The Obsession With The Body And The Constant Gaze

Although the media generates the idea that women have no self control, the media also provokes the misleading idea that women have no self confidence in themselves. Through the various messages and ideas that advertisement, television shows, cartoons and even books sell- women tend to lose self confidence in themselves, but the media tends to send the message that women already have no self confidence. In “Love My Neighbors, Hate Myself: The Vicissitudes of Affect in Cosmetic Surgery,” Virginia Blum opens up her articles with an observation about the sudden rise in the number of popular television shows about plastic surgery and the shift of increasing numbers of women that receive plastic surgery. In her article regarding the reasons women desire plastic surgery, Blum states, “...certain conventional cultural values had to be recruited on behalf of representing these surgeries not as vain and superficial but as a route toward glowing self improvement, not as acts of self-

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.

In this paper I will evaluate two artworks that share the same theme of “motherhood and breastfeeding.” In the last few years, the sexualization of breastfeeding has become a big issue. This is due to people see breast as sexual objects and think that women are being exhibitionist, and are doing it just to flaunt their breasts in public. Breastfeeding mothers are faced with the public criticism as they struggle to breastfeed their child, although it is the most natural and healthy method of feeding. The first artwork is by Mary Cassatt and is titled Mother Rose Nursing her Child. This painting was created in the 1900s and it depicts a woman breastfeeding her child. The second piece is a contemporary portrait created by Catherine Opie titled Self-Portrait Nursing. The portrait depicts a modern mother also nursing her child. When comparing both of these pieces of art I plan to focus on the beauty of motherhood and the bond between mother and child. In this paper I will discuss the social issue of mother’s being criticized for breastfeeding in public. Now more than ever women’s breasts are being overly sexualized when they are not a sexual organ, but in fact a part of their body used to feed another human being.

In particular the flesh, matter, the physical in short, which disconcerts or discourages so many men in love or in solitude, without enslaving me, brought me steady joys. I was made to have a body… To tell the truth, just from being so fully and simply a man, I looked upon myself as something of a superman” (camus28).

I think that the body not only is functional to the mind but also is beautiful, special and productive.

Tisdale’s descriptive, vivid words leave the reader feeling shocked and almost horrified. Tisdale has many women come in who do not even understand how babies are made. The ignorance of some of Tisdale’s clients is almost remarkable, Tisdale even considers them as “girls with maternal benignity” she cannot even imagine them as raising children. It creates an emotional disheartening aura, urging a need for better sexual education. Tisdale describes one of her younger clients, “ ‘When’s the baby going to go up into my stomach?’

The body model described Frank includes four body types and problems. The first of these is the disciplined body, which enjoys regimens, getting well and is the model patient. The body is predictable in control, believing that it is able to control the forces around them (Frank 30). In addition, this body is dissociative in their body-relatedness, by ignoring the body’s needs (Frank 33), monadic in other-relatedness, by separating themselves and believing that they are alone in their suffering (Frank 36), and lacking in desire, believing that their body is not deserving (Frank 38). The second is the mirroring body type; it sees an image and wants to become that image. The second body type tends to be predictable in

In a strange way, we may even come to better appreciate the value and significance of our normal bodily presence by exploring such alternatives. Not disembodiment, then, so much as a deeper understanding of why the body matters and of the space of possible bodies and perspectives. Not isolation so much as a wider and less geocentric kind of community. (Clark, 194)

In order for media to make women’s messages and women themselves more appealing, women tend to go through crude diet exercises, expensive plastic surgeries, and illicit drugs that can transform them from being unattractive to attractive at a certain extent. From the telegraph website, “The Pursuit of Beauty: what compels women to go under the knife,” web publisher Louisa Peacock states that “The way the media portrays cosmetic surgery it sensationalises people who look ridiculous after an operation. Those with big, fat lips or breasts that are way too big for them. But the vast majority of people who undergo surgery have something subtle done. They don't want to tell people as they don't want to be treated differently.”

