Culture And Globalization : An Example Of Disciplinary Body Practices

There are beauty standards all over the world, but America has one of the most highest and unreachable standard of the all. In the article “Whose Body is This,” the author Katherine Haines reflects the issue on how narrow-minded society, magazine and the rest of media is depicting the perfect body. The ideal body in America is established as skinny, tall, perfect skin, tight body are characteristics that destroyed majority of woman’s self esteem (172). As girls get older and into their teen years, they have been brainwashed to need to look like the unrealistic, and photoshopped models in magazines and advertisements. Girls don’t feel comfortable to be in their own skin, because they were not taught to love themselves for who they are right in the beginning.

Under society’s customs for decades, young women have found themselves immersed in the pressure and anticipation to have exemplary bodies. Nearly every young woman prefers to be slim, have a perfectly shaped body, that is beautified by applying pounds of makeup to their face but does not appear ridiculously overdone. Who’s responsible for these measures imposed on young women? When a young girl picks up the model on the cover of Vogue being called flawless, naturally it’s easy for her to then aspire to be a real-life imitation of the that model. These companies produce magazine covers shown with girls’ images daily. As if keeping the perfect body wasn’t hard enough, our culture also forces girls into the forever expanding world of composition, however, body image is a surging subject for young girls. Advertisements and pictures of lean female models are all over. Young women are measured and perplexed by their physical appearances with attire intended to raise their physical structures; social media, magazines, the society, marketing campaigns, advertisements, and the fashion gurus add to a strand of excellence.

Many children in various cultures had to undergo body modifications due to certain cultures and beliefs. “The feet of very young Chinese girls were bound and spliced, intentionally and irreversibly deforming them, because this was seen to guarantee the girls’ eventual amorous and matrimonial success.” (Borel,1994). In Polynesia, unless a girl was tattooed, she would not find a husband. An unornamented hand could not cook, nor dip into the communal food bowl (Borel,1994). It is as to say that “the fact that such motivations and pretexts depend on aesthetic, erotic, hygienic, or even medical considerations has no influence on the result, which is always in the direction of transforming the appearance of the body. Such a transformation is wished for, whether or not it is effective.”

It is no secret that women often change their bodies in order to meet the societal expectations that are portrayed in the media. The patriarchy and the male gaze dictate the ideal female which is depicted on television, in movies, and in magazines. Woman most often alter their weight in order to match the small slim physique of models. Weight is one of the main aspects of the female body that the patriarchy controls. Woman are taught by society that their natural body is not beautiful and that they must conform to the societal standard of a thin, size 0 woman in order to accommodate the male gaze. The patriarchy dictates this of a woman in order to maintain male dominance in society. However, these expectations have a negative effect on

In society, women relate to friends, models and actresses which are actually people who are in the industry portraying the ‘ideal body.’ Women think too much about what others think of them instead of just caring about themselves. They also choose to take the unhealthy approach and gain all these bad habits to obtain the ‘ultimate’ body image of this ‘ideal woman’ society has created.

“Enhancing Your Body Image” (2015) discusses the impact popular culture has on women strive to have Twiggy’s body and men hope to be the tough guy like Clint Eastwood (p.340). People are willing to alter their appearance physically; for example, people try to lose weight or change their personality by playing sports or instruments to find the sense of belonging. Society has a fascination of trying to belong within a social group.

Throughout history, women have been victims of oppression no matter what religion or background they come from. They have learned from a young age, that their appearance is important to fundamentally be happy in their life. The topic of oppression in woman leads to controversial discussion not only to scholars but women of all parts of the world. How a woman presents herself through appearance and clothing targets her in a society obsessed with each other’s business. In today’s society, whether we can help it or not, men are treated differently than women. There seems to be different “rules” associated with the acceptable ways they should dress as opposed to the strict rules that apply to women. Women who are westernized

“Never Just Pictures” by Susan Bordo, is about how today’s society is influenced by the mass medias unrealistic ideas of how they are supposed to look. In this essay, the author breaks down the images being showcased by today’s culture concerning the aesthetics of the female body. Bordo also talks about how what was considered ‘beautiful’ or ‘perfect’ before has changed. Lately, the world has been on a craze to look like the air brushed model in the picture. Bordo explains how a lot of people are becoming more obsessed with their physique, and depending on looking thin to make them happy, instead of focusing on being happy and healthy.

