Book Summary: The Necessary Body Ideals

The main thesis of Borel’s (1994) essay is that there is “an unfathomably deep and universal tendency pushes families, clans, and tribes to rapidly modify a person’s physical appearance.” There is also another underlying meaning that further amplifies why a person’s genuine physical makeup, one’s given anatomy, is always felt to be unacceptable and that “the body only speaks if it is dressed in artifice.” (Borel, 1994). Borel’s main purpose of writing her essay was to inform, persuade and entertain her audience about the history of body

The beauty standard is a culturally constructed notion of physical attractiveness that has become increasingly imperative for women and men. However, this standard has become extremely perilous to men and women’s self-image. Camille Paglia, a highly educated individual who earned her PhD at Yale University and became a highly acclaimed author, explicates this conception in her essay “The Pitfalls of Plastic Surgery”. Paglia suggests that the beauty standard idealizes women to look like “sex symbols with an unattainable grandeur” (776). She continues to claim that it forces her audience of higher class women to pay large sums of money in order to alter their features ultimately conforming to a very “parochial” definition of beauty (776). Although Paglia is a highly credible source, she illogically appeals to the reader’s fears in order to persuade them. Paglia fails to give any credible outside sources which affirms her preposterous beliefs. Contrary to her inconsistencies, Daniel Akst, a social journalist and graduate from New York University provides his audience with reputable sources in order to persuade his audience. Daniel Akst believes that there needs to be a “democratization of physical beauty” in which instead of attempting to alter the beauty standard, we must first change how we view ourselves. Akst provides credible sources to establish his credibility where he observes cases studies and cultural experiments from scientists and organizations including:

The phrase “social construction” is difficult to define as it encompasses a multitude of elements, but despite that, conventionally, social construction shows ways society has conceptualised expectations and ideals which can be related to specific sociological interested areas, such as the body. Social action has been shown to have an effect on the transformation of a biological individual, although bodies appear to be simply natural - eye colour, body shape, size of feet etc - a deeper context reveals that many social situations and factors contribute to the construction of bodies. How are we to make sense of people’s bodies? Theoretical traditions which highlight socially constructed bodies have been put forward by theorists such as Elias, Foucault, Goffman and Bourdieu, however, an alternative strategy of viewing socially constructed bodies could be to link these apparently contrasting theories together. This essay will focus upon ways in which the body appears to be a social construction, paying particular detail on the length individuals endure to perform socially constructed ideals with reference to gender and class.

Public image in America is atypical in that it emphasizes standards for how everyone should present themselves to gain social acceptance. Appearance is one aspect where the ideal look for men and women is set to attain an envied social life. In “Body Ritual among the Nacirema,” Horace Miner mentions, “The focus of this activity is the human body, the appearance and health of which loom as a dominant concern in the ethos of the people” which identifies body obsession in America as problematic (503). Continuous concern about one’s appearance is never ending, because it is embedded into cultural practices due to the importance placed on the standards of how to

Our project focused on how females conform to the expectations of society. Body image has always been a big idea to women. Most men are doctors, surgeons, or in control of major businesses in the world. Living in an

The study of body image is a broad topic that touches many subjects including gender. However, the study of body image has been focused mainly on females. This is because the physical shape and image of male bodies have not changed over the history. From the ancient Greek until the modern era, the masculinity is the predominant stereotype for men. Masculine traits include courage, independence and assertiveness (Judith, 2001; Murray, 2000). In contrast to the male body, the female figures have been varied over time and across culture. In the modern era, the thin shaped figure is the ultimate desire of most women because it reflects the beauty and attractiveness of women according to our modern culture (Thompson et al, 1999; Thompson and Stice, 2001). Therefore, failing to meet the societal expectations of being muscular male or thin female may lead to a separation between virtual and actual social identity.

The development has created much controversy because how it decides to present its perception. Humanity is at fault for how the beauty industry decides how to advertise the perfect image. Yet, in the twenty-first century, there has been a turn of events. Those have educated imaginations are realizing how one standard of beauty is not enough for the millions of versions of beauty there are. Despite, wanting to have no standards of beauty, the educated know that this is no physically possible. Frye perfectly summarizes, “ The fundamental job of the imagination in ordinary life, then, is to produce, out of the society we have to live in, a vision of the society we want to live in. Obviously, that can’t be a separated society, so we have to understand how to relate the two.” (86) The educated imagination interprets how they want their society without losing the connection to what we live in. The beauty industry represents the society we live in: superficial, materialistic, and self-indulgent. The educated imagination represents the ideal society: accepting of all and self-confidence. Although it cannot be the ideal society, there are still possibilities of a society where beauty is not a forced by people sitting at a board table. The mixture of these two societies can develop into a society where beauty is not only external but internal. Having the educated teach the weak imaginations how to comprehend the repercussions of the beauty industry, but still, understand it is difficult to change a hundred-year-old tradition. Standards of beauty will always be part of society, it is just how will society determine what is an illusion and

