Summary for readings 10/18

In the chapter “Lean and Mean,” Susan Douglas comments on the female obsession with size and girl on girl hostility.  Women are told that the ideal beauty image (extremely skinny with huge breasts) is actually empowering as it makes men powerless and weak from their attraction.  Victoria’s Secret really advertises this female image by employing supermodels with tiny frames and enormous boobs.  Women are encouraged to try and make their bodies look like these supermodels as it will bring you ‘freedom’ and ‘control.’  Thus, the Hotness Olympics are established.  However, this body type: “the body of a lanky twelve-year old boy with Pamela Anderson’s breasts attached” is one that is hardly ever found naturally.  Thus, most women are disappointed and unhappy with their bodies, leading to huge rises in eating disorders.  Plastic surgery has also become a ‘fix-all’ solution for undesirable bodies.  This was heavily advertised in TV make-over shows. 

Women are putting so much energy and time into working on their bodies that they lose confidence and assurance.  By constantly obsessing about weight and diet, women don’t have time to focus on more important things.  Also, it is seen as more acceptable to have an eating disorder or hate your body than to be thought of as unattractive and thus unfeminine.  This female solidarity is seen as acceptable by society.  Also, in many female magazines, contradictory messages are thrown at women.  They are told that they should be accepting of their bodies and love who they are.  Yet, when showing different body types, magazines will use models who all are tiny and around size two.  

In the TV makeover shows, the message sent is that physical appearance will lead to success in life.  Thus, plastic surgery will empower you and make you into a better person.  Your interior will change when your exterior changes.  However, the Swan showed all the work women had to do to be considered attractive and revealed it to be agonizing, lonely, costly, and ultimately foolish.  Furthermore, the women didn’t even recognize themselves when they were finally able to see their new bodies and faces.  From the 1990s into the new millennium, there was a massive increase in cosmetic procedures.  People were being told that they should start having surgery in their 20s so that by the time they were 50 or 60, they would still look young.  People viewed these surgeries as a feminist way for women to wield power over their bodies and thus their futures.  However, there was a lot of danger attached to these surgeries as well.  Boob jobs could have massive implications. 

(before/after picture from The Swan)

Douglas also talks about ‘meanness’ and its connection to ‘leanness.’  Movies such as Mean Girl were showing girl on girl bullying to be a huge epidemic that had to be dealt with.  This malice was a direct result of the constricted and intolerant standards of femininity and beauty in society.  These criteria cause girls to monitor themselves and rebuke those who don’t live up to these ideals.  Thus, girls are “enforcers of their own oppression.’  This mean girl brutality is seen as more threatening than other much more important issues.  It is much easier and more concrete to be able to criticize and hate an image of a teenage ‘daddy’s girl’ princess.  In Gossip Girl this mean girl image is also displayed.  The message sent is that the new empowered girl has everything due to ‘girl power’ will turn into a monster.  This happens because girl power amplifies characteristics such as meanness, cattiness, greediness etc.

Fausto Sterling begins her article by establishing that many people think women are unfit to make decisions due to their hormonal physiology.  Their menostral cycles make them more frenzied and unpredictable.  Females are seen as dangerous.  However, at the same time, they are also seen as needing protection as their reproductive systems are easily susceptible to pressure. 

In the 1800s, scientists argued that women should have different education than men due to their reproductive systems.  Today, society still discriminates against women due to their reproductive functions.  Some jobs are not given to women as they might cause birth defects.  Women are believed to be worse at math than men because of their hormones.  Young girls are though to be sloppy and defiant due to their menstrual cycle. 

PMS also is thought to make women more incapable as it is thought to result in some sort of mental or physical incapacitation.  PMS is seen as a disease or an illness.  However, PMS varies woman to woman.  It cannot be defined.  Society has to accept that there is a range of menstrual normality.  It is also commonly believed that mood swings accompany the menstrual cycle.  Psychologist Parlee, in 1973, published a study on the menstrual cycle that divides premenstrual emotionality into four types: correlational, retrospecte questionnaires, daily self-reports, and thematic analysis of word lists.  Studies showed that many women had wrong information or ideas about the menstrual cycle.  Parlee’s study was informative however it still didn’t provide enough information.  More research has to be undertaken.  Koeske suggests several ways to approach such research.  It has to be accepted though that there is no perfect study that will illuminate everything about the menstrual cycle. 

Society also believes that menopause creates monstrous women.  Instead of liberating them from hormones, it makes these women even worse.  Menopause also is not simply a disease.  It is an industry as it leads to high sales of different drugs.  Some of the medication can be harmful and detrimental yet women still take it.  It is implied within society that menopause may be worse than cancer.  Women who are menopausal are seen as no longer real women.  However, during menopause, estrogen production is not completely ceased.  It is just gradually lowered.  Other hormone levels also increase or decrease. 

The inherent problem is that women are compared to men.  Men are seen as the norm and thus the male reproductive system is normal.  Thus women snub their biological individuality and see themselves as warped.  However, studies are finally being done in which understand that women and men have different reproductive systems of which both are normal.