SECTION SEVENTEEN

Consumer Beauty Culture Commodifying the Body

READING A

_____

L.l '-"" LJ

L I L. I

\ '\wi

I I

'-' L

Rosalind Coward

Feminist cultural critic Rosalind Coward reminds us that the ideal offemale beauty in the West in modern times emphasizes extreme slimness. Coward reads ads and other images to conclude that slimness masks a disgust for flesh, an anxiety about power and competence, and sexual immaturity. Overall, this ideal puts all women, and especially older women, in conflict with their bodies.

with achieving this "fashionable slimness" has become a routine part of many women's lives; dieting, watching what you eat, feeling guilty about food, and exercising affect most women to a greater or lesser degree. The ideal outline is the silhouette which is left behind after the abolition of those areas of the body which fashion writing designates "problem areas:' First, bottoms:
Female behinds-whether sexy and shapely or absolutely enormous-have long been the subject of saucy seaside postcards. But this important structure can make or mar flimsy summer clothes ... to say nothing of beachwear. If what goes on helow your back is no joke to you, join Norma Knox as she looks at ways to smooth down, gently reshape, and generally improve the area between your waist and your knees.

There is a definite female outline which is considered the cultural ideal. This "perfect" female body would be between 5 foot 5 and 5 foot 8, long-legged, tanned and vigorous looking, but above all, without a spare inch of flesh. "Brown, slim, lively, and lovely ... that's how we would all like to see ourselves on holiday. Here are a few tips on achieving this and maintaining it" (Ideal Home). Ever since the sixties, with its key image of Twiggy, there has been a tendency within fashion and beauty writing and imagery toward the idealization of a female body with no fat on it at all. Concern
Rosalind Coward, "The Body Beautiful;' in Female Desires, New York: Grove Press, 1985: 39-46.

Woman's Own, 24 July 1982

We are encouraged to "beat saddle-bag hips" because pear-shaped buttocks tend to wear badly in middle age if they have lacked exercise or have been constantly flattened in overtight trousers (ibid.). Next we learn of the disadvantages of flabby thighs.
345

346

Section Seventeen I Consumer Beauty Culture

We are told to "ride a bike and firm up slack calves and floppy thighs." Elsewhere we learn of the horrors of loose stomach muscles and their dire consequence, "the potbelly." Bosoms are a little more recalcitrant but even these can be "toned up:' which means "your bust's firmness can be improved if the circulation is encouraged" (Annabel, December 1980). Finally we should "Take a Long Look at Legs" (Woman's Own, 1 May 1982). The "best" are "smooth, flawless, untlabby, and golden." But there is good news, because "legs are leaner ... thanks to dieting and exercise" (ibid.). And if all or any of these problem parts continue to cause you trouble, you can always resort to the knife-cosmetic surgery. Women's magazines, beauty books, and beauty advice regularly give out information about this or make it the subject of lighthearted asides: "The only known way to remove surplus body fat (short of an operation) is to consume fewer calories."2 Cosmetic surgery is offered not just for altering the shape of your nose but for cutting away bits of flesh that cling stubbornly to those problem areas. These exhortations leave us in little doubt that the West has as constricting an ideal of female beauty and behaviour as exists in those non-European societies where clitoridectomy is practised. In the West, the ideal of sexual attractiveness is said to be upheld voluntarily, rather than inflicted by a compulsory operation to change the shape of women's anatomy. But the obsession with one particular shape, everywhere promoted by the media, is no less of a definite statement about expectations for women and their sexuality. Confronted with the strictness of this cultural ideal, we need to understand the meanings and values attached to this shape. We also need to understand the mechanisms which engage women in a discourse so problematic for us; and we need to know how women actually perceive themselves in relation to this idealized image. What are the values which Western society attributes to this body shape? The shape is slim, lacking in "excess fat:' which is defined as any flesh which appears not to be muscled and firm, any flesh where you can "pinch an inch," as

a current slimming dictum suggests. The only area where flesh is tolerated is around the breasts. The totally androgynous style of the sixties has relaxed somewhat-perhaps men couldn't stand the maternal dep,rivation, when it came to it. But even with breasts, the emphasis is on the "well-rounded" and "firm" in keeping with the bulgeless body. The most striking aspect of this body is that it is reminiscent of adolescence; the shape is a version of an immature body. This is not because with the increase in the earnings of young people, the fashion industry now has them in mind (though there may be an element of truth in this), because the ideal is not exactly a young girl. Rather, it is an older woman who keeps an adolescent figure.
[... J

