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Intersectionality feminist essay
Beauty Discovers The Male Body by Susan Bordo
Intersectional feminism essay
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In Susan Bordo’s The Body and the Reproduction of Femininity, the cultural specific syndromes, that is the illness recognized elusively by a particular culture, of anorexia nervosa and agoraphobia amongst middle- to upper-class Euro-American women (McGarry 2017), are made akin with the framework of femininity and the—often destructive—pursuit of control. The modality that females employ to express their resistance, or paradoxical compliance, to the hegemonic ideals of gender that pervade these cultures alike are eerily perverse and demand our critical attention and inquiry. Highly scrutinized, the body is a potent display of the commitments, norms, and standards of one’s culture (Bordo 2017: 78), which encompasses the learned behaviours and
In the article “Beating Anorexia and Ganing Feminism,” Marni Grossman shares her experiance of how she overcame her struggle with anorexia through understanding the feminist movement. Marni objectafies the ways in which society’s expectations and ideas of what it means to have “beauty” is having and negitaive impact. I had a very similar experiance to Marni, in fact the first time I hated my apperance was in the seventh grade. I have olive skin and bold brows, features which i was often complamented on, yet hated. Shawn and Lee argue that “there is no fixed idea of beauty”, suggesting how social ideals from society differs depending on the culture (183). I remember A male student was bullying all the females in the class by Inscribing Gender
Connell: Chapters 4 “Sex Differences & Gendered Bodies”: I found this entire chapter quite intriguing, but I really appreciate the way that Connell approaches the ways in which males and females differ and yet she also points out how there is no significant difference in brain anatomy and function between sexes. I found the statement by neuroscientist Lesley Rogers incredibly interesting, she states, “The brain does not choose neatly to be wither a female or a male type. In any aspect of brain function that we can measure there is considerable overlap between females and males” (p.52). This statement when paired with information about the affect social processes have on the body it is mind boggling to realize, as Connell states, “biology bends to the hurricane of social discipline” (p.55). It is unnerving to think that I am merely a product of my society. Not only has society shaped my beliefs, values, manners and religion, but it has also shaped my physical body? If I understand this correctly, it is incredibly disturbing.
People tend to views an image based on how society say it should be they tend to interpret the image on those assumption, but never their own assumptions. Susan Bordo and John Berger writes’ an argumentative essay in relation to how viewing images have an effect on the way we interpret images. Moreover, these arguments come into union to show what society plants into our minds acts itself out when viewing pictures. Both Susan Bordo and John Berger shows that based on assumptions this is what causes us to perceive an image in a certain way. Learning assumption plays into our everyday lives and both authors bring them into reality.
Bordo creates a harrowing argument in her essay. “The Globalization of Eating Disorders” shows its greatest strengths when supported by the essayist’s emotional appeals, personal observations, and statistical evidence. In her keenness to employ real facts and statistics, paired with her rhetoric, Bordo grants relevancy to her claim. Providing clarity on the recent development of eating disorders, Bordo shows her ability to argue as she voices her deep concern. Indeed, Bordo’s use of many of the components of a strong argument in her essay accomplishes its goal. Ultimately, Bordo’s selection provides its audience with enough reason to consider or reconsider their stances. Suddenly, the globalization of eating disorders has become global in a new way—in the awareness of men and women all around the
In Ruth Gilbert’s At the Border’s of the Human, she discusses society’s interest in hermaphrodites in terms of “people’s desire to examine, scrutinize, and display objects which are alien, strange and other” (6). The anomalous and bizarre spectacle of the hermaphroditic body has drawn the focus of scientists since the early sixteenth century. Hermaphrodites have long evoked a “mixture of disgust and desire, and fear and fascination”(Gilbert 150) that has led to their position as objects of scientific scrutiny. As defined by Random House Webster’s College Dictionary, a hermaphrodite is “an individual in which reproductive organs of both sexes are present”. Besides hermaphrodites challenging society’s physical norms, they challenge and have recently changed its cultural norms as well.
The reading assigned titled “The Socially Constructed Body” by Judith Lorber and Yancey Martin dives into the sociology of gender with a specific focus on how the male and female body is compromised by social ideals in the Western culture. She introduces the phenomenon of body ideals pressed on men and women by introducing the shift in cosmetic surgery toward body modifications.
