The Modern Body as Malleable Machine
http://www.sacredgrounds-tattoo.com/image/2217652.jpeg
"…cosmetic surgery, piercing, aerobics, and nautilus all point to a conception of the body as raw material to be fragmented into parts, molded, and reshaped into a more perfect form….The body has become, like Barbie, all surface, a ground for staging cultural identities." (Urla & Swedlund, 305)
"The concept of a perfect body, ostensibly devised in opposition to modern industrial society, in fact capitulated to the presumption that perfection lay in materially defined, standardized, and repeatable processes and products. [Sandow] helped to displace the Victorian conception of the body as a moral reservoir and instrument of productive labor with a modern conception of the body as an expression of individual desire and site of pleasure." (Kasoon 76)
The above image of the male body builder across which the words "strength, power, agility, mass appeal" are emblazoned in bold print epitomizes the idea of "body as a machine." As Kasoon's article discusses, a modern presumption surrounding the perfect body "[lies] in materially defined, standardized, and repeatable processes and products." Exercise is now commodified and broken down into repeatable steps and specific procedures. The fit body functions like a machine, hardened, strong, aligned and perfectly capable of completing difficult repetitious tasks, such as repeated weight lifting.
Urla and Swedlund's quote supports this idea, which is not only embodied by the image of the body builder and modern exercise, but also by the first image of the tattooed and pierced "punk." The body here is staging a very different cultural identity than that of the muscleman, but it also demonstrates the idea that our body is raw material to be molded and reshaped into something better and different.
"The feeling is that you ought to be true to who you really are, that there would be something wrong, something vaguely dishonest or unsavory, about turning away from your true self; that this would be kind of a betrayal, or fakery." (Elliot, 38)
"Happiness in this instance exists in crossing the boundary separating one category from another. It is rooted in the necessary creation of arbitrary demarcations between the perceived reality of the self and the ideal category into which one desires to move." (Gilman, 22)
"A true story about finding the courage to be yourself."
"Life is a journey. Bring an open mind."
This collection of images and quotes discusses taking the idea of "body as a machine" or malleable resource even further. I chose this array of images to correlate with these quotes because I feel that they truly embody how our culture views authenticity and identity. The second two images show two movies about transsexuals in the U.S., "Transamerica" and "Boys Don't Cry." As the taglines on these movie posters imply, the movies are about celebrating the struggle and courage of these two human beings in their quest to be "true to their inner selves." As the first quote from Carl Elliot's article "Better Than Well Meets the American Dream," says, there is a cultural norm that is present in our society which implies that a person "ought to be true to who he/she really is." As these two movies show, these stories are popular in the media and entertainment. They are meant to be inspiring, and they are inspiring to many "open-minded" people, because we can easily understand and relate to the idea that transsexuals were born into the "wrong body." The idea that their "soul" or their identity is actually the opposite gender than their physical bodies is not very radical in our minds, because so many of our social norms are now based on this idea of the personal self. Sander Gilman's quote supports this idea, that these people who are in the process of or already have changed genders can only find happiness if they cross the strict gender boundaries and thereby let their inner self free.
The idea of crossing category boundaries for purely aesthetic reasons is seen in a completely different light. For this reason I included the bodybuilders and the comparison pictures of Christina Aguilera. While it is doubtful that Christina Aguilera actually received plastic surgery, (she probably grew from a young teen into a woman) the idea that she may have was met with very negative reactions. I found this picture on a website titled "Make Me Heal," whose sole purpose was to study pictures of celebrities to judge if they had received plastic surgery. All the comments on each picture were ones of disappointment, disgust or anger. Fans of these celebrities feel that by receiving plastic surgery to solely better their already above average beautiful looks, the stars have betrayed their true selves. As Elliot says, these celebrities who have strayed from their "authentic" selves are now fake to their fans, and thereby unsavory or wrong. While the celebrities no doubt intended to get closer to the idea of the "perfect man/women" and, as Gilman describes in the second quote, thereby move into a more ideal category of beauty, they instead have shattered their fans' perceived realities of the star's self. One reason the fans commenting on this website no doubt enjoyed insulting and scrutinizing the pictures of stars is because it elevated their own sense of personal value and authenticity. As Gilman also stated in her article, "The more you reshape yourself, the more I know my own value, my own authenticity, and your inauthenticity. You become a mere copy, passing yourself off as the "real thing."(Gilman 18)." In contrast, the character of the transsexual Agrado mentioned by Elliot in his article states "A woman is more authentic the more she looks like what she has dreamed for herself. (Elliot 30)" and we believe this sentiment to be valid because she is striving to be "true to herself."
