Culture of Femininity

Jennifer Burton

Geog 101

3/16/2021

Response #6

Culture on femininity

In the article “The Body and the Reproduction of Femininity,” Susan Bordo suggests that today part of our culture is seen through our bodies in what we eat, how we dress, and daily things we do to our bodies to be acceptable in society. Men are not usually thought to struggle with self image, they are generally satisfied with their appearance. Women, on the other hand, are found to asses themselves in a negative light, often feeling they constantly have to improve themselves to be acceptable to others.  As a result of this trend, many women over diet, try to have perfect hair and make up, and often worry about their fashion and dress. The media can be a factor in this problem; it has often portrayed women as sexual beings that are weak, helpless, skinny, always beautiful, and always flawless in everyway. Bordo, in her article, suggested a couple ways women have fought back over time to feel they have some control over this sexualized culture.  They have done so through agoraphobia, anorexia, and striving to be masculine.

Agoraphobia is a fear of places and situations that might cause panic, helplessness, and embarrassment. Bordo suggests that agoraphobia started to escalate in the 1950 and 1960’s when women felt they had to live domestic lives. Women were taught that they were helpless without a man. Their lives revolved around cleaning, sex, and babies. Women felt they needed to look perfect to be attractive to men so they could have the life that the world’s culture taught them they were expected to live.  Agoraphobia according to Bordo is a response to this culture.

Anorexia is when a person stops eating. Bordo feels that anorexia started when women felt their purpose was to care for others and never for themselves, because culture said if they cared for themselves they were selfish. Women had to contain their hunger to serve others. Many women start off dieting, and then take it a step farther, and then farther until they were no longer eating. The women is triumphing over a need; they are exerting willpower over their physical body and over how others feel about them. Bordo suggests that anorexia is a hunger strike against our cultural expectations, a strike for power over one’s self. 

The ”New Man” is a new fashion showing women dressed in men's clothes.  This is done to show confidence but yet still in a sexualized way. Women are trying to fit in in a world run by men.  Some have come to the idea that to fit in they have to act like a man: cool, collected, and emotionally disciplined. The demonstrates that they need no one and are able to do things on their own.

Each attempt, in reality, does nothing more than isolate, weaken, and undermine women. The women doing these things no longer have control, their control is superficial.  Many of the world’s cultures have put women in a place where they feel unrespected and mistreated. Women continue to try to be seen and heard. The right way to do this is still being discovered and for each individual it may look very different.  There is no one right way to to break free from cultural limitations.