Module 8

I found Bordo's appraisal of the body's indication of social identity and place very interesting; although a little bit hard to believe that these body types applied across the board for each class - she seems to be essentializing and generalizing here. However, the intersection of social place or class and body size is, I believe, an important and interesting one. What Bordo refers to as "the moral coding of the fat/slender body in terms of its capacity for [...] the control of impulse and desire," some people refer to as 'size-ism." Society judges and discriminates against body types that lie outside the cultural norm, but unarguably more severely against those which err on the larger end of the spectrum. However, this discrimination is overlooked or simply dismissed, in part due to our equation of excess body weight with "moral or personal inadequacy or lack of will." Bordo states that this dichotomy of over-indulgence and (extreme) self-restraint is "possible only in a culture of overabundance" where presumably, the "moral requirement to diet depends on material preconditions." In other words, only in a society where basic needs are met, where food is readily available and easily accessible and attainable, can there be a choice between impulse and restraint. This is true to a certain degree, but it does not take into account the correlation between obesity and poverty in America. The similarities between these two maps: one of obesity rates and one of the percentage of people living below poverty, are striking. In such cases, obesity is not just a factor of personal exercise of self-restraint or lack thereof, but other (predominantly economic) factors as well.

I was pleasantly surprised and excited to recognize Michael Kimmel's name in the second reading. I attended a talk he gave here at JMU in Spring 2008, entitled "Mars and Venus, or Planet Earth: Women and Men in a New Millenium," and I was really impressed with the things he had to say - a lot of it really stuck with me. I did a brief writeup of what he had to say for extra credit in a class I was taking that semester, and I'll post it here so that if anyone is interested they can look at it.

The notion of "Ruling Class Politics" is an example of how power relations are reflected and reinforced in beauty norms. By setting the standards of what is desirable to young, white, able, and middle-class, we internalize these norms, and all the other "-ism's" are reinforced.

I found the idea of common body maintenance procedures - e.g. shaving, hair coloring, etc. - as "disciplinary practices" so interesting, because we do spend time, money, and effort on these practices, but how often do women gripe to each other about what a hassle it is to shave? So why do we do it? It's social control of the body - it's not socially acceptable for women to have hairy legs or armpits. On that note, there is an interesting ad campaign being run by several makers of men's shaving products, encouraging men to shave their pubes - although I suspect that this is less in the interest of 'hygiene' than it is profits for the companies.

I believe that advertising and the media have a huge impact on our perceptions, thought processes, decisions and judgments, to an extent that we don't even realize. The statistic that the average American spends three years of life watching commercials is a little unsavory, and even more so when one considers the nature of these ads - so many of them portray unhealthy images, propagate stereotypes, or are just plain offensive. For these reasons, I've consciously removed myself from, or at least reduced my exposure to, the constant battery of advertising by not watching TV or reading popular magazines, and I really think that it has made a positive difference in my well-being on multiple levels.