Beauty standards have been posed by society since the beginning of time, mandating how individuals do everything from get dressed to style their hair. In Malcolm X's "My First Conk" and Dana Stevens' "Your Flip Flops Are Grossing Me Out" the standards posed by society, and what role they should play in society overall, are discussed. These two essays are different because of their views on health problems, self-degradation, and society’s standards.

People have been fighting with themselves, and with popular culture at large, for years, regarding the idea of the “perfect body.” Though it could be argued that this battle is being waged mostly by women, there has been a shift in today’s society, where the quest for the perfect body includes both sexes. And as the 20th Century marched on and became the 21st, this idea of a beautiful body became thinner, waif-like, less and less substantial, and most definitely much less healthy. In addition, in her article “Never Just Pictures,” author Susan Bordo argues fashion photography, primarily, but definitely not independently, has been scaling down and thinning out the image of idealized beauty, making it harder and harder to achieve healthily or socially. Bordo explains images, of angular beautiful models has informed all of popular culture, growing beyond merely the realms of fashion. And this, Bordo tells us, contributes to a sense of societal longing and lack of

If every woman has the same idea of beauty, then they all have goal that they work to achieve (Ferrante, 2014, p. 28). Nonetheless, this underscores the fact that women come in a variety of shapes and sizes, which make achieving this goal difficult, if not impossible (Ferrante, 2014, pp. 201-202; Shaw & Lee, 2011, p. ?). So, while having gender ideals in a society was likely meant to promote social order, it in turn created another form of disruption. This unintended disruption, or latent dysfunction, is what can be recognized as poor body image. Not only does poor body image foster insecurity within an individual, it causes women have hostility towards each other.

How should I look like to have the ideal body? An increasing number of women ask themselves this question many times in their lives. Deborah Sullivan’s essay, “Social Bodies: Tightening the Bonds of Beauty”, discloses the different cultural traditions that require various methods of body modifications. Women should undergo such modifications to obtain social acceptance. Similarly, “Pressures to Conform” by Celia Milne discusses the effects of media and society on women, and how women view their physical appearance. The media gives women a plethora of choices for the perfect body and even provides ways on how to achieve them. There is no escaping. There is no excuse of not getting the ideal body that ranges from that of a stick-thin ramp

Beauty standards are portrayed everywhere: on magazines, social media, ads, commercials, and even flaunted among peers. While the ideals are supposed to promote health awareness, fitness motivation, and self love, it unfortunately results in many unfavorable consequences. Women are constantly “penalized for not being beautiful and at the same time are stigmatized, even pathologized, for not feeling beautiful, for having low self-esteem, for engaging in behaviors like dieting and excessive exercising, or for having eating disorders” (Johnston and Taylor 954). Beauty standards are unrealistic and unhealthy to pursue, and misinforms the public on what true beauty is. While not all beauty image ideals promote negative feelings and dissatisfaction, many believe that the negative effects far outweighs any positive effects.

Society creates a standard of beauty for women that often changes along with society due to a new perspective on what it means to be beautiful in our culture. These standards for beauty create what our society believes makes a woman desirable, attractive, perfect, and overall beautiful.  Which then enforces unhealthy and unrealistic beauty ideals that negatively affect women's self-image and their body image because society has attributed beauty to self worth. The result is with the ever changing standards of beauty means women use various ways to alter their bodies and appearance by clothing, makeup, hair, dieting, exercising, and even taking extreme measures to perfect their looks through surgery.

Globalization is commonly examined by simply dissecting its political and economic consequences. As a result, the effects on culture are often overlooked. According to U.S. Census projections, by 2043 non-Hispanic whites will become a minority consisting of 47 percent of the U.S. population (Barreto, et al 1). Examining the world as a whole, a 2015 study by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs/Population Division found that between 1950-2000, an average of 2.8 million people per year migrated to North America and Europe. From 2000-2015, that rate accelerated to 4.1 million per year. What is more, this study projects that from 2015-2050, 91 million people are expected to migrate to high-income countries and produce an 82 percent increase in population in destination countries. Clearly, the prospect of steady migration and the continuing effects of globalization are expected to produce more multicultural societies. Unfortunately for many, “foreign” has become synonymous with danger (Rothkopf). The debate between cultural unity and cultural plurality dates back to the Greeks where they questioned universal human goodness and the differences between societies. More than two millennia later, the issue of a common versus diverse human culture remains contentious. This paper argues that a diverse human culture is more desirable than a universal culture because states and societies benefit from promoting and protecting diversity.