There are countless times that I look into the mirror and wish I could change something about my body. As a feminist I realize what I say can be contradictory to what I feel. Of course I want to love my body and feel beautiful, but unfortunately feeling self love and acceptance is easier said than done. During freshman orientation I was sitting next to a boy waiting to get assigned to a classroom, he commented on my arms laughing at how hairy they were. (Well what can i say, i'm jewish and its genetic). So i'm sitting there thinking, "when I go home i'm going to shave, bleach, or wax my arms." Anything that will get the stupid hairs off of them. 3 years later and I've come to terms with my body hair, and embraced it. I won't get into detail but lets just say i'm not ashamed of having a little bit of arm hair.
Men and women have often been appalled from my abundance of body hair. While body hair is not a "social norm" I decided to go against it last summer. Instead of shaving my armpits once every couple of days like every other girl at camp, I let my body take its natural course. Personally I felt that it wasn't a big deal, having a little hair under my arm pits was heavily criticized and I was judged harshly. Men with more body hair than I could ever grow called me gross, which I found hypocritical. In our culture body hair below the neck is looked upon a gross and unattractive (for women), but why is it not gross for men? Why not let nature take its course on our bodies, we are wasting our time and money on removing body hair that is on our bodies for a reason! According to Glamour magazine; the average women will shave 7,718 times in her life and spend over $10,000 on body hair removal products. The war on body hair i...
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...ore hygienic than not shaving.
Shaving has unfortunately become a social norm, many people will accept you for shaving and possibly think you are attractive. There are many times I am put down because I choose not to shave, but other women who spend tons of money of hair removal products are looked upon as supposed "goddesses" according to Venus razors. I'm not so sure that women who shave are goddesses, I mean what is so godly about having smooth skin? Athena was the goddess of war, but she didn't like to fight without reason. I can relate to Athena, as I want to fight against the war on "unacceptable" body hair. I don't know why this war on body hair was declared only on women and not just on men, but in this coming of age society where women have gained the same rights and power as men, I say that we should be just as equal as what is acceptable on our bodies.
Jeannette’s timid nature is a shared characteristic that we both share. This was evident through her reluctance to take off her dress while she was at the community pool with her classmate, Dinitia and other women. She was self-conscious about her body and the scar that was on her ribs as a result from an accident she had at three years old cooking hot dogs. After a few moments of encouraging herself, she was able to take off her dress and put on a bathing suit. Like Jeannette, I have struggled with shyness when it comes to body image. I started puberty at eight years old, and the children I went to school with, were relentless in teasing me about having to wear a bra. This caused my self-esteem to plummet and lead me to bind my chest with tape
This essay is concerned with issues of identity, body image and the politics of hair within African American culture. It discusses the lived experiences of a number of African American women and is no way generalizable to all African American women. Nonetheless, body image and hair politics are prominent features in African American culture because they have deep historical roots and still feature in present day. Body image is generally understood as a mental image of one’s body as it appears to others (Featherstone 2010). This mental image produces body consciousness, which Samantha Kwan describes as an amplified mindfulness that one’s body does not conform to hegemonic cultural standards (Kwan 2010). In today’s modern context, hegemonic cultural norms are reproduced and widely disseminated by the mass media with the help of new technologies. These new technologies Elliott’s discusses, with some in the form of satellite television and other widely utilized media, give viewers unprecedented opportunities to view and scrutinize their favorite celebrities in close proximity (Elliott 2010).
Beauty and the Bloke by Cosmo Landesman and Breaking Free of Oldfashioned Stereotypes "Beauty and the bloke" by Cosmo Landesman is an argumentative article trying to put across the message that men and women are breaking free of old fashioned stereotypes, he is trying to convey the message that it's the nineties, men no longer have to be macho and hairy! They are no longer afraid or ashamed to care for their appearances, even if it means cosmetic surgery! Women to are also making a stand, no longer will they stand silent being made to look good by men, women are now "prepared to give the men they love a shove in the direction of the cosmetic surgeon" Landesman throughout the article, puts across the message that women are to blame for men's insecurities in their appearances. They are also to blame for the rise in men undergoing cosmetic surgery, for starting the male trend of waxing and wearing perfume. It is quite a controversial article and at first it gives us the impression that Landesman feels negatively towards the "£240 million beauty industry for men" saying "is nothing sacred any more" but throughout the article Landesman warms up to the idea of "the nineties man and beauty".
The kids I went to school with, the boys I had romantic relationships with, and even my family members, all made negative comments about my body hair. As a young kid, I believed my body hair was a personal problem. Experimenting with different hair removal procedures, some even painful. I wasted hours removing the hair on my body, in attempts to feel better about myself. My low self esteem became linked with the hair on my body. I believed I had too much body hair for a girl but according to Mills (1959) and the social imagination, I had too much body hair for society. My peers, as well as my family, had been socialized to believe that women’s body hair was gross, and unfeminine. Women had been taught to remove their body hair for decades now in the western world, and it was showcased or the lack there of hair was showcased in all forms of media. As a young girl, my mom bought me my first razor and paid for the electrolysis for the hair on my arm. It was in these actions, where the idea that it was my own problem started to form because it felt like I needed treatment for this problem of mine. I was perceiving a deep seated public issue as my own personal trouble. I can’t blame my mother or my peers because by the time my peers and even my parents were born, the western world had already determined that women should not have body hair. Christina Hope (1982) explains that in 1914 in America magazine’s had just begun
Shaving, applying makeup, and curling hair are a few practices that if a female does not partake in, society, and the social norm are stunned. Those are just a few disciplinary body practices in today’s society. Disciplinary body practices “Are practices because they involve taken-for-granted routinized behaviors and they are disciplinary because they involve social control in the sense that we spend time, money, and effort, and imbue meaning in these practices that regulate our lives” (Shaw 193). These practices can extend way beyond the basic beauty routine of a female as well. Plastic surgery plays a huge role in these body practices. Even men have practices that they are expected to partake in. They are less extreme in terms of price and just simpler in general. But for example, men are expected to have shaved necks, large muscles, and a broad upper body. These standards are causing body and beauty shaming around the world. Disciplinary body practices relate to the adamant consumer culture, constant media advertisements, widespread globalization, persuasive colonialism, and powerful imperialism.