Often times we hear of celebrities having struggles with depression and eating disorders. I feel it’s the great pressure society places on their shoulders to be better than the next person. We see so many young ladies and wonder if any part of them are real. With Doctors like the infamous “Dr. Miami” showcasing body images of ladies looking to have the perfect everything it’s hard to decipher what real beauty many be consisted of. We hear of horrific cases where ladies have died in a result of searching for the perfect body type. One of the stories that sticks out in my mind is the death of Donda West. Donda was the mother of famous rapper Kanye West. On November 10, 2007 Ms. West passed away from a result of numerous plastic surgeries she had received all in the same timeframe. It’s reported that doctors were apprehensive about operating on Ms. West due to her age but preformed the surgeries anyway despite better judgement. Its cases like this among many more that becoming more and more common throughout the community of women. Having a nip here or tuck there isn’t the end of the world, nor does it scream in a plea for help. Not addressing the internal issues that cause the surgery

Today, we are always surrounded by a variety of media and we identify ourselves in parts of those images we see. Media believes women should look like Victoria Secret models: tall, lean, and tanned women, but lately there has been issue from women all over the world who are tired of having to be set at impossible types of female figures. Revolving around a certain type of body figure is horrible because bodies come in different shapes and sizes. The media has influenced the female body perception by showing that women need to have a “perfect body” to pass in society. These magnificence gauges, multiplied through the media, impacts affect women and their self-perceptions. The medias influence on female body image has led to eating disorders, dissatisfaction in women, depression, and substance abuse in women.

Cosmetic Surgery and the Mask of Aging in Western Society Grogan, Sarah (1999) Body Image: understanding body dissatisdaction in men, women and children. London and New York: Routledge 2 4 25 41 48 49-52 57 68 151 152 191 Body Image: The picture of our own body which we form in our mind, that is to say, the way in which our body appears to ourselves. (Schilder, 1950: 11)

There are a number of points, which seem to go in favour of this view

Arlie Russell Hochschild’s discussion of “emotion work” explores how social rules govern human emotions. “emotion work” applies to the act of trying to evoke or suppress a feeling while changing the thought associated with emotion, the emotion itself or following the physical symptom caused by the emotion. This process influenced by various social situations regarding race, culture and gender, including, but not limited to concepts of femininity and ideal motherhood. Malacrida and Boulton’s research on “Women’ Perceptions of Childbirth ‘Choices’: Competing Discourses of Motherhood, Sexuality, and Selflessness” opens up crucial aspects of women’s identity and the different perception of an ideal mother. Women engage in an “emotion work” when making a childbirth choice. In other words, they learn to either suppress or to promote their feelings to match with the characteristics of an ideal mother. Moreover, they challenge their thoughts, their emotions and their bodily reactions to fulfil the social expectations of an excellent mother. Although this “emotion work” becomes vigorously demanding as it contradicts another social value associated with women who accomplish and pleases heteronormative sexual needs, it still

The author of this paper has always been fascinated by the human body and the intrinsic mechanisms that define it and allow its functioning to be permeated by intricate systems, which is why Bodies "¦ The Exhibition has been regarded by the former with increased fascination for a few years now. The 2013 Bodies Exhibition is currently being held in Las Vegas at the Luxor Hotel and Casino which, among the wide variety of entertainment opportunities, has managed to slip something on the educational side. Nevertheless, our location for attending the exposition was in Atlanta in the Premier Exhibition Center at Atlantic Station. While the Las Vegas opening would have been more appealing, the schedule unfortunately did not respond to our needs and time management. So it was that, fully embarked with anticipations and curiosity, we were able to purchase a ticket during week days, specifically, for the 22nd of August. However, it must be admitted that the idea of real human bodies having been previously dissected and then placed under the observation of scrutinous eyes all over the world initially seemed to exceed expectations and indeed appeared somewhat gruesome. Being subject to active imagination, the author seemed unable to shake off the image of preserved bodies as once existed in complete possession of senses and aliveness and, in this respect, it appeared that some sort of desecration was legally advanced through the emergence of the exposition. Moreover, controversy over