"Identity work, protecting or reformulating self boundaries, reinforcing images or re-imagining the other-is required of people as they respond to fears of contagion and stigma, as they adopt strategies to protect themselves from implication, that is, symbolic connection to 'infected' others and the negative characteristics ascribed to them." (Crawford, 1348)
"…stigmatizing images of the other are founded in a social self which needs this other." (Crawford 1348)
"Ethnic [physical] difference among groups that are perceived as "ugly" and of "poor character" remains unacceptable even in a multiethnic society. One can look different, but not too different." (Gilman, 98)
"This card is designed to help eliminate AIDS in Africa."
While being true to oneself is valued in certain situations, the negative idea of "the other" is an inherent part of the social norms of western culture. As Robert Crawford discusses in his article on the "unhealthy other," the classification and stigmatization of the 'infected' other is used and "needed" by society to distance people from association with a population deemed wrong, negative, or lesser. This idea applies not only to the sick, but also to any population deemed different and threatening in some way, such as different ethnic groups or people who identify with something other than heterosexuality. For this reason I chose the quote by Gilman to explain the stigmatization of simple physical characteristics and other characteristics that have become associated with certain ethnic groups.
The two images I chose to include for the stigmatized other both have to do with raising money to fight AIDS. The first is an advertisement for M.A.C. "Viva Glam" lipstick, which is being sold to raise money for the fight against AIDS in the U.S. The advertisement spells out "Viva Glam" using the body of a presumably homosexual black man dressed in drag. He is wearing a bright red, leather outfit with a blond wig, which seems to accentuate the fact that it is in fact a man in drag and not a woman. In the second advertisement, the very blond, white and slender Giselle Bundchen is shown wearing a glamorous red evening dress. Next to her is a very dark-skinned African Anasai tribeswoman in presumably a "traditional" tribal outfit, and beneath them is pictured a red American Express credit card. This card is supposedly "designed to eliminate AIDS in Africa." Both these advertisements are targeted to an audience who most likely cannot relate to a homosexual drag-queen or an African tribeswoman who belong to historically stigmatized groups of "others."
In U.S. society, homosexuals are branded with the stereotype that they are a sexually promiscuous and "infected" group of people. The M.A.C. advertisement plays up the campy-ness of the red leather clad, blond-wigged drag queen to use the stereotype to uphold this boundary. It is a playful image that does not show the pain or suffering of AIDS in any way, thereby distancing the potential M.A.C. customer from the group of 'infected' while at the same time creating a recognizable stereotyped image of an HIV-positive drag-queen.
The second advertisement is even more blatant in its use of the image of "the other." By using a very western, light model to contrast with a very dark skinned, African "tribeswoman" and dressing the African woman up in "traditional" clothing, the advertisement succeeds in making the target audience of this advertisement comfortable. Because the donations from the credit card are going to "eliminate AIDS in Africa" they are distancing the group of people, sending the money "over there" to help the poor tribes people, although AIDS is also present in the U.S. Citing Crawford's wording, the glamorized image of the blond model in contrast with the dark tribeswoman again reinforces the idea that this group of people is separate and different, however it is glossed over and glamorized enough that it is not a shocking or disturbing image of disease, conveniently keeping the audience even farther away. Even by using the word "eliminate" it supports Crawford's idea that "The sick are not only made responsible for their illness, they are also made different (Crawford 1356)." The idea is that the Western world needs to step in and help these poor Africans out of the mess they have gotten themselves into, and as a responsible, productive citizen you will be helping fight for a good cause while shopping and spending money at the same time.