In the recent past year or two, a woman’s natural hair has become a big thing. Before, African American women, to be specific, were so disgusted by their hair. They would do anything in their power to change the “nappy” aspect of their hair to “beautiful”. They would use relaxers very so often and hot combs.
Mackler, Carolyn. Body Outlaws: Rewriting the Rules of Beauty and Body Image. Ed. Ophira Edut. Emeryville, CA: Seal, 2004. Print.
While the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty challenges women to feel confident in their own skin it also, uses hierarchal structures and oppression caused by our societies historical view of the ‘right’ female body in order to sell their product. By doing so, this campaign is teaching women their body is what defines them as a person and in reality, reinforcing what they are trying to prevent. It is evident that throughout history, a women’s appearance including the colour of their skin, the texture of their hair and the amount of weight they carry is what has defined them. This has caused certain women to become oppressed if they do not fit into the ideal image that society looks for. Historically, if a women had fare skin, she was seen as a
My mother was taught, as her mother before and so on, that these conversations are to be kept private and talked about quietly. In response to this, the power of men has an increasingly strong hold on the ideal physical beauty and how the changes of the body, such as menstruation, are in private and never spoken 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 skin.
Due to the portrayal of specific beauty standards in the media, women have re-imagined true beauty, causing drastic impacts that affect the lives of women both physically and psychologically. In order to reach the societal standard of this “ideal body”, women of all ages go to drastic measures to achieve it (extreme dieting and plastic surgery). However, having come so far in gaining more freedom and rights women should fight for more representative images of real women celebrating things other than physical appearance, so that women can have substantial and legitimate models to which they can aspire. Hopefully one day, all women will be able to look at a photograph in a magazine and then at their own image in a mirror and not experience a moment of disgust but rather a moment of self-assurance and self-confidence.
Each sex is treated differently for a naturally occurring body process. As discussed, body hair is viewed as masculine, leading to the assumption that women should be hairless and men should wear their body hair with pride. It is clear that society uses hair to label individuals as either male or female (Toerien and Wilkinson, 2003). In addition, male hair is associated with strength and power (Toerien and Wilkinson, 2003). So how come when women display body hair they are shamed, but men are encouraged to grow it? Hope (1982) elaborates that the term, “feminine, when applied to lack of body hair, implies a child-like status, as opposed to the adult status afforded men” (as cited in Toerien and Wilkinson, 2003). That being said, body hair is another way in which society ranks men as the superior gender by making women conform to the hairless normative. A study conducted by Tiggemann and Hodgson (2008), asked women why they practice hair removal. After completing a questionnaire with different statements to evaluate different factors such as normativity, sexual attractiveness, femininity and self-enhancement, they found significant support in all four types of factors for hair removal of the underarm, leg and pubic area. Additionally, they can found that one item pertaining to males preferring a hairless body, was the only one linked to two factors: normativity and sexual attractiveness. It is evident with their findings that women tend to follow the socially constructed normative for many reason, including to please men. The idea is that women have to change their bodies not only to be accepted by society, but they also do so to be accepted by men. Nonetheless, the must make is seem natural and effortless to uphold the beauty allure. In recent years, depletion of male body hair has become popular. In a study performed by Boroughs, et al. (2005), they found that men removed
In this day and age, hundreds or thousands of women and men are having an ongoing battling against themselves to meet up to society 's standards on body image. Every day people are sacrificing their bodies to strive for the "perfect" figure that would make them feel like they belong in our society. Because of society 's pressure, it has given men and women the immense amount of pressure to achieve these unrealistic goals. Needless to say, women and men are grappling with their inner demons to reach their goal of having the ideal body. In today 's society, men and women both struggle with body issues by the profound impact of social media and a lack of self acceptance; however, it appears that men are struggling more due to having to shield
For years women have been waxing, plucking and beautifying themselves for one reason and one reason only; because they think that is beauty. A woman is only classified as a lady if she can walk, talk and dress the part. The way that society has viewed femininity has changed immensely over the past hundred years, but acting like a tomboy or, heaven forbid, being strong and independent is looked down upon in the eyes of men and other women. Certain standards of ladylike demeanor have become outdated in today’s society, and women should be looked at as beautiful when strong and independent. But what defines a woman to be ladylike, and can it be defined as a single type? I believe that standards of beauty have changed, and standing out is what will get you ahead in society today. Stereotypes of the ideal female must be brought down to work on achieving inner beauty and internal happiness.
To lessen the negativity and promote self-love, people need to start supporting and encouraging each other rather than put them down. Society has to stop tearing people down just because the ones in particular do not fit into the “acceptable standard.” Until then, body shaming which encourages insecurity, low confidence and false advertisement, will continue being a problem for the current
While people care too much on their physical beauty and seek different ways to change, they unconsciously ignore their health issues. It was found that American women have the most negative body image of any culture studied by Faludi (1991). When the feeling of dissatisfaction of body image becomes more serious and affected the daily lives, this concern has turned into a psychological illness.