Post 4: (Dress) Code for Disaster

I attended a performing arts high school and there was a certain expectation among students that we would be allowed to express ourselves. There was no rigid dress code – I often saw dance majors in their skin-tight bodices and leggings or art majors dressed in all sorts of creative outfits. Students of all genders got away with short skirts and tank tops, even at this New York City public school but I understand that this was not every student in America’s experience however. There are horror stories from all over the country of girls being shamed and forced out of the classroom, being told they were “distracting”, being ridiculed and punished, all due to what they were wearing.

Twitter meme commenting on the ridiculousness of school dress codes
[Image from BUZZFEED]

Dress codes for female students are only one example of the many policies and barriers that assert dominance over women’s bodies throughout the United States. On an even larger level, women’s bodies are an often debated subject in congress and on other governmental levels. The right for a woman to have an abortion is a hot topic – a topic that cis men in government often discuss. Cis men do not have the experience of living with a uterus, they do not get to have an opinion on what a woman does with her own uterus! Yet they still give it! And they still make these opinions our laws and force these opinions on the public. Policing women’s bodies like this is a method for the patriarchy to stay intact. Without respect for a woman’s own needs, without respect for boundaries, without respect for autonomy – this is how the patriarchy thrives.

By enforcing these barriers, women are being taught that they aren’t respected. Because of this blatant assault on a woman’s human rights, young girls are being taught conflicting messages from a very young age. They are valued for their bodies but not for their voice. When young girls are told to “cover up” and are being sent home because what they wear is “distracting,” they are being told that their male counterparts’ education are more important than their own. Not even mentioning how inappropriate and disgusting it is for young girls to be sexualized by their teacher

Our “democratic” government, a system built by the white supremacist patriarchy, is the root of these restrictions on women’s own ownership of their bodies. There is constantly legislature being introduced that attempts to further a woman’s autonomy. For example, Roe v Wade legalized abortion on a federal scale – yet states can have legislature that makes obtaining an abortion extremely difficult for both the individuals and the clinics. It is a constant fight to give women autonomy and being able to make choices for themselves. It is perfectly understandable for different people to have varying opinions on whether abortion is right or wrong – but it is straight wrong for abortion to not be an offered choice. When television shows have abortion story lines, it is important for these story lines to be portrayed positively or in at least a certain light that doesn’t make the person getting the abortion into a demonized, evil character.

The media impacts the way the public views these issues because they curate the stories the public sees. The stories that can shown to the public affect opinions and plant seeds for internalized hatred, however subconscious this turns out to be. In the Netflix original show Insatiable, the main character Patty Bledell is portrayed by a thin actress in a fat suit. During the pilot episode, the entire arch of the main character going from fat to achieving perfect thinness occurs, and she is thin for the rest of the season.

Patty Bledell, fat and then thin
[Image from METRO US]

Roxane Gay, feminist activist and author, wrote an essay for Refinery 29 about the harmfulness of this portrayal. What was more telling in this article however was Gay's commentary on how although all the writers proclaimed to have experience with eating disorders, Gay truly doubts there are any fat writers in the writer's room. writers who actively navigate the world as fat and who could accurate portray with all the nuances how weight loss is perceived (Gay). It is so important for writers to create accurate representation. "Craving recognition is one's special, in-exchangeable uniqueness is part of the human condition..." (Harris-Perry) and Insatiable robs fat viewers this recognition but giving them a harmful and inaccurate recognition. Harris-Perry goes on to write "Inaccurate recognition is painful not only to the psyche but also to the political self, the citizen self." Weight and eating disorders do not only affect women, but Insatiable's main character is a fat woman. Coincidence? I think not. 

Representation in advertising also affects body image on a large scale. Advertising likes to portray women as either the virgin or the whore (Kilbourne). There is no in between, women are forced into self objectification. To help combat negative views of women’s bodies and the negative image women have internalized of themselves in their bodies, there are many media campaigns that urge women to view themselves in a positive light. One example of this is the Dove "Real Beauty" Ads - yet this ads go on to value a certain kind of "womanly beauty" and equate value with beauty itself (King-Miller). Whether these advertisements always help is certainly questionable. Mia Mingus, an queer disability advocate, said it best:

"People think beauty is something that will make you feel better; that everybody wants/needs to feel like they’re beautiful. Because people can’t sit with the reality of what their life is like. It’s a band-aid, a life raft where they don’t have to join you in the water themselves. Because of the legacy of the freak show there is something that’s been ingrained about disgust and difference. It threatens the social order of things."

This is quoted from an interview from Them magazine, as interviewed by activist Alok Vaid-Menon. Mingus fights the social norm that beauty is to be valued, that beauty is the most important. This is important when is comes to body images and how woman value their own bodies because it is so ingrained and internalized that we must achieve some standard of beauty. That our bodies are beautiful - what does this even mean? 

Audre Lorde is quoted in Harris-Perry's Sister Citizen. Lorde says "The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house." The words of the patriarchy are difficult to reclaim in the name of progressiveness.  From dress codes to abortion rights to a lack of positive representation, women get the short end of the stick when it comes to developing a healthy self image.

Citations:

Gay, Roxane "Roxane Gay Takes Down Netflix Insatiable as Damaging" Refinery 29, August 23 2018 https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/roxane-gay-insatiable-review-fat-shaming-essay

Harris-Perry, Melissa "Sister Citizen - Crooked Room" 

Kilborune, Jean "The More You Subtract the More You Add - Cutting Girls Down to Size"

King-Miller, Lindsay "Here's What Bother Me About the New Dove Ad" Bitch Media, April 15 2015 https://www.bitchmedia.org/post/heres-what-bothers-me-about-the-new-dove-ad

Vaid-Menon, Alok "Why Ugliness is Vital in the Age of Social Media" October 26 2018 https://www.them.us/story/ugliness-disability-mia-mingus

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