"You will never look better than you do right now," Shiver is told about the female race. The younger you are, the more beautiful you are. There is a point where you peek, and then after that, you fall. Women in general are judged harder than men are based on the standards that society and the media puts on them. Women attempt to stop reality from kicking in by buying anti-aging cream, cover up, make up, and dying their hair --- all of this to stay young and hip. On the contrary, men are able to get women regardless of their age if they have money and status. This reminds me of the difference between say, Hugh Hefner, the man in charge of Playboy Bunny, and Betty White. Hugh Hefner has young women all over him who are beautiful and sexy and more than willing to be with him even though he is old and wrinkly while Betty does not get any younger men. When men are "aged" they are mature, when women are "aged" they are old. Many women say their time is "running out" to find a man simply because of their age. It is not a common thing to hear a man say that. Though this is a stereotype, it can be seen in movies, the media, books, and in real life. Shiver takes this original statement, "you will never look better than you do right now," to heart because it was a smack in the face by reality. Is it fair that women have a heavier burden then men do? No. But that is the life we live in. This causes problems with self-esteem, makes girls become obsessive with their looks and appearance in others eyes, and worst of all, it makes people try to be something they aren't to fit in and find a mate (some getting surgeries and bottox to feel accepted).
Some even go to extremes with eating disorders, explained by Bordo. Bordo describes this body modification as "thin-body-as-a-coat-hanger paradigm," meaning that the new way to change our bodies is to make it extremely thin. In my mind, a body modification is something that is not naturally occurring that you choose to do to yourself. An example of this would be as simple as getting an ear pierced to as complex as putting a magnet in your finger. Unfortunately the body modifications brought up by Bordo of anorexia and eating disorders all can have huge damaging effects on the body of boys and girls of all ages.
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Roxanne Edwards
For starters, I was impressed with the fact that we were going to be watching a video about a female body builder. Most of the time we hear about men working on their muscular outline, and women doing other things for fun. However, Roxanne appeared to be someone unique in my eyes, just from the original idea of what she represented in the female culture. Already having knowledge about Raymond in Body and Culture, I figured that Roxanne may be similar to him, robotic, emotionless, repeating the same daily routine over and over again. However, Roxanne shocked me because she had a lot to say for herself, and didn't just let her body do the talking. (I would like to point out that I don't know if this difference had to do with male v. female or if it was simply just a coincidence that Roxanne didn't just let her body speak for her brain and her mind.)
She was already going out of the loop, transforming her womanly curves into finely defined muscular shapes. She stood up for the idea of a woman, making them out to be strong instead of weak and delicate. She lets all of us know that women are all strong in their own way, but it was her goal to show it outwardly through her toned body. She was okay with pushing away ideas of the perfect woman in a feminist mindset, having big breasts and big hips, making the definition of a woman so much more than society conceives it to be. However, the photos she posts express that she still is a woman by the clothing she wears and also the style in which she poses. What I really enjoyed about her is how okay she was with herself. She wasn't just okay, she was great. She loved herself for the toned body she had, but she also loved herself for being a woman. Unlike a lot of the male body builders, she wasn't just boasting about her own accomplishments, she was expressing the beauty in other women and what they've done in their lives to make it worthwhile and feel the same sense of accomplishment as she should. I really like her because she wasn't overbearing with her own thought processes. Although the video was about her and what she has done with her structure, she didn't make me feel like there was anything wrong with not looking like her. She didn't make me feel like less of a woman because I didn't want to live the life she did. In fact, she made me feel almost better knowing that she acknowledged that every woman is strong in their own ways. She told the viewers that women should be able to "define" themselves however they want to be - whether it be muscular, toned, thin, chunky, tall, short, etc, because no one in the media can tell them they aren't wonderful. This message, in my opinion, should be shared more often. In commercials and advertisements directed towards men, they often try to make the other men watching or reading feel worthless, building up a false hope in their minds that they can work hard enough with a product and in the end receive the same outcome. Roxanne didn't give anyone false hope, she pushed individual dreams outward and told everyone to embrace what they want to do or be.
Overall, Roxanne is a great role-model for the female community. Whether or not you believe in toning yourself to the extent she did, you have to appreciate her for believing in her own self-worth, and others. She not only talked highly of what she has accomplished, but she talked highly of other women as well. I only wish more people could speak out in this sort of tone, especially directed towards teenagers. I feel like if more people, both men and women, had the courage to come out and swear and be honest in the same ways as Roxanne, the way people take in messages from the media could go from negative to positive in terms of self-image.
She was already going out of the loop, transforming her womanly curves into finely defined muscular shapes. She stood up for the idea of a woman, making them out to be strong instead of weak and delicate. She lets all of us know that women are all strong in their own way, but it was her goal to show it outwardly through her toned body. She was okay with pushing away ideas of the perfect woman in a feminist mindset, having big breasts and big hips, making the definition of a woman so much more than society conceives it to be. However, the photos she posts express that she still is a woman by the clothing she wears and also the style in which she poses. What I really enjoyed about her is how okay she was with herself. She wasn't just okay, she was great. She loved herself for the toned body she had, but she also loved herself for being a woman. Unlike a lot of the male body builders, she wasn't just boasting about her own accomplishments, she was expressing the beauty in other women and what they've done in their lives to make it worthwhile and feel the same sense of accomplishment as she should. I really like her because she wasn't overbearing with her own thought processes. Although the video was about her and what she has done with her structure, she didn't make me feel like there was anything wrong with not looking like her. She didn't make me feel like less of a woman because I didn't want to live the life she did. In fact, she made me feel almost better knowing that she acknowledged that every woman is strong in their own ways. She told the viewers that women should be able to "define" themselves however they want to be - whether it be muscular, toned, thin, chunky, tall, short, etc, because no one in the media can tell them they aren't wonderful. This message, in my opinion, should be shared more often. In commercials and advertisements directed towards men, they often try to make the other men watching or reading feel worthless, building up a false hope in their minds that they can work hard enough with a product and in the end receive the same outcome. Roxanne didn't give anyone false hope, she pushed individual dreams outward and told everyone to embrace what they want to do or be.
Overall, Roxanne is a great role-model for the female community. Whether or not you believe in toning yourself to the extent she did, you have to appreciate her for believing in her own self-worth, and others. She not only talked highly of what she has accomplished, but she talked highly of other women as well. I only wish more people could speak out in this sort of tone, especially directed towards teenagers. I feel like if more people, both men and women, had the courage to come out and swear and be honest in the same ways as Roxanne, the way people take in messages from the media could go from negative to positive in terms of self-image.
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