women's bodies and beauty

This is quite an inspiring read regarding female images in the society. I agree with Bordo’s idea of a Docile Body, that a body is a mirror of the contemporary “culture” and the value society put on women. I was reminded of my last week’s shopping spree in Abercrombie & Fitch store in the Mall of America where the salesgirls all have near “perfect” shapes and were walking models for the clothes in the store. When I was looking around in the store I was impressed by how the shirts and dresses accentuated the curved silhouette of the girls. And I started to have impulse of becoming like one of them, to be slim and curvy, so that I will also look good in all those pretty dresses.

Salesgirls are not the only source that we are unconsciously prompted the definition of “feminism” and “beauty”. We are constantly being bombarded with curvy women in bikinis on magazine covers, pleased women on TV advertisements with satisfactory weight-loss results and plastic surgery advertisements with photos that contrast the “before” and “after” bodies. This is Social Construction, which represents how the society sets value on people, transformed the “social norms” and how people consciously or unconsciously changed their point of view. Brands like Abercrombie & Fitch generally have smaller sizes and this makes girls want to lose weight to be fitted into “fashion”. A size 6 t-shirt will likely frighten most of us because size 0 or 00 is thought of as the “norm”.

It’s also an interesting phenomenon that the notion of an “intelligible body” has changed for some countries/societies because of globalization. As a female from Asia, the image of an Asian beauty was long ago imprinted on my mind – round eyes, small mouth, oval face and pear-shaped body. This notion of “useful body” was challenged when Western culture infiltrated into the Asian society. Nowadays many Asian women want plastic surgery to transform their smaller, round eyes into longer, bigger Caucasian eyes with deep creases on the eyelid. Other already slender women want unrealistically big breasts on their fragile-looking bodies. No doubt those eyes look nice, but will they fit onto an Asian face? Bigger breasts certainly look more attractive, but will the saline or silicon sacs stay safe under their skins? It is certainly strange for a woman to have Caucasian eyes and Asian nose on the same face, or an F-cupped breast on a rib-showing body. With more and more advertisement, movies and TV shows featuring western beauty in the Asian society, the traditional view of a “docile body” has changed greatly. This is a worrying trend for some scholars, but it is likely a trend that won't be easily reverted.