As I was reading The Body and the Reproduction of Femininity, a statement that Susan Bordo made really made me think. On page 171 of the text, she said that our culture has created an expectation for women to control their hunger and strive to be so small that they take up less space. When she referred to female hunger she meant more than just a hunger for food. She said our culture wants women to control their appetite for power and a chance to make it on their own. As I read this, I thought of a country song that I just heard called “Love Me for Me” by Bomshel.
“I lose my keys and I'm constantly late
I'm comfortable a couple pounds overweight
I'm gunna eat when I’m out on a date
Cause that’s just who I am
I’m gunna live my life out loud
Sing the truth let it lay right out there
For the whole wide world to see
Then you’re going to love me
Then you’re going to love me for me”
The reason I thought of this song is that I thought it was so ironic that the singer thought that it was necessary to say, “Hey I eat when I go on dates. I am okay with being two pounds overweight, so, by gosh, you better love me for me.” The singer is saying, she is not a typical female. She doesn’t need to be stick thin to get the man because she is going to be herself no matter what.
Since I am a competitive runner, I see thin girls all of the time. The girls who are the thinnest seem to always be the best and most competitive. When you go to the races and see the attention all of these girls get, it makes it hard to not want to receive that notoriety as well. Our society is the same way, the thinner a girl is, the more she is accepted. Every young girl wants to be accepted by the society that surrounds her, just as much as every young runner wants to be the fastest on the track.
I think that it is so sad that our society has put such a strong emphasis on being thin that being “a couple pounds overweight” is taking a chance that someone might not “love me for me.” We live in a culture that constantly puts pressure on girls to attain these unrealistic body shapes in order to be loved and valued. I agree with Bordo. In the culture we live in, the more we as females control our hunger, the less space we will take up, and the more we will be loved.
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I'll start off by saying, that I love Bomshel! But I also agree with everything you state here. I twirled baton for about 16 years, and am still pretty active. Many aspects of our media and our culture impact the way we view ourselves, and the 'standard'. I think one of the most important things is being involved in a sport, or some sort of physical activity. This, in my opinion is important to being healthy and happy. Being healthy is more important than being 'in shape' or skinny, but the two go together. I think that in your running, or my baton twirling - that urge or need to be the best is what helps us stay in shape, because we work hard to be good at what we do. That should be the emphasis of our society - not to be stick thin.
ReplyDeleteI really like the song lyrics that you used in your blog. I think what really stuck out to me was not the fact that she is saying she isn't like every other girl who cares about their weight, but it was the fact that she said its okay if she is "a couple pounds" overweight. I don't know many people who are only one or two pounds more than what the doctors tell them they should be for their height. Although i think the message this artist was trying to send had good intentions, I also think that its still very limiting.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with both of you girls that being in a certain sport or activity can really put more pressure on someone to stay thin. I was a dancer for 16 years and being only 5 feet tall, it is hard for my short body to look skinny. I constantly compared myself to the other dancers and although I was great at what I did, a lot of that confidence dropped in myself because of how I looked in the costumes. The funny part was, when I was on stage doing a solo was when I felt the prettiest and most talented. When I was in a group on stage, I felt like i was competing for the audiences attention. I knew that I had worked hard and had the moves down as well as the personality and energy. But were people in the audience looking at other girls who might not had those things because they looked better than me? Comparison is the biggest evil here.
From a males perspective, I can see how women would almost obsess over being extremely skinny and having the "perfect body". Society as a whole puts this pressure on women right from childhood, whether it be a barbie doll, or children's clothing line models. When I read the lyric about how the girl was going to eat what she wanted to on a date, it struck me and made me remember how the first date with a girl is often vastly different from the 3rd or 4th. From my view point I understand that no one is perfect and the majority of women do not have that "perfect" body we see on billboards, but as a guy I would rather have a girl act like a human being and enjoy herself then be so concerned with society's idea of how she should look. Its too bad that this is what we have let our society come to. I feel that the comment Bordo makes, is harsh, and depicts a very unforgiving thought of how society as a whole acts and thinks, however is sadly true.
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