This history shows how society since ages has focused on the beauty of women discussing how a woman should appear, objectifying her and setting up standards for a beautiful life for women. It is hard to follow the standards when all that is presented by the world is not hundred percent true, instead, it is a made-up need and not all women want to or need to follow these beauty standards. But however, women worry a lot about beauty that the how they appear physically, which is worthless after death and women should be prouder of herself as she is, rather than aiming to achieve a certain standard of beauty that is set up by society by the means of media where common people see models in each shape, size, color, dress, makeup, and much more. Models have a living through this looks where they die to get thin, tall, pale, long hairs but no body hairs.

A woman will be marked negatively if she does not maintain an acceptable appearance; this can include shaving, putting on makeup, and clothing type. Women are also marked on how their body looks. Sontag speaks the truth when stating that “women are taught to see their body in parts” (Sontag). In the 21st century, girls are taught that beauty is to have plump lips, big breasts, hairless legs, larger hips, a flat stomach, a tiny waistline, a thigh gap, and other “ideal” body parts that fit into the framework of “beauty.” Women cannot choose the amount their body hair grows, the curves on their body, or their facial features.

Without even realizing it people are pear pressured to maintain a certain image for acceptance in their everyday lives. The two readings that I found particularly interesting were, “Does an employer have the right to control body art of its employees?” by Alan Shanof and “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorn. They both can relate in the sense of how the world perceives body image and especially in women. A lot of people are turned down for a job since they have body art or appear in a certain way, even if that person possibly could have been the perfect person for the job. This stops people from being able to express themselves and do what they want with their own bodies. Girls are expected to service this presentation from the media on ‘how we are supposed to look’. Judgement has been a problem from the beginning and still till this day.

Women’s bodily functions were “sanitized” in the twentieth century as the result of cultural revolution that has taken society a long way from the Victorian era. The introduction of the mirror and the birth of a new industry have been the catalysts for the changes. The changes from the Victorian era where beauty was thought to come primarily from internal qualities, to the beginning of the twentieth century where beauty and the self became more externalized. Now that women could see themselves in the mirror, they suddenly became obsessed with their appearance and their image. I think this stems from the natural human tendency to seek approval and praise from other people. But, now that people have a mirror where they could even critique themselves

Plastered on the tops of taxi cabs and magazine covers, a slim beautiful women pouts down at the littering of people bustling around. Often her head is cut out of the frame, or she is reduced to her body parts with only her chest or back showing. With long legs and a voluminous form, she is the essence of womanhood and emulates the modern women. Except, she doesn’t. Her arm brushed skin and contorted body is nothing like the average women she stares down at, and that's because she is a culmination of the male gazes influence of how a women should look and act throughout history. Womanhood has been influenced by the male gaze because women are brought up with symbols of women that are created by men. In western culture there is only male subjectivity

This bodily subjection is what the french philosopher Michel Foucault calls political anatomy. In a summary of Foucault's Discipline and Punish, the term political anatomy is explored, “We should think of the body politic as a series of routes and weapons by which power operates.” This power is wielded by women but not for women. Oppressive practices have become routinely exercised, for example: the act of putting on makeup everyday just to be considered presentable, attractive and worthy. This body politic is also evident in the subconscious constriction of one's body language and the shrinking of oneself to adhere to the submissive ‘nature’ of femininity. Sandra Lee Bartky further explains the effect of discipline on the female body: “The disciplinary practices of

Quick Write September 12th, chapter 5, What Beauty Sickness Does to Women I included the author's message “when Taffy writes that last sentence explaining how a woman's body is everyone’s business but her own, she means that a women knows the ‘ideals’ or ‘norms’ of a perfect body for a woman and she is constantly changing it or alternating it in order to please everyone around her… it is brought up how one study showed that when college women spent just a few minutes viewing a magazine advertisements that featured idealized images of women, their body shame increased”. My understanding of body image has really changed my perspective because I learned if I am constantly thinking about what others think about my body then I will never be happy. I

The film “Body Politics” talks about how society see the “ideal” look for a female from the