In Consideration of Beauty

   There is a broad spectrum of reasons we react the way we do to body image, ours as well as others. What we find to be either acceptable or repulsive depends on our culture, race, gender, and age among other things. There are so many factors that influence our decisions and we are brought up to recognize certain features as “good” and others as “bad”. It is necessary to look at it from an intersectional point of view to fully comprehend our interpretation, however, because what is considered beautiful and acceptable in this society may not be the vision of beauty in another.



   In most cultures women are taught to suffer for the sake of beauty or at least for their society’s idea of beauty. At a global level this means many different things; Chinese foot binding, Burmese neck rings, African lip rings, the corsets of the Victorian era - the list goes on and on. We may consider these things oddities but to the women of their respective cultures they represent status. Achieving status, through beauty, seems to be the goal and there are plastic surgeons out there making millions of dollars on this concept. As Margaret Hunter points out in Black and Brown Bodies Under the Knife, “And just as skin color matters for access to resources, so does facial features” Hunter, 53). She notes that Anglo facial features are viewed as “high status”. My question is that if we keep pressing for equality and acceptance on all levels, why is this notion of conformity so overwhelming? We have young girls who want a Brittney Spears nose but what I don’t understand is why. Why have we become so superficial that our own individuality's can’t be considered beautiful? I hate when I hear people call them “flaws”. Are you any less intelligent if your nose is slightly large? Are you in a lower social class because your eyes are too close together? Are you less of a person because your lips are too thick or too thin? This is what is being preached in our society today. We must strive for the ideal and correct the imperfect. Hunter rightly suggests that while many people think plastic surgery represents freedom for women to be who they want to be, it is actually “domination” over women to conform to societies norms.


   Along the same lines, if a person is healthy, what does it matter what their weight is? It matters because this particular society says it does. This society is repulsed by overweight people, especially overweight women. It represents lack of self-control, rejection, self-loathing. “People who inhabit “dissimilar” bodies are read as both inferior and threatening; inferior in terms of beauty and threatening in terms of the suggestion of downward mobility” (LeBesco, 54). We are being taught to judge a person’s worth by their looks without regard to morals, ethics and potential. Rounder, softer bodies were once a sign of status but that concept has been replaced through the ages with the cliché “you can never be too rich or too thin” implying that the two go hand in hand.

Taking Responsibility

In class the other night someone brought up the fact that in order to understand the implications of a situation we must become personal with it. To empathize we need to be able to relate to the people involved; walk a mile in their shoes. I have been touched on many levels by the stories of the missing and murdered women of Juarez. Watching the spoken word poetry by Amalia Ortiz just stirred it up even more. Surprise to sympathy, sadness to anger; I felt them all as I read about this.


The problems in Juarez go far beyond the killings and brutality against these women individually. They are treated as disposable commodities to be used and thrown away. Once used, they are easily replaced by another young girl that dreams of the “beautiful life” as Claudia did but will probably never know more than the long hours and hard life in the maquiladoras. These horrendous crimes are ignored by authorities for monetary gain, ignored by the government to keep down the bad press, ignored by the thousands of corporations housed there that employ these desperate women trying to make a living wage. Who isn’t turning a blind eye? Their mothers, sisters and children. Their daughters, sisters and mothers are told they deserved it, they brought it on themselves. I would like to explore the impact these disappearances, sexual assaults and brutal murders have on the survivors. Why is it continuing to happen and what will it take to get it to stop? Are there resources in place for the survivors? Are there places available to them for counseling and financial support? Do we have a moral obligation to step in and do something about the atrocities being committed on the other side of the border and if so, do we have the legal right to do so? We continue to support the corporations that are exploiting these women when we use their products. Are we perpetuating the violence by ignorance?

Other than the obvious emotional issues that surround these traumas, the economical impact on the family is devastating given that it is typically the women that are supporting their families in a large part of this culture. These women are raised in a society that devalues them simply because of their gender and while they may realize it they feel powerless to do anything about it. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and in rights”. These women are denied the majority of the articles written in this declaration and once they are gone, what is left for their families?

Gender and Labor Issues

  When I was 15 I was going to football games, thinking about what kind of car my parents would be giving me on my next birthday and walking around my neighborhood, in total safety, for hours on end with my friends. When Claudia Gonzalez turned 15 she took a job in a factory working 45 hours a week not making much more than the $20 I got each week for my allowance. “If you want a beautiful life, you must work for it” (Ciudad Juarez). While this sentiment is universal it holds an entirely different meaning for the women working in the maquiladoras. These women are working in unbearable conditions for dollars a day just to keep their families alive. We paid more for this book than many of these women make working several weeks. After 5 years of working, striving for “the beautiful life”, Claudia disappeared and was savagely murdered. She became another one of the countless young women murdered in Juarez whose family will never have justice for her death.

