In today’s society, both women and men are under constant pressure to look a certain way. Yet, it appears that over the course of history women have been the main victims of society’s pressure to feel and look in a specific way about their bodies. Nowadays, when there’s shaming for everything such as, fat, skinny, beauty, and slut shaming, we encounter period shaming. Of all things, menstruation is a natural, biological process that every woman experiences over the course of roughly, forty years, and yet it is one of society’s oldest taboos. I cannot help to wonder and question, whether if if the situation was involving men, would there be so much shame about menstruation? And would it be socially accepted? Overall, the purpose of this paper …show more content…
As foolish as it may sound, periods are not socially accepted, and they are often associated with shame and embarrassment. As women we’ve come a long way, from fighting for voting rights to access to education, and the last thing one would want to encounter in the twentieth century is menstrual scrutiny. Period shaming is a real issue, regardless of what critics may say. Once a girl gets her period for the first time, the first thing she is told by her mother is to be discrete, and to be careful not to let boys see her sanitary products. We grow up with the idea that periods are not be discuss, and we often go to extreme ends trying to hide our sanitary products from the rest of the …show more content…
Would society have the same need to shame periods or would it embrace it as what it is, a natural thing? In a 1978 satire for Ms. magazine, Gloria Steinem answered the question that so many women have asked: “What would happen, for instance, if suddenly, magically, men could menstruate and women could not? The answer is clear menstruation would become an enviable, boast-worthy, masculine event: Men would brag about how long and how much.” Why can it be the same for women? No matter the time period, it appears that society will never fully accept menstruation as something that should be freely talked about. It does make you wonder if period shaming exists because of gender. It’s no secret that women around the world are still seen as second class citizens, and the fact that period shaming is an actual issue suggests that women are under constant pressure from
"Skin blemishes made it impossible for me to really enjoy myself. I was always worrying about the way I looked" (Brumberg, p. 87). Woman all around the world share the same problem, they feel unhappy and self-conscious with the appearance of their bodies. In The Body Project by Joan Jacobs Brumberg, she successfully illustrates the way adolescents begin to change focus from inner to outer beauty in the early 19th and 20th centuries. Through use of personal diaries and historical research, Brumberg shows her readers the physical differences between girls then and now. Brumberg talks about an array of topics in her book – periods, acne, dieting, piercing, virginity, and sexuality. From their roots in the 1800’s through the Victorian era and into modern society the reader gets a glimpse of the way young women evaluate their bodies and turn them into body projects, and is still to this day sweeping the nation more than ever.
“On average according to [Larimer], women in California pay about $7 per month for 40 years of tampons and sanitary napkins” (Larimer 1). Over the years, paying for these products has added up. Jordan Gass-Poore, author of “Citing Gender Bias, State Lawmakers Move to Eliminate ‘Tampon Tax,” argues that the tampon tax exists because of gender bias. One of the reasons why these products are taxed is because they aren’t intended to be used internally or externally, or for diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or to prevent illness or disease (Gass-Poore 1). This tax is making periods sound like an illness that all women have instead of a natural cycle that happens to most women.
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.
My Sustainability Assessment will address the effects of the using Tampons ecologically, socially, and economically. According to the new book Flow: The Cultural History of Menstruation, an average woman will dispose of 250 to 300 pounds of tampons in 38 years. (Kim & Stein, 2009) Tampons are undeniably important in a female's life. It is affordable and convenient to use. Tampons are also readily available in every groceries and convenient store. I am relatively new in using tampons, as I usually use menstrual pads. However, most of my friends use them because they can carry them discretely. They can also move freely without worrying about the blood leakage. Although, the question is: What's wrong with Tampons? Most of the tampons end up in landfills which takes a long time to decompose. (Bridle & Kirkpatrick, 2004, p. 24) These will hugely impact the environment, as well as the people around them. Regular tampons contain chemicals that can harm the sensitive
It seems if a woman does not follow what the television or magazines do, they will be considered a ‘disgrace’ to society. “By the 1930’s, mass advertisements on radio and in magazines persuaded women to purchase cosmetic products by appealing to her fear of growing old or being rejected by social acquaintances,” (Gourley 56). The beauty industry specifically targeted women, using the ideas of an often highly feminine related idea of vanity. This also talked about women’s apparel in clothing and how they weren’t able to dress casually since they would be titled, slob. As looks represent a lot in a woman, the body type of a woman has always struggled with maintaining since the ‘perfect’ body types are not what everyone has. “In the 1890’s women had full bosoms, round hips. In actual measurements they were probably no rounder than Miss Cox but they seemed so because they were shorter, tightened their waists into an hour-glass effect … Now, though, the ideal figure must have a round, high bosom, a slim but not wasp-like waist, and gently rounded hips” (“This is What…”). Ideals women that society has pushed onto women to be for them to have any chance in romance. Though many women can drift away from this the women, though they won’t admit to it, had struggled to meet the ‘set standard’ for women. This shows how after women have gained the rights of voting, gender roles
The mass media over the years has had such a profound role in creating an image on how women should be viewed. From their appearance to what their duties are in everyday life, the media has made sure to depict unrealistic images of women. These images have caused not only the male public but women themselves to believe that they must attain a certain kind of body or occupation to fit into society. Women often feel obligated and pressured to comply to this praised image of perfection.