"I said I was blonde and curvaceous, I didn't say I was a woman!"
Howard Stern in drag on David Letterman
"...I want to underscore that there is no necessary relation between drag and subversion, and that drag may well be used in the service of both the denaturalization and reidealization of hyperbolic herterosexual gender norms." (Butler 125)
"…We are surrounded by homogenizing and normalizing images-images whose content is far from arbitrary, but is instead suffused with the dominance of gendered, racial, class, and other cultural iconography." (Bordo, 250)
As seen in Paris is Burning, and then further support by bell hooks' critique of this film, dressing in drag is not as subversive or bizarre as one might think. Judith Butler agrees with hooks' assertion that drag outfits and the idea of the "drag queen" oftentimes firm traditional gender roles and norms. For example, as was discussed in class, the women who the gay men in Paris is Burning are trying to emulate are the upper white elite. They rave about the show Dallas and fawn over anglo models throughout the film. As Bordo's quote states, this is because these kinds of homogenous images are what we are surrounded with in our society, and what is projected as the best position in society.
I included the picture of Howard Stern on Letterman dressed in drag because I feel it embodies these two quotes perfectly. Stern is obviously vamping up the drag idea and making fun of women and possibly drag queens, because he is a very heterosexual male. He is dressing in drag as a parody of an upper-class, blond white woman. Stern is strictly reinforcing the gender norms by making fun of this "type" of woman. Letterman's reaction in the corner of the photo also could represent society's reaction to a man in drag. If a gay man were dressed in serious drag than possibly he would be met with confusion or rejection by many average Americans, but if he were dressed as Stern is for comedy he would be met with much more acceptance, because this form of drag does not challenge any gender or class norms. This comedic use of drag is also embodied in the second image, the cartoon. The man here is obviously drawn in drag to inspire a laugh from the reader and the entire cartoon is making fun of our ideas of gender and beauty, though it does not really challenge them. However, the cartoon becomes much more serious if we think of this situation in relation to the story of the murdered Venus Xtravaganza.
Anita Hemmings
"I'm tired of being openly gay. I'm seriously considering going back in the closet."
"Passing was the nineteenth century's pejorative term for the act of disguising one's "real" (racial) self. … The transgressive act of "passing" showed how tenuous the boundaries in the social order really were." (Gilman, 20)
"Passing is thus moving into and becoming invisible within a desired "natural" group." (Gilman, 22) -natural meaning heterosexual, male or female, "non-racial" or white
"...yet what determines the effect of realness is the ability to compel belief, to produce the naturalized effect. This effect is itself the result of an embodiment of norms, a reiteration of norms, and impersonation of a racial and class norm, a norm which is at once a figure, a figure of a body, which is no particular body, but a morphological ideal that remains the standard which regulates the performance, but which no performance fully approximates." (Butler 129)
Passing is an idea mentioned in relation to any group of "non-natural" peoples (natural meaning heterosexual, male or female, or white). The idea, as illustrated in the quotes above, is to change the outward appearance of the body to disguise or eliminate a racial, ethnic or gendering characteristic or norm so as to "pass" as something different.
The first photo caught my eye because it was on a page discussing African Americans who were able to pass as white and be accepted to prominent universities. Anita graduated with honors from Vassar and was the school's first African American graduate 30 years before the school opened its doors to racial integration. (www.aavc.vassar.edu/vq/articles/Anita_Hemmings.) This situation is interesting, because it perfectly embodies the quotes I chose. Anita became invisible within this "natural" and accepted group, and was able to report back to her "mulato" parents about what it was like to be accepted as not only a member but a beautiful member of the dominant racial class. (She was voted most beautiful for her graduating class.) This exemplifies the idea that Gilman discussed in her article; you are allowed to be different, but only different within the norms. (Gilman 98) Anita was praised for her "exotic" beauty, which meant she had dark hair and dark eyes, as seen in the photo above, but only because all of the other "negative" physical characteristics associated with blacks at this time were not present in her face. As Butler's quote describes, she passed because she was able to reiterate the white racial "norms," mostly because these norms are not concrete and are based on abstract notions which are constantly changing, fluid and forever need to be reiterated and redefined.
