure they obtain that look. Even when you try not to live that way or put so much pressure on how you look, it is all around and is constantly rewarded. we dedicate shows, websites, magazines, movies to making fun of women that gain wait or arent the 'ideal" woman and it makes it impossible to feel comfortable that your body isnt being judged in the same light. i think the idea of what is beautiful is constantly changing but even though it has changed throughout history it is still negative to have one ideal of beauty and that will not change until we can break these connections.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed Brumberg’s Body Project chapters and how they took us back to the roots of female self image. Brumberg recognizes that the transformation of society went hand in hand with the change in femininity. Before the 20s women mainly stayed in the private sphere and with the rise in industrialization women became more a part of the public than ever. I couldn't believe that women going off to college wrote "happily about gaining weight". Reinforcing Steinem's article, Brumberg also points out how "American popular culture" shaped women's minds such as Yvonne Blue. Women's magazines,fashion, novels, Nancy Drew books, and movies all taught women that they needed slim bodies to be successful. I had never really thought about the body as a project but Brumberg makes it clear using these different girls' stories.
ReplyDeleteWhat I found very interesting was the parallel between the females of the 20s and those of Raunch Culture today. Women back then were breaking the traditional feminine look while they also "proclaimed greater freedom". Much like today females were changing their feminity for so called liberating reasons. Like Brittani says however, girls were mainly concerned with the "image". Blue changed her image several times during college all of which were probably influenced by pop culture. I think that Brittani is right and it is all just a vicious cycle and it doesn't look like it will end anytime soon. Just as today's women believe a sexy image is appropriate and sometimes nessecary, Yvonne thought that "modern femininity required some degree of exhibitionism".
I agree with Brumberg when he asserted that American society shapes peoples minds. The body to me represents something completely different in other cultures. Our culture does not allow people to be free individuals. This is getting to be a big problem for women as I read the Body Project. I think about this all the time when i see women here at colgate killing themselves with strenuous running workouts and not eating enough food.
ReplyDeleteHowever i see this and i do not agree with Trey or Amanda on how the issue needs to be resolved. If women would stop being as vulnerable to criticism things might change. I think today's femininity is perpetuating the cycle by contributing to it.
I think Brittani makes an interesting point in bringing Cal into the equation. In our discussion about how there is such a polarization of men trying to be larger, and women trying to be smaller, it widens the gap on what society considers "not normal" whether that is intersex or women who don't fit perfectly into one size. It just goes to show that how engrained "normal" is in our society, but oddly enough as the gap widens and the polarization becomes stronger, the more people will fall into the "abnormal" section and perhaps then our definitions of "normal" will change.
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