Here is the prompt:
The objective of this work is to construct realities about how young American women build worlds of their own from an obsession with body image and societal pressures in an effort to maintain a cultural standard of body image. This work makes references to female culture and how prettiness is embedded in material things that women use and have used as developing children. For instance, jewelry boxes open to reveal a pretty ballerina dancing gracefully. Often there is angelic-like music playing in synch to the ballerina’s movement. A fantasyland is created every time the box is opened, transplanting the woman into a psychological world consumed by artificiality. I am interested in how these milestones in female culture became established, who invented them and how they have survived through generations of women. I am also interested in how this in-your-face prettiness has affected women’s self esteem, subconscious thoughts and daily behaviors. Furthermore, why do most young women like to feel pretty? Is this general attitude rooted in the nature of womanhood, or has society influenced women so heavily through media, material consumption, and gender roles that are placed on developing girls to the extent that these ideals have become embedded in how women think and perceive?
And here is what I spit out:
Wow, ok i can give you a little on that, cause im kind of short for time and with the time change i dont even know if this is going to reach you.
but living here and seeing women in this culture and also seeing them in india, beauty has totally moved in a different direction for me. i see women here do almost anything for mens approval, its a social thing, cause i have and havent seen that in india and the states, europe too. Here, within the context of machismo women are placed below men in relation to power and are consistently looking for men to support, affirm, or validate their existence. Just being a man here gives me more visible power than i recieve from being a man in the states. Nicaraguan women come close to falling all over me. I sit strongly in the cultural social camp on this. I have seen different cultures do different things to different babies, how could the same baby speak a different language just by being born in a different place? If culture can shape how we express our thoughts, culture can shape how we choose to display ourselves and how we choose to act in society. What interests me as a question is whether we choose these roles? Or these gender roles and stereotypes are forced upon us?
How is the image of women and how women see themselves in comparison to men or under the scrutiny of beauty affected by people who are begining to actively cut into deep rooted gender roles and create different possibilites of existence?
American women, wow. I feel both knowledgable and stupid about the subject. I feel out of context too and think because of that its going to be hard for me to say anything.
The question I like best though is: Why do young women or people like to feel pretty? Because it feels good to be acknowledged by someone else, to have our existence and our appearance approved by someone else. Lacking community in the states, some parts of the states depending on race, class, and gender, we lack the support of other people in our daily existence, we have no one to tell us that we are looking goof, would be a good father, or that someone would be lucky to date us or marry us. I think that while those statements reinforce gender roles which are problematic, those statements also calm and soothe a battered American psyche and are much needed, I like to be told that im pretty because it makes me feel less alone in the world. I also believe that not just young women like to feel or be told that they are pretty.
Talking about the nature of anything is challenging as having an objective base to refer to or start from is often impossible. Again, different societies produce different results in people and places, depending, so I believe that it is society that shapes and reinforces these roles. You can see in the states how that changes and drifts as our culture does the same, you can also see the same in europe. But in more traditional cultures, by traditional i mean less affected by globalization and external ideas, you can see that the ideas of womanhood and manhood are static, that they are not really changing so much and that to me, indicates that ideas of identity are handed down generation by generation through societally enforced gender images and roles.
Growing up in a heavily gendered society, as we have, though less and less as time goes by, shapes ones ability to think and percieve. I think perception and thinking are manifestions of culture. My perceptions and thought process has been constantly changing as i explore and learn about new cultures. I think that no matter the environment we would grow up in our thoughts and perceptions would be shaped by that place and that setting.
I dont have the time, but i love this question and will think about it all day: I am also interested in how this in-your-face prettiness has affected women's self esteem, subconscious thoughts and daily behaviors.
The objective of this work is to construct realities about how young American women build worlds of their own from an obsession with body image and societal pressures in an effort to maintain a cultural standard of body image. This work makes references to female culture and how prettiness is embedded in material things that women use and have used as developing children. For instance, jewelry boxes open to reveal a pretty ballerina dancing gracefully. Often there is angelic-like music playing in synch to the ballerina’s movement. A fantasyland is created every time the box is opened, transplanting the woman into a psychological world consumed by artificiality. I am interested in how these milestones in female culture became established, who invented them and how they have survived through generations of women. I am also interested in how this in-your-face prettiness has affected women’s self esteem, subconscious thoughts and daily behaviors. Furthermore, why do most young women like to feel pretty? Is this general attitude rooted in the nature of womanhood, or has society influenced women so heavily through media, material consumption, and gender roles that are placed on developing girls to the extent that these ideals have become embedded in how women think and perceive?
And here is what I spit out:
Wow, ok i can give you a little on that, cause im kind of short for time and with the time change i dont even know if this is going to reach you.
but living here and seeing women in this culture and also seeing them in india, beauty has totally moved in a different direction for me. i see women here do almost anything for mens approval, its a social thing, cause i have and havent seen that in india and the states, europe too. Here, within the context of machismo women are placed below men in relation to power and are consistently looking for men to support, affirm, or validate their existence. Just being a man here gives me more visible power than i recieve from being a man in the states. Nicaraguan women come close to falling all over me. I sit strongly in the cultural social camp on this. I have seen different cultures do different things to different babies, how could the same baby speak a different language just by being born in a different place? If culture can shape how we express our thoughts, culture can shape how we choose to display ourselves and how we choose to act in society. What interests me as a question is whether we choose these roles? Or these gender roles and stereotypes are forced upon us?
How is the image of women and how women see themselves in comparison to men or under the scrutiny of beauty affected by people who are begining to actively cut into deep rooted gender roles and create different possibilites of existence?
American women, wow. I feel both knowledgable and stupid about the subject. I feel out of context too and think because of that its going to be hard for me to say anything.
The question I like best though is: Why do young women or people like to feel pretty? Because it feels good to be acknowledged by someone else, to have our existence and our appearance approved by someone else. Lacking community in the states, some parts of the states depending on race, class, and gender, we lack the support of other people in our daily existence, we have no one to tell us that we are looking goof, would be a good father, or that someone would be lucky to date us or marry us. I think that while those statements reinforce gender roles which are problematic, those statements also calm and soothe a battered American psyche and are much needed, I like to be told that im pretty because it makes me feel less alone in the world. I also believe that not just young women like to feel or be told that they are pretty.
Talking about the nature of anything is challenging as having an objective base to refer to or start from is often impossible. Again, different societies produce different results in people and places, depending, so I believe that it is society that shapes and reinforces these roles. You can see in the states how that changes and drifts as our culture does the same, you can also see the same in europe. But in more traditional cultures, by traditional i mean less affected by globalization and external ideas, you can see that the ideas of womanhood and manhood are static, that they are not really changing so much and that to me, indicates that ideas of identity are handed down generation by generation through societally enforced gender images and roles.
Growing up in a heavily gendered society, as we have, though less and less as time goes by, shapes ones ability to think and percieve. I think perception and thinking are manifestions of culture. My perceptions and thought process has been constantly changing as i explore and learn about new cultures. I think that no matter the environment we would grow up in our thoughts and perceptions would be shaped by that place and that setting.
I dont have the time, but i love this question and will think about it all day: I am also interested in how this in-your-face prettiness has affected women's self esteem, subconscious thoughts and daily behaviors.
2 Comments:
white people need to unthink their privilege as a loss. Own up. Keep it uncomfortable.
Oh yeah - in response to my own shortness - and privilege comes in many shapes and sizes - so even though white supremacist capitalist patriarchy is what we are challenging - it is never the only form of oppression.
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