2. The body as a subject is evincing humanity beyond cultural construction and linguistic formulation.
As we discuss the articles of Anne Fausto- Streling, “The Five Sexes, Revisited” and Marjorie Garber, “The Return to Biology” in class we came to see how these two articles could bring up such controversy. As they question our perspective on human nature as we have always known it to be, from “The Five Sexes, Revisited” stating “absolute dimorphism disintegrates even at the level of basic biology” (176), to “The Return of Biology” saying “Society mandates the control of intersexual bodies because they blur and bridge the great divide” (184). We see many different aspects on how human biology or culture is more than what meets the eye. All I can begin to say is everything we, as the human species, do revolves around dimorphism no matter the questions or contradictions that may arise. The idea that only two sexes exist is still firmly maintained in our society as how things are suppose to be aka the “norm”.
The female body is socially constructed in different ways over categories concerning race, sexuality and gender. Society has a huge control over women’s body and sometimes influences them to make “choices” that are harmful to themselves. This paper focuses on Fausto-Sterling’s The Bare Bones of Sex and how medical research has failed to consider the impacts of social factors and not just biological ones on bone health; Thompson’s A Way Outa No Way… in which eating disorders are solely claimed to be due to society’s norm of physical appearance and the restriction of eating problems to just white upper- and middle-class heterosexual women; and lastly Davis’s Loose Lips Sink Ship which addresses the increasing popularity of labiaplasty in the United states and the outrage shown towards African women who indulge in female genital mutilation. The following paragraphs will discuss the ways in which the female body has been neglected in society and “choices” made to conform to society’s norms.
Marcel Mauss in his work Techniques of the Body (1934) is regarded as the first piece of work to outline a systematic anthropology of the body (Synnott 1993). It aims to show evidence that most everyday body techniques differ between people raised in different environments, as they have a different way of life that requires a different set of skills. According to Mauss all ordinary activities such as walking, running, swimming, resting are not just techniques we are naturally equipped with but are instead culturally acquired. The aim of this paper is to critically assess Mauss’ argument that techniques of the body constitute culture. This will be done by looking at what is defined as culture in the context that Mauss refers to. An analysis of Mauss’ examples of “body techniques” given in his paper will then begin, whilst also drawing on current examples. Mauss’ work will then be compared to other writers in the field of ‘the body’ such as Elias and Goffman.
M.D. “Body Image: A Clouded Reality”. Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self Knowledge 2.2 (2004): 58-65 pg. Web. 18 Nov 2013.
In the essay “Beauty (Re)discovers the Male Body,” author and philosopher Susan Bordo discusses the history and current state of male representation in advertisements. While using her feminist background, Bordo compares and contrasts the aspects of how men and women are portrayed in the public eye. She claims that there has been a paradigm shift the media with the theory that not just women are being objectified in the public eye, but also men too. Since the mid-1970s, with the introduction of Calvin Klein commercials, men have started to become more dehumanized and regarded as sex symbols. In a similar fashion to how Bordo describes gender, race plays a similar role in the media. People of all different ethnicities and cultures are being categorized into an oversimplified and usually unfair image by the media over basic characteristics.
Unlike most organ systems in the human body, the reproductive system seems to snooze until the individual hits puberty (Marieb & Hoehn, 2013) – when the system reveals its true purpose: sexual reproduction. In the female reproductive system, the primary sex organs, also known as gonads, are the ovaries. The ovaries produces gametes: ova, which are homologous to the sperm produced by the male’s reproductive system. The female internal sex organs include the ovaries and the duct system. The duct system’s accessory ducts are the uterine tubes, the uterus, and the vagina – these are connected from the ovaries to the external genitalia. Ovaries also produce steroid sex hormones: estrogens and progesterone. These hormones have roles in the development and function of the reproductive organs, sexual behavior and drives, and the growth and development of many other organs and tissues. Specifically,
In relation to the relationship between social class and the self, part of the habitus is the attitudes towards body. It is believed that the attitude a person has towards their body is an indication of social class and is defined by the person’s habitus. “Working-class attitudes to bodies are marked by the demands of getting by in life and the temporary release from the dem...
What is a hermaphrodite? Until reading this article I had little to no understanding of the term. A hermaphrodite is a person born with both male and female sex organs or other sexual characteristics. I choose the article “GENDER X the Battle Over Boy or Girl” because I wanted to see how families are effected by a child being born as a hermaphrodite.