The comic was included because it makes fun of the pressure for homosexual people to "pass" in society, suggesting it would be easier if he/she just "went back in the closet." It hints at the importance of passing in society, and that as being an out gay male, he was being stigmatized because of his association with this certain "other" group that is still not quite accepted.
"Next time your parents tell you to shape up, just go shopping."
"The contemporary ideal of slender and fit femininity appears to cut across racial, class-based, and ethnic lines to the extent that it codes for heteronormativity…" (Gremillion, 53)
"…[which demonstrates] the power of racial as well as gender normalization, normalization not only to "femininity," but to the Caucasian standards of beauty that still dominate on television, in movies, in popular magazines." (Bordo, 255)
"Like the concomitant move toward racially diverse fashion models, "difference" is remarkably made over into sameness, as ethnicity is tamed to conform to a restricted range of feminine beauty." ((Urla & Swedlund 284)
Within femininity, the strive to normalize and homogenize is also present. These two images blatantly "heteronormatize" the female figures into disproportionate skinny bodies which all look exactly alike. Not only do they look exactly alike, but the "ethnic" girls (those who are not white) have been modeled after the white Scandinavian phenotype save for a slight difference in skin color or hair color. These three quotes perfectly describe what is seen represented in both advertisements. These girls are all projecting the "idealized" skinny body type that is present all over the media, no matter what their race is or what real girls actually look like. There are two white or light skinned girls and one possibly African American girl in each image, most likely to cover the company bases and to appear "inclusive" and "racially diverse." Just as was discussed in the "Anthropometry of Barbie" article by Urla and Swedlund, the much publicized "progressive" differences are remarkably made over into sameness, each advertisement strictly following the traditional blond and blue eyed ideal of beauty. In both images, all three girls have smooth, straight or wavy hair, disproportionate breasts, an elongated torso, and long legs. Interestingly, in both advertisements the blond, white female is in the center, with the other "colors" of girls or dolls to either side, almost pointing to her as if she is the most important one and the better of the three.
"Bratz doll"
"Barbie doll"
"Consumers are constituted as actors seeking to maximize their 'quality of life' by assembling a 'life-style' through acts of choice in a world of goods. Each commodity is imbued with a 'personal' meaning, a glow cast back upon those who purchase it, illuminating the kind of person they are, or want to come to be." (Rose, 162)
"…what makes Barbie such a perfect icon of late capitalist constructions of femininity is the way in which her persona pairs endless consumption with the achievement of femininity and the appearance of an appropriately gendered body." (Urla & Swedlund 281)
"Through the pursuit of an ever-changing, homogenizing, elusive ideal of femininity-a pursuit without terminus…female bodies become docile bodies-bodies whose forces and energies are habituated to external regulation, subjection, transformation, "improvement."" (Bordo, 166)
The images of these two dolls being advertised to young girls reflects the ideals of our capitalist, consumer society, especially in relation to women. The first image is of a "Bratz" doll, which is marketed as an edgier alternative to Barbie. However, as it is obvious here both Barbie and Bratz doll both embody the same construct of femninity; girls should love to shop and should also look slim and sexy while doing it. Once again these dolls also embody the very "normal" white ideal of beauty that is broadcast throughout our society. These dolls are meant for young girls, but they represent the societal norms and values of adult life.
