Policing of Women's Bodies

Very often do I go on my social media pages, and see a viral post about a girl being sent home from school, prom or work because her outfit was deemed as “inappropriate.” Women’s bodies have been policed since the story of Adam and Eve. The patriarchy has always made women feel ashamed for showing and loving their bodies, just the way they are. Women’s bodies are policed not for their own sake, but because if a woman shows too much, it’s distracting to males. If a woman is raped, often people blame her for wearing something too provocative. And we’re policed for not wearing enough, for not pleasuring men. The continual policing of women’s bodies devalues us. We are told that we are to blame for all of the male species wrong doings, and we have to change in order to stop men. Policing of women’s bodies is a dehumanizing act; we are used by the patriarchy as a scapegoat.

Lizzy Martinez was pulled out of class for wearing this long sleeved t-shirt and told to put band-aids over her nipples because they were distracting to male students. 

            Policing of women's bodies is a deep-rooted issue in our society. Dress code isn’t just an issue in schools and work places, but sometimes even in a woman’s own home. Beth Cone Kramer explores this policing in religions. The Tznuit laws of Orthodox Jews have modesty lawst hat prohibit women from having bare elbows, knees and even toes. And once she’s married, she has to cover her hair with a wig as to not attract any other man to her. In her essay White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack, Peggy McIntosh writes about male privilege “They may say they will work to improve women’s status, in the society, the university, or the curriculum, but they can’t or won’t support the idea of lessening men’s” (1.) The patriarchy’s goal of policing women’s bodies is to use women for their benefits, and as a blame for all there past, present and even future wrong doings.

            Tanya Steele explores in her article about sexual exploration, that women are viewed as objects to bring men pleasure, rather than humans that are also recipients of pleasure. She analyzes the policing of women’s access to birth control, and writes “these men see a woman’s need for protection, for control over her body, for a desire to experience her sexuality without the risk of pregnancy or disease, as not of interest to them. What interests them is the climax, the end result. For men and boys, in the private spaces of negotiation, their orgasm is the goal” (‘Hobby Lobby’ and a Women’s Right to Sexual Exploration.) The messages being sent to women are that we are worthless. We are here to serve men, and that’s what we should do. But this shouldn’t be the case. As Audre Lorde writes in her book Transformation of Silence, “... if I were to have been born mute, or had maintained an oath of silence my whole life long for safety, I would still die.” Because women are made to believe we have no control, we just quietly accept what the patriarchy imposes on us, because it’s safe. But we need to speak up, and we have been. That’s why the Me Too movement has been so big.

This ad promotes "loving one's body", but only uses stick thin models.

            It is the patriarchy that restricts women’s agency over their bodies. As explored in the article Patriarchal Society According to Feminism, a patriarchal society (which we for the most part live in) consists of a male dominated power structure. This power gives men more privileges than women. One of these privileges is the right to control women's bodies. Men use women to their advantage, and as women we’re supposed to serve. They blame how we dress as a distraction and ignore our own needs, and they continually over sexualize us in media for their own pleasure. Either we wear too little clothes... or not enough. Media has a huge impact on how we view policing of women’s bodies, because media continually tells women we have to look a certain way to be wanted by the patriarchy, and we continue to give over to these ideas. In Jean Kilbourne’s essay Beauty and the Beast of Advertising, she writes in regards to women being shown almost exclusively as sex objects or housewives in ads, “ Women are constantly exhorted to emulate this ideal (beauty), to feel ashamed and guilty if they fail, and to feel that their desirability and lovability are contingent upon physical perfection” (122.) The media is run by the patriarchy, and they force women’s bodies to be viewed as a sexual objects. And this continual portrayal over sexualized women’s bodies keeps enforcing this idea to women that we are here only for men. Our bodies are here to be used as a blame or for men’s pleasure. They use us to reach their climax. They police us to get what they want from us.

·       Kilbourne, Jean. Beauty and the Beast of Advertising. 121-25. Print.

·       Lorde, Audre. "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action." Transformation of Silence. 40-44. Print.

·       McIntosh, Peggy. "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack." Print.

·       Steele, Tanya. "'Hobby Lobby,' and a Woman's Right to Sexual Exploration." Rewire.News. Rewire.News, 10 July 2014. Web. 04 Nov. 2018.