The Ugly side of Beauty

Todays class discussion was very interesting and we discussed an industry that is rather lucrative in the United States. As most of our manufacturing jobs have been outsourced it has become necessary for us to breed some sort of economy within our borders. We have become a nation of consumers and the things we offer the world are our service economy, knowledge economy and beauty industry. Susan Bordo explores a subject that makes for interesting discussion. Essentially she analyzes how in our western society "the pursuit of beauty" has become a "normalizing discipline". The concept of beauty is an elusive one, like big foot many people pursue it thinking they have an idea of what it looks like but in reality not knowing exactly what it is. Bordo explores how in the west the "beauty industry" is anything but beautiful.



www.ehow.com/how_4530933_identify-body-dysmor...

It appears that the main objective of this industry is to breed discontent and insecurity amongst women. I mean how else are you going to create a market for the infinite amounts of products in existence today? Our society has become enamored with the idea that we can recreate ourselves into a sleeker better version. We are bombarded with simulacra that screams at us "You should not be content with how you look, what's wrong with you? This right here is what you should be striving for!" We are pushed on the quest to obtain the "perfect body" at whatever costs and yet it is done so effectively that we do not even know we are being pigeon holed into this vicious cycle. In all reality we believe that we are freely making the choices before us. If someone wants to go under the knife to rearrange thier face it's thier perogative to do so and if you have a problem with that then well, it's none of your business anyway. Bordo points out the irony of a culture that is fed this overwhelming desire to "fix" themselves and achieve perfection and yet we do it so blindly and willingly. We think we have more freedom then ever and can assert that freedom over our own bodies by nipping and tucking and pursuing our perfect body. When in reality that pursuit and that perfect body are being dictated to us constantly. As Bordo phrases it "We are surrounded by homogenizing and normalizing images- images whose content is far from arbitrary, but instead suffused with the dominace of gendered, racial, class, and other cultural iconography". Bordo drives home the point that we have become so inured to the messages that we are constatnly bombarded witht that we actually believe with great conviction that the choices we make to look a certain way and follow a certain trend are not pushed upon us but self inflicted. Those in the beauty industry do not have to convince us that we are not good enough the way we were born the have already succeded in internalizing that within us. All they have to do is show us the solution, that one product that will take us to the cusp of perfection (or close enough anyway) and we're sold. The ugly truth is that the beauty industry is one that perpetuates and inculcates a dissatisfaction with ones bodily image and as a consumerist nation we buy into it hook, line and sinker. The fact that there is a "booming" industry that encourages and profits off of people's insecurities is utterly repulsive and infuriating!

Body Dismorhpia is an illness perpetuated by our "plastic" society

 www.ehow.com/how_4531197_treat-body-dysmorphi...



 

What is Body Dysmorphic Disorder? "BDD is “vastly underrecognized and vastly underdiagnosed,” stresses Dr. Phillips. The DSM-IV defines BDD as a preoccupation (not better accounted for by another mental disorder) with an imagined or slight defect in appearance causing clinically significant distress or impairment in functioning (often social and occupational)." quoted from

www.psychweekly.com/



Bordo, Susan. Material Girl: The Effacements of Postmodern Culture.

"Our Disciplines Discipline us"

The title of this weeks blog is a phrase spoken by our Professor some time ago while discussing Michel Foucoults' "System of Objects". We discussed how as humans we create various disciplines such as psychology, biology, and an infinite list of -ology's in order to maintain order in society. We use these disciplines to categorize one another as normative and non-normative. It ties into Sir Francis Bacons' theory that "Knowledge is Power" except in a more sinister way. Those who realize that knowledge is power have created and perpetuated these disciplines to have that power over everyone else by establishing the norms that society must adhere to. These discourses are employed to maintian order and with them we monitor each other through power relations because we have been taught to internalize what is right and wrong (Professor Wexler). I noted this theme as we watched the documentary about the eccentric Slavoj Zizek. One of the quotes that stuck out the most was when he said "We feel free because we lack the very language to articulate our own unfreedom". I think this quote encapsulates Foulcouts argument that our ideologies and disciplines trap us in a mindset in  which we genuinely believe that we are free when in reality we are simply playing the game invented by those in power.

http://www.google.com/



Sula Group Project

Today in class our group did a presentation on the novel Sula by Toni Morrison. It was an interesting novel that lent itself to the analysis of binaries. After our initial group meeting we decided to meet again and the best means to do that turned out to be through a chat. We decided to focus on the binaries present in the novel and chose to analyze the relationships between:

1)     The Valley and the Bottom

2)     Nel and Sula

3)     The Traditional and Non-traditional gender roles in Medallion

4)     Medallion before and after Sula

Because there were eight of us in the group it worked out well and we paired off according to binaries. Ashly and I worked on the binary represented in Nel and Sula’s relationship. I came up with a few questions to pose to the class about their friendship. I was especially interested in the reason why Sula and Nel’s relationship fractured. From the very beginning Sula and Nel shared a relationship that was eerily close. They seemed to be one person but as they got older their relationship was no longer the same. One could say that Sula and Nel shared a solidarity as women, but when Nel “separated” herself from Sula by marrying Jude that solidarity was broken. I looked at this question through Simon de Beauvoir’s point of view and saw how the institution of marriage and the ideologies of monogamy were what led to the fracture of Nel and Sula’s relationship. As Simon de Beauvoir stated the reason that Nel and Sula no longer share that unity as women is because ““The bond that unites (women) to her oppressors is not comparable to any other. Male and female stand opposed within a primordial Mitsein and woman has not broken it. The couple is a fundamental unity with its two halves riveted together, and the cleavage of society along the line of sex is impossible.” (The Second Sex). The reason that Nel and Sula can no longer enjoy their solidarity as women is because Nel is biologically linked to Jude through their children. After Jude leaves her she mourns the loss because to her Jude was the one who knew her. I did write a few more questions in case my initial question didn’t work out among them were:

Question: According Beauvoir men define women in relation to themselves and in their eyes women are just sexual beings. If this is the case then why is there such a difference between the way the community sees Nel and Sula?

Question: Nel’s identity is wrapped up in being a wife she and Jude are “one” using this quote how does Sula define herself? How does this make her radical?  Is she anti essentialist? (Barker 217)

Overall I think our group worked very well together and everyone put in an effort to make it work ou,t and in the end it did =)