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 =)

Broad-ly Speaking

The 1979 film “10” is a romcom that epitomizes unbridled hedonism. In the film it appears that the sole purpose of the characters lives is the “pursuit of happiness”. It seems that in their eyes happiness is synonymous with personal gratification. Though I found the film extremely raunchy a specific scene between George and his significant other Samantha (Sam) caught my attention. As Sam and George are settling down for the night they get into an argument about George’s use of the term “broad”. Sam immediately becomes defensive and assails George claiming that he is using an extremely derogatory term for women and is implying that all women are nothing more than chattel. George becomes defensive exclaiming that in his opinion ‘broad’ is simply another way of saying ‘woman’, he claims that he is not using the word in a derogatory way and that Sam is simply attaching a derogatory connotation to the word. The altercation continues until George looks up the term in a dictionary and discovers that it is in fact a slang word used to convey a derogatory attitude towards women. Sam is smug that she has proven her point and tells George that in addition to being a “male chauvinist pig” he is gutless because he “refuses to take it and lose like a man”. Though spoken in a bantering sort of way George replies that he wouldn’t mind losing like a man if Sam did not insist on winning like a man. This brings up how value ladened our language is, even though we don’t always realize it. Language is like a loaded gun that we tote around unaware of its potential to inflict harm. What exactly does George mean when he tells Sam that her domineering attitude is unfeminine? Is he implying that women are supposed to be passive and that in carrying on in her altercation she is being unwomanly? What exactly does in mean then to be a “man” or a “woman”? This is a question covered extensively in Barkers anthology of cultural study. The question of identity and it’s implications is an extensive field of study. In this field language is a significant player. Language is the means through which we attempt to create our identity and at the most basic level attempt to let others know who we are as well. Therefore when George tells Sam that she is insisting on being a man he is attacking her verbally by questioning her gender. To theorist Stuart Hall this scene would be a clear example of how “we are formed as sexed subjects in the context of gendered families. Thus what it is to be a person cannot be universal or unified since, at the very least, identity is marked by sexual difference.” (224). Essentially Hall is postulating that the reason we use such gendered language when communicating is because this sexed code has been inculcated in us from childhood. Rather than being human we are categorized as “man” or “woman” “boy” or “girl”. Barker explores poststructualism and feminism and states that these movements argue “that sex and gender are social cultural constructions that are not reducible to biology…where femininity and masculinity are not essential universal and eternal categories; rather they are understood to be discursive constructions”. (224). Hall would concur that sex and gender are socially constructed institutions that creep up in our daily lives and most definitely manifest themselves in the way we speak.

funnypictures.net.au

Barker, Chris. Cultural Studies, Theory& Practice. California: SAGE Publications Inc. 2008. Print

Images of Women in the Media

In class we have been watching scenes from The Graduate. One of the scenes that stuck out to me was when Mrs. Robinson confronts Ben in his car when he comes to pick up Elaine for a date. Soaking wet she gets into the car and commands him to keep driving. For once Ben stands up for himself and tells her that he and Elaine are going out and there’s nothing Mrs. Robinson can do. With a loathing look that could melt the flesh off of someone’s face Mrs. Robinson orders Ben to “Do exactly as I say!!”. Ben acquiesces and continues driving, Mrs. Robinson makes it clear that she doesn’t want Ben to come near Elaine ever again. It seems that Mrs. Robinson won’t be content until everyone is as miserable as she is. By allowing herself to become attached to Ben she became vulnerable. After Ben jilted her because of his “love” for Elaine she realized that  once again she was left alone, and if she could not have what she wanted then no one else could either. She threatens Ben that if he doesn’t obey she will tell Elaine everything. Ben disbelieves that she would do such a thing and Mrs. Robinson dares him to defy her. Ben dashes out of the car (all the training on the track field really starts to pay off) and Mrs. Robinson unused to opening her own door stays fumbling with the locked door. Ben beats Mrs. Robinson home and dashes up the stairs into and blurts out the truth to the unsuspecting Elaine. A hysterical Elaine forces Ben out of her room and shuts the door. What I found interesting about the way the scene was shot was the fact that Elaine’s room is decorated in white and the walls in the hallway are a glaring white as well. As Mrs. Robinson slumps against the wall dejectedly watching the scene, her black robe is starkly contrasted with the purity of the white hallway. This scene is highly symbolic and uses white (Elaine) to represent the “good and pure” and the black (Mrs. Robinson) to portray the “perverse and tainted”. Analyzing this scene from our classes viewpoint I drew a connection between this scene and Diana Meehan’s theory about the images of women. In his book on cultural studies Barker introduces theorist Diana Meehan introduces the way that women are portrayed on US television. Meehan postulates that women are portrayed in several different images and suggests that “representations on television cast ‘good’ women as submissive, sensitive and domesticated while ‘bad' women are rebellious, independent and selfish.” (307). In this scene it is very clear how Elaine stands to represent all that which is pure and desirable in a women. Mrs. Robinson on the other hand is obviously the bad women who is to be avoided at all costs. Though I too was repulsed by Mrs. Robinson’s character I found it interesting that my reaction was exactly what the makers of the film expected of me. Unbeknownst to me this scene served to reinforce a certain ideology of what makes one woman “good” and another  “bad”.