  It is impossible to look at gender and labor issues without looking at it from an intersectional approach. Geography, gender, race, economic status; all of this and more comes into play when looking at the inequalities of labor on a global scale. In our society, could you even imagine someone telling you that you had to take a pregnancy test, and it had to be negative, to get a job? But in the maquiladoras this is an everyday fact of life. “Pregnancy tests for applicants, pressure on pregnant workers and ill treatment - most of the 2100 maquiladoras systematically violate women’s fundamental rights, while the Mexican authorities turn a blind eye” (IWS, 468). We continue, however to support these multi-billion dollar businesses that perpetuate these practices. As we put on our $100 pair of Nike running shoes are we thinking about the .47 cents per hour that a woman was paid to work in the factory that produced them? Or the fact that her children are home with no supervision being left to fend for themselves against countless horrors? Would we dare put our own children in that same position?

  These women do what they have to and tolerate what they must to ensure their survival and that of their families. Because of the cultures they are part of they are made to feel that they have no choice but to endure the atrocities that are bestowed upon them simply because they are women. Many are the sole earners in their family but are afforded no respect for what they do because it is expected of them. If they are raped, they brought it on themselves. If they are abused, they did something to deserve it. If they are murdered, they can be easily replaced.

  The next time you sit in your Ford or Chevy, take a picture with your Kodak camera or watch your Sony TV, ask yourself what was sacrificed for you to have the luxury to do so.

Forgotten Children

The Malawi notebook was compelling.  For me it was like the wreck on the side of the road that you can’t help but slow down to stare at. I read it, and then read it again and felt ashamed that it was so easy for me to sit here in a country rich with doctors and hospitals and a legal system to protect our children and wonder why things are so difficult in Malawi. The entire writing was a beautiful and telling tribute to a desperate culture.


Mia Kirshner’s I Live Here project is amazing. She is raising awareness about the conditions of this destitute country through activism and art. While the entire notebook was fascinating, the pieces about the Kachere Juvenile Prison really stuck in my mind. Many of these boys are in prison for menial crimes because they have no family to support them. But there they are, caged in conditions that we wouldn’t even let our animals live in. They live with constant fear, hunger, illness, pain and sadness. These kids are starved for any sort of attention and Kirshner attempts to address this need through art.  It wasn’t until I had read this a second time that I thought wow, this is a great thing to do and it makes a fabulous story but it’s kind of like window dressing. These kids eat one time a day and we’re handing them water colors and showing them painting techniques. Don’t get me wrong – I think it’s fabulous that Kirshner is doing it. Most of these kids have no family and no education. This is probably the only time many of them will ever get to do anything like this. Every minute, every penny, every thought for these forgotten children counts.

I went online to read more about her project and found that she felt the same way. She notes in Lessons in Falling: Growing Up in Malawi Prison, “This approach, I realize, comes from a place of privilege and freedom. I confused art as being a basic need” (Huffington Post, 10-12-09). After coming to the realization that this program is not meeting the actual basic needs of the inmates, Kirshner steered the project in another direction. The program now focuses on education and a healthier, cleaner environment. The Ministry of Environmental Health gets involved and the building and inhabitants alike are “scrubbed down”. She hires a teacher from Chancellor College and the Ministry of Education provides books and materials. Even the guards are being educated. Kirshner also finds a woman who teaches them about permaculture. This allows them to be more self-sustaining so they can grow their own food and it gives them the knowledge to carry it forward when they are released from Kachere. She also partnered with PASI, a non-profit para-legal organization that is focusing on the rights of the children that have been imprisoned. Kirshner’s project is now giving some dignity to those who have had none and giving these people the opportunity to learn from their mistakes and move forward, as she did.

Who Decides Who is Right or Wrong?

     When reading “The Body Rituals of the Nacirema I think most people would initially be shocked by the archaic rituals and belief in magic. As I thought about it and began to sort out the purposes of the rituals rather than focus on the specific actions, it dawned on me that the act may be different but the reasoning is very much the same as any other culture or religion. We see many of their customs as barbaric simply because they are not OUR customs. It is natural, in our culture, to breast feed however this may seem barbaric to other cultures. “When pregnant, women dress so as to hide the condition. Parturition takes place in secret, without friends or relatives to assist, and the majority of women do not nurse their infants (Minor, 4). The majority of American cultures embrace and celebrate childbirth but this isn’t to say that all cultures do.


     The Catholic religion has confession. Priests, in private, listen to the sins of the confessor and require penance to be done so that they can be absolved of their sins. Churches also expect “contributions” from their members. How is this any different than the magical practitioners of the Nacirema with their “impressive set of paraphernalia” (Minor, 2) exorcising evil? We consider ourselves civilized, which may be the biggest obstacle to allowing us to accept that cultural differences are not necessarily a bad thing. The Catholic church has a very pronounced hierarchy, similar to the Nacirema. The higher a person is in the church, or the tribe, the more power, or magic, they yield. Again, different scenarios but very similar results.

