The Sociology of Female Body Image

[curiouscliche]

Disclaimer: This entry is focused almost entirely on the dynamics of heterosexual attraction. Obviously, it is important to examine attraction between all genders, but I’m focusing on the heterosexual attraction of men towards women for two reasons. First, heterosexuality is the only thing I can write about from personal experience. Second, the

Comments

[fucking_shut_up]

well, yes. It's also worth mentioning that Straightness comes from the same media hegemony.

[dialogue_mono]

haha that's a whole nother story

Vince man -- did I ever tell you about the other Vince I know? He's a 40-year-old fuzzy-bearded pot-smoking hippy whom we have affectionately dubbed the Garden gnome --

my question, I guess, is do men really internalize media images? I'm pretty much a 'size 10' and, well, I find that my sex life is just dandy so far as the hetro half of it goes.. personally, I think it's just as likely that straight men are wired to find certain characteristics attractive, especially from an evolutionary standpoint, as it is that men take their cues from outside sources. Certainly, some of your points make sense. Confidence is attractive, and straight women surely draw confidence both from sexual successes with men and from positive ego-stroking from outside sources like friends and social standards of beauty, and lose confidence with lack of sexual success, etc. But I question whether you can draw such strong, even causal relationships, from the media to women's confidence, to men's sexual success, to men's

[curiouscliche]

I think that’s a really good point; most men don’t internalize these images (I certainly don’t. P.S. You’re hot). At the same time, some do, and it seems like the number is growing. What pissed me off and made me write this was when I heard about some of the ridiculous responses to the new Dove ad campaign by some straight, white males from the Chicago Sun Times. http://www.msmusings.net/archives/2005/07/ive_mentioned_t.html... )

[dialogue_mono]

that's a well-written review of it all. I hadn't heard anything about it. Thanks for posting!

The other Vince is like you'd be if you went grey and got bitter about how little your government loves you. Or.. more bitter.

[johnwesley73]

I couldn't help but observe, almost as a corollary, that in communities of color where, ostensibly, exposure to hegemonic media images of women have less impact because so few (or, at least fewer) of them involve women of color--that there are quite a few women with big asses, big thighs--big everything--walking around with quite a bit of self-confidence.

[curiouscliche]

Awesome!

Also, you keep posting about something called "RC" on your lj. I was wondering what it is.

[johnwesley73]

RC would be a ripe subject for one of your Sociology papers. It stands for Reevaluation Co-counseling and for anyone walking in off the street it would appear to be a fairly harmless, inexpensive, way of getting a hand with emotional problems, picking up some coping skills and gaining self-confidence. It's detractors compare it to Scientology and in some ways it's almost easier to start there and say what's similar and what I think is different based on what I've read about Scientology (especially recently.) Both organizations were founded by fairly strong-willed, almost messianic, members of the Great Depression and WWII. In fact, RC detractors often assert that L. Ron Hubbard and Harvey Jackins (the founder of RC) were colleagues when they both young men. I haven't been able to verify that; Harvey's name doesn't come up on any of Scientology's official or quasi-official websites

[curiouscliche]

That's very helpful, but I was looking around, and I found this. http://www.freedomofmind.com/resourcecenter/groups/r/reevaluation/sexandrc.htm

wtf

Also, "runner's high" is caused by endorphins, and scientists are conflicted about whether their release is due to physical exertion or merely feelings of accomplishment. But yeah, that doesn't refute the benefits of lacrimation (I love that word).