Barker, Chris. Cultural Studies, Theory& Practice. California: SAGE Publications Inc. 2008. Print

The Graduate in Cougartown

Today we watched scenes from the 1967 film "The Graduate". As we watched the film I could not help but feel repulsed by Mrs. Robinson’s character yet felt sorry for the bumbling Benjamin. At the party that his parents throw him following his graduation he is constantly smothered by people barraging him with questions about his future. It seems that no one sees who he really is and the only way that they relate to him is through his accomplishments. He is addressed as “the athlete”, “the graduate” and his mother rattles of his many accomplishments from his yearbook. Try as he might he cannot have an actual conversation with his father or anyone else for that matter. Everyone seems more interested in telling him what he should do with his life and what he should be. Through Barkers perspective Benjamin is the prime example of the Sociological subject. Benjamin is being molded left and right by the people around him and he’s being shaped into the person that everyone thinks he should be. As one of the older men at his party told him, he had just one word for Ben, “PLASTIC”. Like pliable plastic Ben is being handled and shaped into something he isn’t even sure he wants.

Then along comes Mrs. Robinson with her domineering and seductive ways. Like an innocent puppy Ben falls into her trap and is so easily manipulated it’s pitiful. Mrs. Robinson joins the crowd in telling Ben what it is he wants and despite repeating several times “I’d rather not, I’d rather not” he does what he’s commanded anyhow. During the scene when Ben and Mrs. Robinson are having drinks in Mrs. Robinson home and Ben apologizes for accusing Mrs. Robinson of seducing him, we get an interesting look at who Mrs. Robinson is. Despite being an extremely manipulative person she seems hungry for attention and control. It almost seems that she is trying to relive her youth and envies her daughter Elaine who has what she can never regain.  After Ben’s apology she changes the subject by asking if he would like to see Elaine’s portrait he replies “Very much so”.  Granted it may just have been part of Mrs. Robinson’s ploy to get Ben upstairs but by using Elaine’s room to do her dirty work it appears that she is trying to channel Elaine’s youth. Knowing the movies background one could argue the Mrs. Robinson is this way not by choice but because she has been forced into this position by society. She has been denied the opportunity to pursue the things she felt fulfilled her. She felt forced to take a path she regretted and therefore chose to assert herself and follow her every whim.

The scene that I found most interesting was on Ben’s 21^st birthday when his parents parade him around in the new scuba gear that they bought him. Reluctantly Ben goes outside to the pool and despite trying to get his father to talk to him. His father is more interested in letting everyone see the expensive scuba suit that he purchased rather than listening to his son’s concerns. His Father rants on and on about how Ben is leaving boyhood behind and is taking his first step into manhood. As Ben steps out, he sees everyone through a mask. This scene is very symbolic in the sense that his first step into manhood is done while wearing a mask. It seems that the lesson his father is teaching him is that to be a man you must wear a mask and be the person that everyone else expects you to be. Ben puts on the mask to please everyone else and as he dives in the water his father keeps pushing him down while smiling. As Ben is submerged in the pool it symbolizes how he feels overwhelmed and smothered under the overbearing expectations of society. Like Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Ben is learning that the only way to be a man in his society is to learn the art of mendacity.



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Mendacity



Romance at Starbucks

Jenny Leyva
English 313
Professor Wexler
20 September 2010

Romance at Starbucks

When the word “romance” is uttered it conjures up a different mental picture for each individual. Some see candle lit dinners and long walks on the beach others see heart break and deception. Some may claim that they “see” nothing because romance is non-existent. The majority of us though, walk around with preconceived notions about romance, and the meanings we attribute to it are often quite clichéd. But, what exactly is romance? Is there any way for us to put “romance” in a petri dish for analysis? This weekend I sat at a local Starbucks attempting to do just that. Like a Sasquatch enthusiast I was on the hunt for this elusive idea of “romance”. I focused on identifying romance/love and its manifestations in the relationships of those who walked through the door.

