The temporary ownership that men could have of these paintings was reflected in real life. If still images could be controlled by men, so could real women. In real life however this ownership is not as obvious as paying for a rendition of Venus to be hung in your bedroom. This ownership took the form of not allowing women autonomy. In reference to middle class women in the fourteenth century and onward, autonomy would refer to the right to have interactions outside of her household. Specifically in The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf goes on to explain how the only point of reference women had for the way a woman should look was through her husband's word. This meant that the male-dominated society was responsible for creating images of beauty. Beauty was also considered in bits and pieces, "since the fourteenth century, male culture has silenced women by taking them beautifully apart". In media, women's bodies are taken apart in two common ways: only showing a portion of her body or turning her body into an object. This helps to move the image further away from that of a full living and breathing woman with thoughts and feelings into these small tidbits of beauty that can be easily digested. Images like the following help to objectify women in a very literal way.
Scientifically speaking, women as well as men are animals but there is still obvious distinctions between human women and animals. This brings up the point of the use of the word "females" when talking about women; to be female in the scientific sense just requires a vagina and to be able to birth children, but that not only reduces women to the genitalia which in itself is harmful but it excludes transwomen. Womanhood is then confirmed to a rigid set of rules.
So far my analysis of the way women's bodies are perceived has focused on the broader understanding of women. But there are specific challenges that women of color face in terms of perceptions of their body. In the chapter entitled Crooked Room, Melissa Harris Perry details the ways in which "when confronted with race and gender stereotypes, black women are standing in a crooked room, and they have to figure out which way is up." This meaning that black women have to figure out their true identities when the world has created these "crooked" ideas of what black women are (mammy, video vixen, etc.). During her study of 43 black women across America, Perry found that many women had strategies to try and deter being placed into these stereotypical categories, one woman stated, "I respect myself so I know nobody can call me a ho." This type of internalized sexism allows those who make policies about women's bodies to not have to do much work, as women themselves are policing their own bodies to fit societal standards. But black women know, that even with all the editing of themselves they do, they are still forced into being more palatable to white society. Audre Lorde so eloquently put it in The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action, "I was going to die, if not sooner than later, whether or not I had ever spoken to myself." Lorde acknowledges the fear of repercussion that can happen because of speaking out; silence can be a form of protection for marginalized women. Yet the people who make the policies and legislature have still oppressed women, and will still crush the spirits of marginalized women especially whether they speak out or not. In this segment Lorde is essentially exercising a giant and powerful "fuck it" attitude towards the way women have been taught to be compliant.
Movie poster for a Blaxploitation film, which often employed the Jezebel stereotype.
Links for further readings:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-woman-artists-stereotypes_us_58471907e4b016eb81d8868b
https://www.cnn.com/style/article/women-not-objects-madonna-badger-feat/index.html
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