Barbie and Bratz doll are defined here by the purchases and objects that they own and wear. At the same time, the way they look and the things they choose to wear also reflect a very normal "appropriately gendered body." In our modern, hyper-consumer society, "Manners, accent, clothes, hair, job, home, even personality: All are now seen as objects of individual control that express something important about who we are. (Elliot 49)." Because of this importance placed on young women to achieve the perfectly gendered body and to purchase products to reflect an "ideal femininity," women are constantly pursuing this perfection without ever reaching a "terminus."
"I am pretty. I am committed. I am a citizen of the world. I am a dreamer. I am fresh. I am so not going to have stubs sticking out of my legs. I am who I am. I am happy. I am pretty."
"Honestly, I was never that hungry hungry."
"be light as air. be you."
"Dominant discourses of feminine fitness represent the female body as a consuming body, a body that is limited in its productivity because it cannot "work off" consumption easily. Eating is seen as a particularly enticing indulgence for women that must be controlled not only through exercise but also through dieting."(Gremillion, 55)
"The rules for this construction of femininity require that women learn to feed others, not the self, and to construe any desires for self-nurturance and self-feeding as greedy and excessive." (Bordo, 171)
I included a large amount of media in this section because so much of the advertising we are surrounded with embodies the ideas of "feminine consumption" and the naturally "limited body" which constantly needs improvement and work.
In the first image, the very slender, sexualized young woman is wearing a shirt which states "Honestly, I was never that hungry hungry." While the shirt is intended to make a joke about the board game "Hungry Hungry Hippos," it is also an illuminating portrait of our societal ideas about female consumption and female bodies. In this picture the woman is thin and pretty because she is following the cultural idea that appetite and hunger are things women should be ashamed of and should suppress. Her self-control is represented in her t-shirt but also in the size of her body and the sexual way she is positioned. This control contrasts with the "weak" woman in the next picture, who is debating whether she should "give in" and eat the piece of chocolate cake she is holding. As Gremillion's quote states, women are encouraged or even commanded by the media to feel that eating and consumption are superfluous indulgences that should be rigorously controlled and monitored.
As seen in the Burger King and the Lynx commercial, women are supposed to suppress carnal hungers and to translate their own hunger into a desire to serve others. Women's food is shown as controlled, miniscule portioned vegetables which are also aesthetically pleasing, versus the men's food which is large, juicy and completely indulgent. In the Lynx commercial, the women are only there to serve the men, and the women all seem very happy and excited about this wonderful opportunity.
"A new deliciously pink, low-cal energy drink. because women need a different kind of energy."
"All the cultural paraphernalia of femininity, of learning to please visually and sexually through the practices of the body-media imagery, beauty pageants, high heels, girdles, makeup, simulated orgasm-are seen as crucial in maintaining gender domination." (Bordo, 182)
"The imperative to manage the body and "be all that you can be"-in fact, the idea that you can choose the body that you want to have-is a pervasive feature of consumer culture. Keeping control of one's body, not getting too fat or flabby-in other words, conforming to gendered norms of fitness and weight-are signs of an individual's social and moral worth." ((Urla & Swedlund, 300)
"The general tyranny of fashion-perpetual, elusive, and instructing the female body in a pedagogy of personal inadequacy and lack-is a powerful discipline for the normalization of all women in this culture." (Bordo, 254)
While it is well known that males dominate western society, the media message to women is that they should "learn to visually and sexually please" as Bordo discusses. This ubiquitous message immediately places the male in a position of dominance and subordinates the female. In the first advertisement I chose, it is implied that women should fake orgasms to please their partner, only purchase brand names, and they should once again limit their consumption and calorie-intake by drinking a "pink, low-cal energy drink." This advertisement perfectly exemplifies what the three quotes above are saying: that the societal system we have set in place subordinates women and encourages them to defer to men and men's desires. The ad also states that "women need a different kind of energy" which implies that women need to keep control of their body and choose the drink that is low-cal, which is supported by the Urla and Swedlund quote. As is reiterated by a porn star in Faludi's article regarding the porn industry, "They don't sell men. They sell women (Faludi 87)." While this was meant to illustrate the hardships males have in finding work in porn, it also supports the previously mentioned quotes and images in that it is an accepted idea that females are meant to be sold and controlled.
