Due: 1/28/11
Option One: Analysis
Body Projects (Brumberg)
In Body Projects, Brumberg writes from an etic point of view, as an adult, about how the opportunities for self-scrutiny have become more and more frequent for young girls in the past century. From marketing to movies to mirrors, girls' self-esteem has reached an all-time low and self-consciousness has reached an all-time high. In her book, Brumberg writes about how girls' "body projects" have changed from corsets to exercise and aerobics. Girls have gone from external controls to internal controls when it comes to controlling body image. It is surprising how in such a relatively short time that girls' images of self and beauty have changed so dramatically. In the Victorian ages, a curvy body was considered the most desirable. Once the 1920s hit and flappers took their place on the stage, a small, slender body with small breasts became the new norm. Fast-forward into the 1990s and we have girls' attentions fixated on not only overall body weight, but on the aesthetics of specific body parts, down to "buns of steel" or "toned triceps."
Even though America may be seen as a single culture, within society there are cultures within cultures, or subcultures. Hollywood, the media, and any other type of society or culture that can easily extend its ideas to the masses has the upper hand. Stars on the big screen, icons in magazines, athletes on television set the standard for beauty in today's society. As was the case in the 1920s when flappers set the standard of beauty with bob haircuts and the aforementioned small, slender bodies and smaller breasts. Almost immediately, this was the look young girls in society desired. Girls wanted to look like the women who were at the center of society's attention. It is frightening to the think that the media, whether pixelated or in print, has such an influence on the lives of young girls. Brumberg also adopts an emic point of view and chronicles the lives of a few girls who diet in order to become slender when their actual weight is normal for their age and height. The girls' thoughts are consumed by their diets and every aspect of their life, it seems, is altered in some way to fit their desired goal of a thinner body and thus a happier self. Weight is often a topic of discussion among the young girls Brumberg writes about, and among girls today. As Brumberg demonstrates in her writing, and as we can often see today in each other, or even in ourselves, the broadcasted and published ideas of the "rich and famous" can colonize and swell amongst the credulous lives of the young and uncertain.
I do not believe that Brumberg is advocating for the strict ways of the Victorian ages, but is rather making us more aware of the changes that have taken place in the past century concerning girls' body images. She is bringing these issues to our attention so that we may talk about and figure out what it will take to ensure that American girls will have a safe and creative future. Ironically, this assignment has definitely given me something to ruminate on as I get ready to gear up for my third fitness run of this week: my own "body project."
• Culture: an invisible web of behaviors, patterns, rules, and rituals of a group of people who have contact with one another and share common languages
• Colonization: domination of one culture by the values of another
• Aesthetics: perceived artistic beauty, style, or good taste of something; can also refer more broadly to pleasing or artistically beautiful appearances of things
• Etic: relating to the perspective of an outsider to a culture
• Emic: relating to perspective of an insider in a culture
