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!