Even though it is currently in the low 50's outside, we are in the beginning of the summer season -- the time to drag out the dreaded bathing suit and/or bikini. As if we don't already have enough people and discourses reminding us of how our bodies are supposed to look, the major tabloids make it a point to publish full pictorial spreads of ideal bodies -- and what they consider less than ideal.
Last week, Star magazine featured the 55 Best and Worst Beach Bodies. Click on the link and you'll see the usual cast of teeny tiny string bikinis on enhanced, pilates toned female bodies. The names change but the bodies look the same. These pictures are highlighted with standard pithy comments on how the body is hot or smokin' or some other trite code word for sexually skinny. An interesting addition to this year's line-up of hot bodies is Britney Spears. It's pretty much impossible at this point in time not to know about Britney's troubles over the last year or so. Including her as one of the "Best Women" came as a surprise to me. It seems that Star and other magazines have banked a lot of money over the past year on trashing Britney. However, the text accompanying Britney's picture says:
"A little R&R has done her body good! Brit looked happy and healthy during her trip to Costa Rica..."
And she does look good -- and healthy. She has curves. She looks like she eats. She seems happy. Or as happy as someone can be whose entire life is chronicled in snarky magazine articles.
It would be tempting to view this article as a turn to praising more realistic visions of female bodies. However, the respite from anorexic visions of bodies was short lived. In Touch magazine takes a different view, using the same pictures as Star. According to In Touch, Britney may be "hiding a secret" and has a "suspicious bump". To put it bluntly, the same Britney body that is considered healthy by Star is implied to be pregnant by In Touch. Huh? The last time I checked, most women's stomachs were not flat, they are slightly curved. Curves do not equal pregnant or fat.
So what are we supposed to make of these contradictory messages? It's tempting to say just dismiss them as the trivial talk of desperate magazine editors trying to make a fast buck. However, it's not that easy. As women, we are forced to confront contradictory messages like this every day. If I were to don a bikini and stand in front of a mirror I would have to conclude that, like Britney, I might be hiding a secret because yes, my stomach curves out. I'm not pregnant, but I am a woman with womanly curves. Does this mean that I should hide my curves and avoid the dreaded bathing suit? Hell no!
Of course, at the end of the day it's easy to sit at a computer and say I own my bitchin' body and I'm proud of my curves. Yet going out in public means that I have to confront the reality of these conflicting messages. I don't have an extra eight hours a day to work out and a few thousand dollars to hire personal trainers and private chefs. Like you, I have to deal with the reality that is my body. I'm tired of feeling bad about my body. I'm tired of avoiding the beach and bathing suits. I'm just tired of passively accepting that this is what it means to be a woman.
Instead of just sitting back and trying to make sense of all this crap. I'm going to take action. Part of my taking action is Bitchin' Bodies. However, stay tuned. In my next entry, I'll share with you my own bitchin' body -- curves and all. Somewhere, buried deep in one of my drawers is a bikini. As soon as I find it, you'll see it. No charge for the cellulite, curves, and fat that is my bitchin' body.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Friday, May 16, 2008
BITCHIN' FEMALE BEAUTY
Despite my good intentions, I have been embarrassingly horrible at keeping up on my blog entries for the last few months. While I could present numerous excuses, the fact is that life has continually interfered. In my last entry I focused on the editing process and how time consuming that can be. What I left out of that entry is that in addition to Bitchin' Bodies I have a few other smaller projects also slated for a summer release -- a textbook example of biting off more than I can chew.
What has been consuming more of my time, though, is this wonderful class that I have been teaching at Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana. Backing up just a bit, I came to Saint Mary's as a Visiting Assistant Professor. What that means is that I took a one year position instead of a tenure track, steady position. I made this choice because as a feminist who is interested in young women's lived experiences I couldn't pass up the chance to spend a year on an all-female campus. Therefore, despite the advice of my mentors I dove into the unknown. I recently signed a contract for a more permanent, tenure-track position so the gamble is paying off. But, more importantly for this blog, I took the visiting position because I was promised the possibility of teaching a "Special Topics" class. In other words, I was able to teach a class in pretty much whatever I wanted as long as I could show that it had a strong educational value. The class I chose to teach was "Female Beauty: Discourse, Rhetoric, and Theory," -- one of those classes that have a really cool title that is really confusing.
The end result, was an intellectually challenging semester delving into the discourse of female beauty with an amazing group of young women. Over the last four months we immersed ourselves into the thing that we call "female beauty." Now on the surface female beauty may seem like one of those things that we all understand. However, when it comes down to it, do we really know what beauty is? I would argue that we don't. We think we do, but if forced to define it, I think that you'll find that whatever definition you come up with is sorely limited.
When I ask what ideal beauty is during my interviews, I tend to get a very surface description: a tall, thin woman with big boobs who is tanned with blue eyes and blond hair. Sure, this description may cover the basic vision of beauty that we see through major media venues, but is this really beauty? I think we would all agree that while this description is a start, it only touches the proverbial surface of the topic. There are so many other examples of female beauty that we can all name who don't quite fit this description.