     Ethnocentrism is the sincere belief that a person’s race or culture is superior to all others. Is this what caused Sarah Baartman to suffer the life that she did? While she was a physical enigma to the average white culture, was she any different when among her own people? What one culture perceives as beautiful, another may see as horrific. Body art and piercings are seen as signs of beauty and wealth in many eastern European cultures but other cultures view them as sinful. Lucille Davie states regarding Baartman “…Baartman’s physical characteristics, not unusual for Khoisan women,…were evidence of this prejudice, and she was treated like a freak exhibit in London.”  It was this attitude of superiority that caused her to be enslaved to begin with; a feeling that one race or culture wasn’t worthy of a free life.

     “The anthropologist has become so familiar with the diversity of ways in which different people behave in similar situations that he is not apt to be surprised by even the most exotic customs” (Minor, 1). As noted earlier, exotic is in the eye of the beholder and we should all be open to the customs and cultures of others if only to better understand them and looking at them though an intersectional approach would be a good way to start.  Each culture is different and it is the sum of it's people that make it up.

Questions....

     While reading Koyama’s piece Whose Feminism Is it Anyway?, I was struck by the prejudice shown WITHIN groups. The GLBT community suffers so much prejudice as it is.  I’m confused as to why, within the smaller groups such as “womyn-born-womyn” for example, they choose to be so exclusive. If the basic point of trans liberation is acceptance and tolerance for all choices, how can these people who have fought so hard to be respected for their own choices exclude others who are trying to do the same? If the ultimate goal is respect and acceptance of everyone, Koyama makes a good statement: “when they say feminism and sisterhood, it requires any important issues other than “the celebration of femaleness” – i.e. racial equality, economic justice and freedom of gender expression – to be set aside”. I guess I’m wondering if the bias within the groups is slowing down the fight for gender equality.


     I found Cheryl Chase’s article really interesting. This is an issue I have heard very little about it but it sounds like the birth of intersex children isn’t too uncommon. The emotional and physical challenges that these children face later in life because of an arbitrary choice made by a doctor, and based on societal norms, are huge! Chase notes that “intersex status is considered to be incompatible with emotional health….”.  Have viable studies been done that show the emotional differences in those that had these “corrective” surgeries as infants versus those that waited and were able to make the choice on their own?

Pink or Blue isn't Black or White....

    A good friend of mine is the mother of two girls and one of them happens to be the same age as my son. Inevitably, when we’re together we compare the ups and downs of being the parents of teenagers and do the boy/girl contrasts and comparisons. Girls are more fun to dress, boys are more mischievous, girls mature faster than boys, parents don’t have to worry about boys as much as they do girls. We assign a masculine or feminine quality to everything they do from the minute they are born. There are boy colors and girl colors, boy toys and girl toys, boy activities and girl activities. As long as our children stay within the guidelines that have been laid out by society, all is well. What do we do, however, with those children that don’t fit so neatly into the essentialist’s vision of male and female?  The attached video is great...it really shows us how difficult we are making it on children who don't really understand what they are going through.

     Feinberg notes “That pink-blue dogma assumes that biology steers our social destiny” (Feinberg, 9). She makes a good point when discussing infants and who exactly has the authority (or right) to determine the appropriate size for male or female genitals. Who sets the standard to begin with? The rationale behind much genital mutilation in infants is that the surgery is far more difficult and holds many more risks if you wait until the child is older. These intersex infants grow up without having had the right to define their own sexuality. Their sex was decided for them at birth, not by nature but by a medical professional so they could “conform to a particular society’s concept of aesthetics and normality” as noted by the group Students for Genital Integrity (SGI, founded at San Francisco State University in 2002).

     As a society we are consumed by the ideology of masculine and feminine. We go so far as to label everything as having a specific gender from boats to tools to weather systems. We do this based on external qualities and neglect to consider the internal attributes. If a person is born biologically a female but chooses to dress and affect “masculine” qualities, is she trying to act like a man or is she trying to act like herself? Does society have the right to make that judgment? We are taught from a young age NOT to judge a book by it’s cover yet we continue to do this every time we force a transgender person to label themselves in one way or another. If sex is determined by biology, as essentialist's believe, how can they demand that a transgender person make a “statement” as to their gender when they are biologically on the fence? 

     I struggle with the concept of linking sexual orientation to genetics. It seems to me that this concept says that if we step outside of the normative ideology, it couldn’t possibly be due to free will or individual choice but rather because of an abnormality in our DNA. As Anne Fausto-Sterling states in The Biological Connection, “In the study of gender (like sexuality and race) it is inherently impossible for any individual to do unbiased research.” (IWS, 42).