Feminine Traditions
In our society women are often pressured and conditioned to conform
to
traditional feminine standards. In the past fifty or so years women have
begun
to find modes of resistance against these cultural constraints. In this
essay I
will cover Bartky’s essay " Skin Deep", she theorizes about
the"properly feminine subject", the definition of the body,
disciplinary
practices and how to resist. Bartky theorizes about the properly
feminine
subject by stating that it is to embody the proper feminine
qualities of
character and behaviors. According to Bartky the properly
feminine woman must be
sure to never appear sloppy or loose. The properly
feminine woman should also
allow herself to physically controlled by male
companions to a certain extent.
She must allow the man to lead her around
almost like a dog on a leash. Bartky
talks about the properly feminine body
and how every movement is to be done a
certain way in order to seem feminine.
It is like when a mother tells her
daughter "Don’t sit with your legs open,
its not lady-like". Bartky talks
about how the proper feminine body must
display itself within the proper
parameters of femininity. A woman must wear
clothing and make-up that display
her in a positive way. A woman should not
wear clothing or make-up that would
make her look sloppy, unkept or
masculine. This can be seen through out society
but especially in the sports
world. Women who compete in sports are often seen
as unlady-like or
non-feminine because they are active in a masculine dominated
realm of
society. Most sports are traditionally seen as outside the parameters
of
femininity. The idea of the properly feminine subject is an extreme
example
of femininity, yet it is the example that we use most in our society.
In order
to conform to these concepts a woman must train herself and her
body. Bartky
talks about how the proper feminine body requires training and
how our culture
implements certain disciplinary practices in order to do this
training. She
talks about dieting, make up and fashions. American culture
perpetuates these
practices through the mass media. One of the most powerful
disciplinary
practices for women in the United States is that of dieting.
"Dieting
disciplines the body’s hungers: appetite must be monitored at all
times and
governed by an iron will." ( Bartky 18) By dieting women are
disciplining
their bodies to only consume a certain amount of food. By doing
this women feel
they are becoming more like the image of the perfect
(properly feminine) woman.
Many women tend to over diet which leads to
anorexia and women who don’t diet
are scorned by society. Mass media
contributes to these ideas by using images of
predominantly thin unrealistic
women. After saturating the women audience with
images of super-thin starlets
, television networks then proceed to show hours
and hours of commercials and
infomercials on weight-loss, dieting and fitness
programs. Another
disciplinary practice that is perpetuated through the media is
that of skin
care and make-up. " A woman’s skin must be soft, supple,
hairless, and
smooth: ideally, it should betray no sign of wear, experience,
age, or deep
thought." ( pg 19 ) Images of proper skin care and make up can be
found more
in magazines than on T.V. This is because magazines can give you page
upon
page of "make-up tips" and "skin care strategies" that women should
follow in
order to conform to the properly feminine standard. The overwhelming
media
showcase of properly feminine subjects and disciplinary practices leads
to
women either conforming to these practices or resisting them. Bariky also
talks
about how and why women can and should resist these practices and
cultural
constructions of the female body. Bartky lists several reasons why
women should
resist these practices: 1) it is very costly and time consuming,
i.e women spend
hours and hours infatuated with their physical appearance
instead of spending
time working on their mental appearance 2) women are
persuaded that their bodies
are defective, i.e. images in mass media tend not
to reflect the average woman
leading the average woman to feel something is
wrong with her 3) they lead to
problems such as racism and class oppression,
i.e most of the women in these
media images are white so any woman of color
who sees this often feel inferior
and will try to conform 4) they lead to
women feeling alienated, i.e. women who
don’t conform to these beauty norms
often feel like outsiders or don’t fit
in with the rest 5) the construction
of this body is for the appreciation of
male outsiders as well as the woman’s
inner self, i.e. women do this to be
appreciated by men but often is more of
a beauty contest 6) the proper feminine
bodies postures and movements are
seen as subordinate to men, i.e. it leads to
women being seen as child-like
to men, who are then seen as superior. Bartky
stresses that many women are
becoming resisters to these practices of proper
femininity. Women
body-builders and athletes are resisters, women who take
self-defense classes
are resistors and lesbians are resisters. Any woman who
goes against the
properly feminine subject and its disciplinary practices is a
resistor. Women
athletes are definite resistors because sports especially
basketball have
been anti-women for so long that women’s basketball at the pro
level is a
slap in the face to masculinists. Anything having to do with heavy
athletic
participation is seen as a resistance to traditional cultural
norms.
Resistance eventually leads to cultural change. Bartky talks about
her vision
for the future of the body and a new radical configuration of this
body. She
talks about how the whole conventional idea of beauty will be
thrown by the
waste side, people will be able to experiment with their
appearance and pretty
much do whatever they want. She also says that the
gender and class system will
also be thrown out and it will lead to a society
in which one’s image is
freely chosen; true existentialism. In Bartky’s essay
"Skin Deep" she does
a very good job of analyzing the current situation of
women in our society in
particular women as part of the American culture. She
theorizes on "the
properly feminine subject", the definition of the body,
disciplinary practices
and how to resist. She also talks about a new society
in the future that would
be entirely free of class and gender systems and
would have none of the previous
society’s beauty standards. This sound’s like
a good idea but realistically
it would be almost impossible for our society
not to be able to classify and
categorize people through gender, class, race
etc.
Bibliography
"Skin Deep : Feminity as a Disciplinary Regime".
Daring to Be Good:
Essays in Feminist Ethico-Politics. Edited by Bat-Ami
Bar On and Ann Ferguson.
New York,NY : Routledge, 1998. pp.15-27.