Much like the roads of Pennsylvania, it seems as if the body of the woman, according to the beholder, (whose identity I will get to later in another post) is never quite complete. This thought occurred to me as I read a section of the 1993 Barnard/Columbia Women’s handbook. Even as old as the chapter was, the same issues of economics/society dictating standards of beauty coupled with the struggle between being wife, mother, career woman still remain as some of the most prominent issues facing women today almost a decade later.
The excerpt continued on to talk about the image that is often portrayed as that of beauty which should unequivocally be aspired to. This image is usually the successful, thin, white woman gracefully and effortlessly clad in expensive clothing. This make me wonder...exactly how much has that changed today?
Furthermore, let's all think for a second and ask ourselves, are we, as contemporary and "enlightened" woman still envying her? In some sense, this proverbial "her" is always what we have all at some point wanted or have been told to see as the ideal of ourselves; the person we ought to be if we just had a little more time to work out, got up a little earlier to straighten or perm our hair, or refrained from eating that last piece of cake. Classic case of what I call the shoulda, shoulda, shoulda.You shoulda done this, that these, and those so you too could look like her cause what you're doing now is obviously not working.
With this, I do have to say that I would be absolutely remiss if I failed to mention the progress that has been made in media and popular culture. Such victories would include the rise of magazines that uplift the life, body, and style of minority women like Essence, Latina Magazine, etc. or the slight increase we saw in the 2000's of minority models. Observable progress can in someways equate observable success...I'll give ya that. But, at the same time, how much more are the places where progression has failed further deflating positive self-esteem? Are we then putting that self-esteem and our bodily aspirations into the hands of cosmetic companies and "fix-it" doctors?
The truth is...the more the media make us feel worse about our bodies, the more women sometimes respond to this type of pressure. By doing this, we run out to buy weight loss shakes, new running shoes, cute exercise outfit, an ipod to listen to music (gotta have the music), a home gym and are still unsatisfied by what the scale is saying. Before you know it, big business has cashed in on our insecurities.
Its time to ask, is our body done being picked apart, put down, and shoved aside? What do you think? Please feel free to join in.
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