The XX Factor: What women really think.

Beauty and the East

[Orbach's book] examines the spreading belief, no longer confined to the West, that our bodies are badly in need of altering. In the Times interview, Orbach cites as an example young South Korean women who, with their parents’ full support, have plastic surgery to Westernize their eyelids. “They don’t experience this as a terrible thing, that they’re being passive victims and idiots,” Orbach says. “They see it as a chance at modernity.”

... thanks to Orbach and  many others who have written about the cultural forces encouraging us to dislike our bodies, we, unlike those young Korean women, know that our bodies are not the problem, or the solution. 

Orbach's "Bodies," Ourselves

A guest post from Slate intern Margaret Johnson:

Those interested in the crazy things we do to our bodies might want to look at Deborah Solomon’s interview with British psychoanalyst Susie Orbach running in this week’s issue of the New York Times Magazine (not online yet).  For fellow children of the '80s not familiar with Orbach, her best-selling 1978 book Fat Is a Feminist Issue argued that women’s struggles with food and weight were linked to their still subordinate status in a male world. The book, which Orbach refers to in the interview by the not so feminist acronym “Fifi”—I think of a French poodle or some Eva Gabor-type toddling around in kitten heels—got women questioning how much of their negative attitudes toward their bodies they had absorbed from the society around them.

Orbach’s latest book, Bodies, came out this week, ironically published as part of Picador paperback’s “Big Ideas, Small Books” series—apparently we want even our books to be thin. It examines the spreading belief, no longer confined to the West, that our bodies are badly in need of altering. In the Times interview, Orbach cites as an example young South Korean women who, with their parents’ full support, have plastic surgery to Westernize their eyelids. “They don’t experience this as a terrible thing, that they’re being passive victims and idiots,” Orbach says. “They see it as a chance at modernity.”

While I’m not sure it’s fair to call the Korean girls “passive" if they genuinely believe that the procedure will give them a better chance of success in the larger world. If they do, the surgery seems like an active, if unfortunate, attempt to get ahead. But why in the West do people with no shortage of opportunity obsessively revise their bodies? I suspect it's to avoid confronting what is imperfect about the way we live. Instead of addressing bad relationships, unfulfilling jobs, unhealthy behavior, or the helplessness we feel in the face of events we can’t change—death, crime, recession—we make our bodies into all-consuming projects, convincing ourselves that reshaping our bodies will somehow reshape our lives. And thanks to Orbach and  many others who have written about the cultural forces encouraging us to dislike our bodies, we, unlike those young Korean women, know that our bodies are not the problem, or the solution. So what’s keeping us from acting on that knowledge? What will it take to ditch the diets and the botox and deal with the issues for which there is no cosmetic fix?

Guns and Roses

Just wanted to flag this great piece in The Root about Venus and Serena Williams—not simply because my sister and I played competitive tennis as youngsters, and were constantly being compared to the Compton-born phenoms—but because author Jewel Edwards is preaching hard truths about standards of beauty when it comes to athletics. Extra points to this piece for subtlety; it took me a while to realize that Edwards is male! His awesome point:

Black female athletes, on the other hand, are put in the unique position where developing their bodies makes them the object of spectacle. For female athletes, the perennial insult is, "You look like a man." As a result, any girl—black or white—involved in sports has to make choices that a boy never has to make.

That’s a very important insight; and the tough calls faced by female athletes extend not just to physical appearance but to lifestyle choices, such as when to have a baby, get hitched, or embark upon puberty.

Samantha brought up Michelle Obama’s guns getting lots of attention on Tuesday evening. (I thought that going sleeveless in February was a bit gauche—but that’s another tale.) Obama looks great, but that kind of positive reinforcement is a stark counterpoint to the ogling and snark that attends the biceps of the decorated Williams sisters. It’s clearly hurtful:

Serena, when asked about her body yet again, said, "Just because I have large bosoms, and I have a big ass [laughter], I swear, my waist is 30 inches, 29 to 30 inches, it’s really small! I have the smallest waist, but just because I have those two assets, it looks like I’m not fit."

Imagine that! You are the most dominant person in your sport in the world, but you consistently have to defend having your curves. Listening to commentators persistently speculate and scrutinize Serena about her weight and fitness—which are metaphors for her body—is like having the buttocks and breasts of Hottentot Venus debated for public consumption.

Yes, imagine that. More extra points for bringing up Saartje Bartman—made famous once more by inaugural poet Elizabeth Alexander in this phenomenal work. But in terms of beauty norms: Really, what’s the difference between upscale yoga arms and those that can bench 200?

Sometimes It Pays To Be Called Fat

Last Monday, British singer Amanda Palmer wrote on her blog that her record label wanted to reshoot scenes from her music video for "Leeds United." She says:

they thought i looked fat. i thought they were on crack. dude. i'm a vain motherfucker. i know when i look fat. ... but THIS?? this was just nonsense. i thought i looked HOT.

The music industry's insistence on well-toned abs is nothing new. (See: the uproar about Britney Spears' so-slight paunch at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards; the plus-size Martha Walsh being swapped out of the video for "Gonna Make You Sweat" in favor of a svelte lip-syncer.) But this case is genuinely puzzling. Palmer did look hot. Her bared stomach looks lovely to me—I'd wear those abs proudly. The cabaret-style video doesn't dwell on her body, anyway. Most of the shots are long, taking in the rest of the performance and the audience as opposed to focusing on Palmer. And shouldn't record execs have people on hand at shoots to check out the costuming and ensure that their strict standards of acceptable appearance are being met?

I'd never heard of Palmer before this—my knowledge of music is sadly limited. But I do love that song now. The blogosphere outcry on her behalf has got to be good for her sales—and her self-esteem. A little misogynistic endorsing of unrealistic body ideals can be a good thing if there's enough of a backlash.

(via Feministing)