This idea is taken a step further in the Dolce and Gabanna advertisement displayed below, which arrays 5 strong, dominating men in very aggressive positions around a subordinated and weaker female. While it is implied that the woman in the advertisement is being held against her will, she is also not fighting back in any way. This female represents the "docile body" which defers all aggression and decision to the male figure and dutifully supports or accepts his desires while at the same time quelling her own.
In this advertisement, the women has actually been transformed into the commodity, and because she represents a docile, sexual body that also incorporates a valued object, the BMW car, the male feels an "ultimate attraction" to her. This is the ultimate female because she has no face or mouth to speak or take action and is completely docile to the males desires.
Dove: Support our Self-Esteem Fund
"Pedagogic technologies from universal education to the BBC were constructed as devices for forming responsible citizens. Planned and socially organized mechanisms were to weave a complex web that would bind the inhabitants of a territory into a single polity, a space of regulated freedom." (Rose, 164)
"Under despotism, subjects were simply unfree and isolated. In a democracy, under conditions of equality, citizens were isolated and made powerless by the freedom granted to each singly; although free, they were relatively powerless as isolated individuals. …The threat of despotism and disorder came not from the unruly but from the indifferent, the apathetic." (Cruikshank, 96)
"The intelligible body includes…our cultural conceptions of the body, norms of beauty, models of health, and so forth. But the same representations may also be seen as forming a set of practical rules and regulations through which the living body is "trained, shaped, obeys, responds," becoming, in short, a socially adapted and "useful body."" (Bordo, 181)
"Self-esteem is a practical technology for the production of certain kinds of selves-for "making up people." ...[It] is a technology in the sense that it is a specialized knowledge of how to esteem our selves, how to estimate, calculate, measure, evaluate, discipline, and judge our selves." (Cruikshank, 89)
The word democracy naturally leads to other words such as freedom, tolerance and diversity if you are from a western nation. We associate these words with "democracy" because we have been trained from a very young age to think of freedom and democracy as one and the same. It is illuminating to read Foucault and the other authors quoted here and to get a very different image of democracy. The idea that such important cultural ideas such as self-esteem and universal education are meant to create docile, productive and self-governing bodies within Foucault's realm of power is shocking to the average, "democratic" citizen. Cruikshanks further elaborates this vital characteristic of democracy when she describes: "Democratic government, even self-government, depends upon the ability of citizens to recognize, isolate, and act upon their own subjectivity, to be governors of their own selves (Cruikshank, 91)."
The first photo is a before and after picture from the T.V. show, "The Swan" which gives contestants "mega-makeovers" to help them overcome their self-esteem issues and ultimately become a better person. This image embodies the idea these quotes are presenting, that the idea of homogeneity and self-discipline will ultimately make you a happier and better person. This is reiterated in Dr. Phil's Self Matters book on tape, which is designed to "create your life from the inside out" and the old advertisement which claims "your figure has charm only as you are fully developed." The quotes above support the idea that in order to be a better citizen of democracy, a person must always try to follow the social norms and rules so as to train and shape their body into a productive body. This idea is reiterated by Nikolas Rose when he states "Governing in a liberal democratic way depends upon the availability of such techniques that will shape, channel, organize, and direct the personal capacities and selves of individuals…(Rose, 155)." Within a democracy, Bordo describes how the threat of disruption or disorder comes from the apathetic body, and for this reason the every changing yet ever important social norms, values and "rules" are in place. The citizen who is not constantly trying to change and mold themselves could stray too close to apathy and will risk social rejection and unhappiness.
Because of the importance of this theme to the foundation of democracy, every subject within this project relates back to the idea of discipline, conformity, reform, and re-evaluation. It is a never-ending struggle for people to "be normal," reevaluate what normal is, and then make changes or adjustments to remain "productive and useful citizens."