Objects Created by Culture to Maintain that Culture

Though as individuals we are SUBJECTS of culture, our bodies can be OBJECTS of a culture, and that is exactly what Susan Bordo discusses in her writing. An OBJECT is some ‘thing’ that is part of a culture. It not only is produced by that culture, but also sustains that culture. Bordo elaborates that “The body – what we eat, how we dress, the daily rituals through which we attend to the body-is a medium of culture”. It can also be a very dangerous medium of culture. Anorexia is one example of this. A barely-there body is a reflection on our culture’s preference of skinny figures taken to the extreme. Bordo argues that this frail whittled-down body has both a social and a political meaning, reflecting woman's defined role in society. (House bound, self control, feed/help others first, taking up space)

That is her READING of those bodies. She is drawing conclusions and creating an argument from the visualization of specifically female bodies. Everything that you see, forces you to take a POSITION or to decide where you stand. For example images of thin women in bikinis on the cover of magazines, fashion shows featuring 100 pound models, television shows staring beautiful thin characters are OBJECTS created by our culture. These OBJECTS display the desires of the culture, and make an impression on the SUBJECTS whether they realize it or not, which then is reflected in the bodies of the individuals. This clearly shows how OBJECTS are not only products of the culture, but also maintain that culture.