Blogpost #4

Women’s bodies are policed consciously and unconsciously by society as early as the womb, resulting in consequences that confine women to positions of inferiority and devaluation.

Society itself is based on the premises of the male gaze instituted and led by wealthy cyst white heterosexual men. These are the same men that remain at the very top of the social hierarchy and part of the problem in enforcing these barriers for women. However, the majority of white men are unaware that they even have this privilege that seems so obvious to many minority groups. As Peggy McIntosh in White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack states, “Denials which amount to taboos surround the subject of advantages which men gain from women’s disadvantages. These denials protect male privilege from being fully acknowledged, lessened or ended” (McIntosh 1). In other words, people cannot have a conversation about improving the status of women without discussing the status of men first. The two subjects go hand in hand with one another to create the imbalance of powers that exist within society. When men deny their superiority they also reject that there is a problem in need of fixing.

Often the male gaze picks and chooses what it pays attention to and what it does not. One thing that the male gaze does see are women as nothing more than sexual objects that provide pleasure for the benefit of others or in this case them. This perception is then distributed to society through various forms of media. In Body Messages and Body Meanings by Wykes Gunther he says, “‘A false standard of what is and what is not desirable is being imposed’ (Berger, 1972:154), mass media representations of femininity and especially the female body not only sets limits and controls on women’s self-worth and the value assigned to them but nurture falsities by allying sexual and social success to size” (Gunther 220). The size that Gunther is referring to is being physically petite which is the complete opposite standard for the “well-built” man. It’s almost as though women are supposed to feel, look and be inferior in all aspects of their lives.

In order for women to stay small in physique, it also means policing women when it comes to the topic of food. As Bordo in Hunger as Ideology states, “Men are supposed to have hearty, even voracious appetites” whereas “...women who habitually seek such experiences (emotional heights, intensity, love and thrills) from food, are most likely to be overwhelmed by their relationship to it, finding food dangerous and frightening” (Bordo 108). Society holds a double standard when it comes to men versus women, but women are the ones getting the short end of the stick. The necessary and simple act of eating that all people need in order to survive and most importantly stay alive is given praise by society when accomplished by men whereas women are castigated because their increasing the likelihood of gaining.

Men vs. women when it comes to food. (L) happy man w/ pizza (R) sad woman w/ apple, 2018.

The impact of these methods of policing forced upon women result in women under the false pretense that their looks dictate their window of opportunities. When women engage with media, they are often given images of their bodies being as Jean Kilbourne in Beauty and the Beast of Advertising states, “dismembered and separated into parts in need of change or improvement.” This psychologically affects women because it causes them to believe that they will never be good enough, especially if they remain true to their authentic self. Society places a great deal of pressure on women to achieve goals that are unrealistic and/or are outright lies. Another thing that Kilbourne notes is that, “All ‘beautiful’ women in advertisements (including minority women), regardless of product or audience, conform to this norm. Women are constantly exhorted to emulate this ideal, to feel ashamed and guilty if they fail, and to feel that their desirability and lovability are contingent upon physical perfection” (Kilbourne 122). All women, no matter if it’s a women of color or a white women is affected by the barriers society has placed on them. Women as a whole have been policed into relying on the approval of men and artificiality to make them happy and accepted. Even looking bare-faced/ “natural” takes effort and investment because people still want to look like the ideal but it might be at a lesser extent.

The "natural" look featured by BareMinerals makeup brand, 2018.

In the article Girls and social media: ‘You are expected to live up to an impossible standard’ many young people such as Julia Peters, 22, feel as though “there is an unwritten rule about how you should look in your pictures- how you should do your makeup and what filter you should use.” This unwritten rule is not just in the case of pictures as quoted here but in real life. Many of the young girls within the article shared stories having to deal with their biggest worry online, comparing themselves to others. To put differently, the male gaze causes women to self-objectify themselves. Women are then forced into viewing each other as competitors, distracting them from uniting as one to fight the real root of their problems, the wealthy heterosexual cyst male that dominates the social hierarchy. For every high there is a low, for every up there is a down, and for every boy there is a girl.

According to Natasha Devon in You are your looks: that’s what society tells girls. No wonder they’re depressed she states, “gendered terms such as ‘girls,’ ‘boys’ or ‘ladies’ not only fail to acknowledge the potential presence of transgender people, but are unhelpful since they constantly remind humans of their gender (and all the social expectations attached).” As a result of these sets of expectations assigned along with the sex at birth, women are the ones more likely to suffer mentally and physically by falling into depression and eating disorders.

From personal experience as a woman myself, I have experienced the pressure to keep my figure tight because society makes it seem as though it is a responsibility of mine to stay on top of my body appearance. There was a point in time where the pressure I was feeling became too much for me to handle that I remember going on extreme diets, overloading on the amount of exercise and consistently shaming myself in front of the mirror. Bottom line is I was way more unhealthy when I gave into the policing of women then when I acted or spoke out against it.

Another thing that I relate to from experience is giving into the artificiality such as makeup. I remember always setting my alarm to wake up earlier, that way I could ensure that I had enough time to put on my daily makeup. It wasn’t until my lack of sleep hit me that I began to question whether or not the makeup I put on was for myself or for the comfort of others. When I finally stopped denying the answer I knew was true, I took a break from putting on makeup altogether because I didn’t want to feel reliant on it to make me feel good about myself. Makeup is only one of many discourses that  are “part of the technology of power-capitalist and patriarchal but also heterosexual, white and Western and also part of subjective consciousness” (Gunther 208). I had finally realized that makeup wasn’t something that I needed but something I thought I needed. My own insecurities were being used to make an industry richer than it already was.

Overall, society and the media aren’t completely terrible because the awareness on these issues are growing and the internet is starting to promote projects advocating for the growth of women’s self-esteem by displaying women of all colors, body types and sizes. No longer is a single story about women and women’s bodies being told thereby improving society by a little but still improving.