Like a professional amateur I studied people as they interacted with one another and among the numerous individuals there one particular case caught my attention. I focused on a woman in her late forties and her friend of about the same age sitting at the table next to me. They appeared to be close friends and the first (who we will call Mrs. X) was relating the conflicts of her married life to her friend. As the Mrs. X began talking, her relationship with her husband Sam seemed normative enough. Mrs. X discussed how Sam was supportive and did his part around the house. She discussed how he avoided conflicts as much as possible and described him by saying “My husband deals with the unpleasantness of life with brainless activity, he plays video games or buys new properties to restore them and stay busy”. Sam seems like the passive husband and as she described him I couldn’t help but think about Bricks character in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The way that Brick deals with the unpleasantness in his life is by dousing it in alcohol in an attempt to numb it. As I would learn later, rather than turning to alcohol Sam turned to nicotine as his method of dealing with the preoccupations that filled his mind.

As Mrs. X continued to talk about her husband the one thing that struck me as non-normative in their relationship was the reversal of the gender roles still widely held by society. Sam is a stay at home Dad and she is the one who goes to work. She went into detail telling her friend how every day she comes home and dinner is on the table, the dishes are all done and how she can’t even remember the last time she went grocery shopping. A bit exasperated she tells her friend how “This was the kind of help I needed when the kids were young, you know…He smokes a lot now”. Throughout this discourse I sensed a disconnect between Sam and his wife and learned that the disconnect had to do with their prodigal drug addicted son Danny. She described this rift as the biggest problem in their household, yet it was something that Sam refused to acknowledge and address. She was frustrated by Sam’s inaction but resorted to telling her friend about this rather than him.

As I listened I began to wonder, if her relationship with her husband is so unsatisfactory why does she remain bound to him? What is holding her in that relationship, could it be love? Simone de Beauvoir would argue that the reason these two remain bound has more to do with biology rather than a four-letter word. In her book The Second Sex Beauvoir explores how women are bound to men in a master/slave relationship. Though women remain oppressed under this relationship they fail to break the yoke because they have not realized that they are just as important as men. Just as the master is nothing without the slave the man is nothing without the woman. The reason that women cannot completely sever themselves from men is because without both parts of the equation there cannot be procreation. Beauvoir describes this dilemma by stating

“..the woman cannot even dream of exterminating the males. The bond that unites her to her oppressors is not comparable to any other. The division of the sexes is a biological facet, not an event in history. 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. Here is to be found the basic trait of woman: she is the Other in a totality of which the two components are necessary to one another.” (Beauvoir, 1949).

Therefore the reason that Sam and his Wife are still together is not because they are in love with one another and any notions of romance go out the window. The reason that Sam and Mrs. X are still together is because of their children. The product of their biological connection is what unifies them and perpetuates this master/slave relationship. Looking at this vicious cycle one has to wonder who is being served by this relationship and how it is that it continues? As we discussed the article “The politics of culture” we came to the conclusion that culture easily becomes a means of domination. Looking at the story of Mrs. X and Sam I saw the same culture of the “happy housewife” that Anne Archer represented in the film Fatal Attraction. Though I heard no complaints of infidelity Mrs. X remains bound in a marriage in which she feels unfulfilled yet does nothing about it for fear of what others will think. Bent on keeping up appearances she chooses keep up the charade that serves the powers that be.

Works Cited

Williams, Tennessee. Cat on a Hot tin Roof. New York: James Laughlin, 1995. Print

Rivkin, Julie and Ryan Michael. Literary Theory: An Anthology. Malden: Blackwell, 1998.

de Beauvoir, Simone. The Second Sex. France: 1949.



thesunblog.com

Observations
Starbucks: Van Nuys 12:11pm

Two women talking @ table next to me about letter from long lost relative:

“Answer to every troubled man is his woman”
“My husband deals with the unpleasantness of life with brainless activity, he plays video games or buys new properties to restore them and stay busy
she comes home and dinner is on the table, the dishes are all done and how she can’t even remember the last time she went grocery shopping
“This was the kind of help I needed when the kids were young, you know…He smokes a lot now”.
My frustration has little to do with his inaction my frustration and the biggest problem in our household is Danny
Danny has “amputated” himself from family, swore they would never see him again and kept his word
Mrs. X claim that only regret in life is how she and Sam put son out
Couple walks in interracial

Couple walks in smiling wearing working out clothes

no wedding rings., woman significantly younger man graying hair
Woman’s daughter about 7 or 8 yrs old
Completely absorbed with each other, man stroking her hair as daughter vies for mothers attention, mother indifferent to daughter
Married couple
walk in with young daughter abt 2 or 3 sit at separate couches in own world, Father absorbed taking care of daughter

Another couple
young woman and older looking man:
Woman attempting to keep his attention, leaning forward showing him pictures
He appears distant, uninterested ready to go
No wedding rings

Group of three:
Two are a couple and third is friend
The couple sit @ table together he has laptop out and she’s absorbed in cell phone