Chapter 19 The Reproduction of Femininity

Bordo starts off by saying that our bodies are “a medium of culture.” What I took from this, and from the rest of the passage, is that our bodies are used to teach culture and to transfer cultural beliefs. Our bodies are just another place for the messages of society to be represented. This reminded me of symbolic interaction. I thought of how young girls learn to act the way they do and if their biggest influence is their mother and how she represents her body a little girl will do the same thing, such as playing with mommy’s make up or putting on mommy’s high heels.

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The Body as a text of femininity
In this part of the chapter Bordo talks about disorders and the reason that they come about is to portray the story of the women. This part of the chapter made a lot of sense to me because Bordo talks about anorexia and how it’s the woman’s way of filling the role that society shows her to be her correct role. Women develop this disorder to stay slim because that’s what they feel that society has labeled them as needing to be. She gave another reason for anorexia which I had never considered before. She writes that anorexia is a woman’s way of showing the male characteristics that are liked. She writes “Self control, determination, cool, emotional discipline, mastery” and “The anorexic pursues these virtues with single minded, unswerving dedication.” Showing that women are trying to live up to the characteristics that make men have the power. Women using anorexia as a way to gain power? Women are using their bodies as a message or as a social text. The woman is saying “So culture wants us to be ultra slender well I’ve got that message covered, I’ll starve and show them that I can fill the role of a woman and have the discipline of a man.” Sadly it’s a way for the woman to feel like she has some power in a society that grants her very little.
Protest and Retreat in the same gesture
What I got from this section is that by obtaining the disorder a woman is also protesting what that disorder stands for. The best way I understood it was through the example of anorexia again. So a woman becomes anorexic to fit the socially shown role of the skinny woman. In one way she is trying to fit her role but in another the toll it takes on her body is a protest in itself. Bordo writes that the anorexic is not consciously protesting but the way that her body disintegrates is the message of protest. This is the role you want women to fill and yet it’s killing them. Bordo also explains fits of hysteria that would cause a woman to become silent. So the woman develops this hysteria in an effort to fit some norm and as her body “retreats” or becomes weak she loses her voice and becomes exactly what society wants and that’s a silent submissive woman. I was confused on why hysteria would be a protest? I don’t understand that example but the anorexia one made more sense. A woman tries to take control of her body but ends up destroying it making her weak. What does society want again, oh yeah weaker women.
Collusion, Resistance, and the body
The main message that Bordo sends here is that women use their bodies and the disorders as a way to gain power. Being anorexic is like a power trip. The woman feels like she has complete power and also feels safe from the dangers of the female world once she starts to take on the male body. Being anorexic is a way to enter the sphere of men, or at least that’s how they feel. However, it takes its toll and instead of the original feminist meaning behind the disorder where the woman was just looking for a way to gain power in a male dominated world, the disorder ultimately destroys the woman.
Textuality, praxis, and the body
“Body as a machine” I think that this is the best quote that summarizes this section. Bordo talks about women’s body praxis and the fact that woman have been shown what their body type should be throughout the decades but the means in which they achieve this body form is dangerous, for example corsets. Such attention to the body that was brought on by these praxis were what made femininity develop. I thought that this is what she meant by textuality, that the measures that were being taken were the message that was being sent and made feminist step up and take notice. However the problem with femininity and “having it all” is that it develops these disorders. I thought that this section was a little more confusing like she was explaining the cause and effect in circles. So the ideal woman in society is shown, “feminine praxis was required”, and then that is the textuality of the body (as in sending a message), which results in feminist attention, but then the feminist want it all which only reverts back to means of getting it all, the power, the perfect body, and respect. How do we get these things we’ll revert back to the praxis. A vicious circle, does that make sense? She then tries to wrap it up by saying that taking care of your body for your body’s health sake is good and that it should be done but often we take care of our body so that it can form it’s docile role instead of taking care of our body as a way to resist the gender domination that society puts on it.