Susan Bordo's 'Docile Bodies'

The body is truly a mirror of culture; from the way we dress and carry ourselves to the way we care for the body we have, we reflect the niche we are a part of. Sadly, Bordo’s statement on a woman’s cultural niche is bleak. She believes there has hardly been a shift from status quo. Women are still giving their physical appearance a great deal of attention. Even now, with so much importance given to a “powerful” less “hysteric” woman, physique still plays a part. It has become a reflection of strength; controlling one’s body, sculpting it to this new type of perfection, gives power.

In Bordo’s writing, the idea of ‘docile bodies’ takes on a whole new meaning. She posits that these “bodies whose forces and energies are habituated to external regulation, subjection, transformation” constantly mould themselves to the contours of societal wishes despite what the intelligible body wants, that ‘mind over matter’ does not truly exist as we hope. She also reflects on the consumerism surrounding these ‘docile bodies,’ how women are constantly shown images of the perfectly controlled body.

For all intensive purposes, Bordo’s writing on feminism and bodies makes a strong argument. However, I wonder how such generalizations about bodies can just be applied to the female identity. Society is narcissistic. We are presented with the images of beauty on a daily basis. Despite our better judgment, we end up gravitating towards those images. Even men put their bodies through unnecessary stress to achieve masculinity. Maybe the idea that Bordo puts forth has nothing to do with gender at all. It is a human tendency to look at the physical. It seems to have manifested itself in very extreme ways with women, but not just with women. Though this paper was meant to represent the female condition, we can apply across many races, many ethnicities, and any gender.