So what does this all mean? I wish I knew the answer. What I do know is that female beauty is one of those things that we all seem to be chasing or feel like we should be chasing or have resigned ourselves to accepting that we can't achieve. But is it really? Is female beauty just an ideal that no one can achieve? Is trying to embody female beauty the reason that so many of us deal with body dissatisfaction on a daily basis? Is it better to just give up and succumb to the discourses?
Let me be honest with you, before I taught this class there was always a part of me that was tempted to answer "yes," a resounding yes to those questions. However, what I have learned through this semester is that there is hope. I am not the only one who is questioning this thing called beauty. I am not the only one who is frustrated with the myriad discourses that continue to control our every day existence as women. More importantly, I am not the only woman out there who is willing to take a chance, embrace her voice and challenge these discourses. I was allowed the privilege of meeting 22 other women, my students, this past semester who are willing to delve into the quagmire that we call female beauty and openly ask: is this it? Is this all that we can be as women? Are we really our bodies?
What I learned from this experience is that the issues I raise in Bitchin' Bodies are not only important, but they are issues that are waiting to be discussed. They are issues that want to be discussed. And we are not the only ones who can start this conversation. For me, the conversation continued today when I met with two other female faculty on our campus who want to keep this conversation going. (More on this later, I promise.) For now, what I want to say is Kudos to those 22 women who took a chance. Who embraced female beauty as an unknown entity that doesn't have to be defined by unknown others. Who spent some time thinking about the issue and who now are Bitchin' Bodies who own their Bitchin' and more importantly who own their Bodies!
What has been consuming more of my time, though, is this wonderful class that I have been teaching at Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana. Backing up just a bit, I came to Saint Mary's as a Visiting Assistant Professor. What that means is that I took a one year position instead of a tenure track, steady position. I made this choice because as a feminist who is interested in young women's lived experiences I couldn't pass up the chance to spend a year on an all-female campus. Therefore, despite the advice of my mentors I dove into the unknown. I recently signed a contract for a more permanent, tenure-track position so the gamble is paying off. But, more importantly for this blog, I took the visiting position because I was promised the possibility of teaching a "Special Topics" class. In other words, I was able to teach a class in pretty much whatever I wanted as long as I could show that it had a strong educational value. The class I chose to teach was "Female Beauty: Discourse, Rhetoric, and Theory," -- one of those classes that have a really cool title that is really confusing.
The end result, was an intellectually challenging semester delving into the discourse of female beauty with an amazing group of young women. Over the last four months we immersed ourselves into the thing that we call "female beauty." Now on the surface female beauty may seem like one of those things that we all understand. However, when it comes down to it, do we really know what beauty is? I would argue that we don't. We think we do, but if forced to define it, I think that you'll find that whatever definition you come up with is sorely limited.
When I ask what ideal beauty is during my interviews, I tend to get a very surface description: a tall, thin woman with big boobs who is tanned with blue eyes and blond hair. Sure, this description may cover the basic vision of beauty that we see through major media venues, but is this really beauty? I think we would all agree that while this description is a start, it only touches the proverbial surface of the topic. There are so many other examples of female beauty that we can all name who don't quite fit this description.
So what does this all mean? I wish I knew the answer. What I do know is that female beauty is one of those things that we all seem to be chasing or feel like we should be chasing or have resigned ourselves to accepting that we can't achieve. But is it really? Is female beauty just an ideal that no one can achieve? Is trying to embody female beauty the reason that so many of us deal with body dissatisfaction on a daily basis? Is it better to just give up and succumb to the discourses?
Let me be honest with you, before I taught this class there was always a part of me that was tempted to answer "yes," a resounding yes to those questions. However, what I have learned through this semester is that there is hope. I am not the only one who is questioning this thing called beauty. I am not the only one who is frustrated with the myriad discourses that continue to control our every day existence as women. More importantly, I am not the only woman out there who is willing to take a chance, embrace her voice and challenge these discourses. I was allowed the privilege of meeting 22 other women, my students, this past semester who are willing to delve into the quagmire that we call female beauty and openly ask: is this it? Is this all that we can be as women? Are we really our bodies?
What I learned from this experience is that the issues I raise in Bitchin' Bodies are not only important, but they are issues that are waiting to be discussed. They are issues that want to be discussed. And we are not the only ones who can start this conversation. For me, the conversation continued today when I met with two other female faculty on our campus who want to keep this conversation going. (More on this later, I promise.) For now, what I want to say is Kudos to those 22 women who took a chance. Who embraced female beauty as an unknown entity that doesn't have to be defined by unknown others. Who spent some time thinking about the issue and who now are Bitchin' Bodies who own their Bitchin' and more importantly who own their Bodies!
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