It makes one wonder how society came to these ridiculous standards of beauty and the taboo of talking about women's bodies that still resonate today. I can personally attest to the uncomfortableness of the conversation of menstruation and developing bodies. My mother was taught, as her mother before and so on, that these conversations are to be kept in private and talked about quietly. In response to this, the power of men have an increasingly strong hold on the ideal physical beauty and how the changes of the body, such as menstruation, be in private and never spoke of. The Body Project gives a disturbing look at how women in the past few centuries and the present should act, look like, and keep hidden in response to what men think is most desirable. No matter how free women think they are, we are still under the control of men even if it is not directly. This book opens the conversation on the problems that are still plaguing women and how society needs to change to have a healthier environment for women to be comfortable in their
The author Horace Miner’s article “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” is a comment on the vanity that is present in the American culture. He focuses on a North American Group, which he considers Naciremas which is Americans backwards. Horace Miner demonstrates that attitudes or daily rituals have a convincing sway on numerous establishments in Nacirema society. The writer uses many metaphors to describe this vanity including his statement that “women” try to cover up their impurities by applying makeup in addition to getting surgeries and other things to fix what they think is wrong. However, in reality Miner uses this metaphor to show that the American culture is vain and always tries to fix its faults and mistakes. Basically, Miner uses the
This article was written to bring attention to the way men and women act because of how they were thought to think of themselves. Shaw and Lee explain how biology determines what sex a person is but a persons cultures determines how that person should act according to their gender(Shaw, Lee 124). The article brings up the point that, “a persons gender is something that a person performs daily, it is what we do rather than what we have” (Shaw, Lee 126). They ...
One of women’s constant struggles is upkeep with culture and society’s ever-changing definition of beauty. Although both genders have hair on their bodies, the views and acceptability of the amount or the location of body hair vary immensely. In fact, women are often thought to be hairless and men to be hairier (DeMello, 2014). Women must then put in effort to uphold a standard, in which the idea that being feminine is natural and effortless (Toerien and Wilkinson, 2003). That being the case, I will argue that the hairless female body has been transformed over time to represent beauty and youth. More importantly, I will argue that it has now become normative in Western society and deemed unacceptable if women do not conform to the hairless
Exact Beauty: Exploring Women's Body Projects and Problems in the 21st Century. Mandell, Nancy (5th ed.). Feminist Issues: Race, Class, and Sexuality (131-160). Toronto: Pearson Canada, Inc. Schulenberg, Jennifer, L. (2006).
Ever since I was kid, I was told not to wear clothing that was too revealing, to make sure no one could see my bra, to act like a lady; all of the behaviours and ideas that our parents believe are important for girls to have embedded in their memory. I thought that it was bad for someone to wear a piece of clothing that showed off their stomach, legs, or their cleavage. I believed that girls shouldn’t be openly sexual or have sex unless it was with someone you loved and valued. While those ideas were first put in place by our parents, the media only enforced them with shows and music videos saying that having sex was bad. Despite having unlearned all those things years ago, I can still struggle to fight past thoughts that judge other women based on trivial things
A girl scans the sidewalk while walking home after a day of school, hoping no one notices as she hides her face, feeling like an alien in her own skin. Instead of feeling beautiful, she feels hideous because of the words said to her. Body shaming, a term that is becoming an increasingly popular issue because humans are obsessed with appearances. This generation creates these standards and puts pressure on people to live up to and then ridicule those same standards when realizing that the standards are unattainable. Everybody criticizes the way that others look but then began shaming when people began to shame that one's personal appearance. People have separated been into categories based on looks. It’s fat against fit and it is becoming unhealthy. In today's society, body shaming is an ongoing issue. Body Shaming, though active in both genders, is especially harmful to women. Body shaming is pushing women to be insecure, eating disorders, and giving men unrealistic expectations.
Menstruation is a natural process where the uterine lining sheds approximately once a month, including the discharge of blood and other secretions through the vagina. Menstruation gives the ability for women to become pregnant and is a natural part of life. So why is it that this natural process is so stigmatized in our society? This natural process is the reason for life, we should be appreciative of this process, instead of having stigmatizing and stereotyping this process in our everyday social interactions. I have chosen to analyze and understand how menstruation is constructed throughout our society. I will be analyzing, how over the years menstruation has become socially constructed through social interactions and the media impacting
People often tend to pay attention to other people’s habits rather than their own, and usually fail to notice how much their words or actions can have a negative effect on the people around them. In the article, Mind Your Own Plate, and in the book, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, authors Abbey Sharp and Jon Ronson talk about how much shaming goes on around the world. They talk about how most people aren’t aware of the fact that they are shaming on other people so rudely over things that they should not be worrying about in the first place. Publicly shaming other people has become so common in today's society that everyone has started to do it without thinking about the effect it will have on the other person, and their feelings.