WOMENST 1A03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Symbolic Power, Plastic Surgery, Clitoridectomy
25 Mar 2016
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Document Summary
Obsession with thinness leads to : reduced headspace for other (more important) pursuits. Cutting up/open (rather than an instrument of pleasure and enjoyment vis- -vis movement, food, sex) Women who take up space, are physical mature and confident are construed as bodies with excess flesh and thus also excess appetites: sensual enjoyment (food and sex) as the root cause for women. Overspilling their prescribed boundaries: this is portrayed as weakness, greed, and lack of self control. Ultimate goal: create insecurities within readers, instill belief that these problems can only be solved through consumption. Internalized fragmentation of the body into problem areas that require consumer products as solutions: limits range of normal choices, limits women"s public roles. Why pseudo liberation: because the cultural ideal of female beauty amounts to a taboo on the sexually mature woman. Capital made out of unconscious anxieties: clothing/fashion, diet industry is a big business, internalized norms women"s emotional destabilization.