This valuation of immaturity is confirmed by other practices concerned with rendering the female body sexually attractive. The practice of shaving under the arms and shaving the legs removes the very evidence that a girl has reached puberty. It is considered attractive that these "unsightly" hairs are removed. Body hair is considered ugly, and beauty advice strongly recommends shaving the body to restore prepubescent smoothness.
[... J It is no coincidence that this sexual ideal is an

image which connotes powerlessness. Admittedly, the ideal is not of a demure, classically "feminine" girl, but a vigorous and immature adolescent. Nevertheless, it is not a shape which suggests power or force. It has already been fairly widely documented how women often choose (albeit unconsciously) to remain "fat" because of the power which somehow accrues to them.! And it is certainly true that big women can be extremely imposing. A large woman who is not apologizing for her size is certainly not a figure to invite the dominant meanings which our culture attaches to femininity. She is impressive in ways that our culture's notion of the feminine cannot tolerate. Women, in other words, must always be seen as women and not as impressive Persons with definite presence. The cultural ideal amounts to a taboo on the sexually mature woman.
[... J

ROSALIND COWARD

I The Body Beautiful

347

Perhaps the mechanism most important in maintaining women's concern with this ideal is that it is built on a disgust of fat and flesh. It is not just a simple case of an ideal to which some of us are close and others not, which we can take or leave. The ideal says as much about its opposite, because the war with fat and excess flesh is a war conducted in highly emotive language. And this language constructs the meanings and therefore the emotions which surround body image. The most basic point about this is that it is difficult to find a nonpejorative word to describe what after all is the average female shape in a rather sedentary culture. When it comes down to it, "plump;' "well-rounded," "full," and so on all sound like euphemisms for fat and therefore carry negative connotations. No one wants to be plump when they could be firm; it would be like choosing to be daft when you could be bright. But perhaps more important is that language pertaining to the female body has constructed a whole regime of representations which can only result in women having a punishing and self-hating relationship with their bodies. First, there is the fragmentation of the body-the body is talked about in terms of different parts, "problem areas," which are referred to in the third person: "flabby thighs ... they." If the ideal shape has been pared down to a lean outline, bits are bound to stick out or hang down, and these become problem areas. The result is that it becomes possible, indeed likely, for women to think about their bodies in terms of parts, separate areas, as if these parts had some separate life of their own. It means that women are presented with a fragmented sense of the body. This fragmented sense of self is likely to be the foundation for an entirely masochistic or punitive relationship with one's own body. It becomes possible to think about one's body as if it were this thing which followed one about and attached itself unevenly to the ideal outline which lingers beneath. And the dislike of the body has become pathological. The language used expresses absolute disgust with the idea of fat. Fat is like a disease: "if you suffer from cellulite ...." The cures for the disease are even worse. The body has to be hurt, made to suffer for its excess.... It is almost as if women had to punish themselves for existing at all, as if any manifestation of this too,

too solid flesh had to be subjected to arcane tortures and expressions of self-loathing. I have already suggested that one ofthe reasons behind this self-disgust may be the conflict surrounding the cultural valuation of the sexually immature image. It seems as though women have to punish themselves for growing up, for becoming adults and flaunting their adulthood visibly about their bodies. It is as if women feel that they are too big, occupying too much space, have overgrown their apportioned limits. And a punishment is devised which internalizes the negative values which this society has for such women. It is of course sensual indulgence which is seen as the root cause for women overspilling their proper space. Women who feel themselves to be overweight also invariably have the feeling that their fatness demonstrates weakness and greed. Being fat is tantamount to walking around with a sandwich board saying, "I can't control my appetite."
[... J

The ideal promoted by our culture is pretty scarce in nature; there aren't all that many mature women who can achieve this shape without extreme effort. Only the mass of advertising images, glamour photographs, and so on makes us believe that just about all women have this figure. Yet the ideal is constructed artificially. There are only a very limited number of models who make it to the billboards, and the techniques of photography are all geared toward creating the illusion of this perfect body. Somewhere along the line, most women know that the image is impossible and corresponds to the wishes of our culture rather than being actually attainable. We remain trapped by the image, though, because our culture generates such a violent dislike of fat, fragmenting our bodies into separate areas, each of them in its own way too big. Paradoxically, though, this fragmentation also saves us from despair. Most women actually maintain an ambiguous relation to the ideal image; it is rarely rejected totally-it pervades fantasies of transforming the self. But at the same time, there's far more narcissistic self-affirmation among women than is sometimes assumed. Because of the fragmentation of the body into separate areas, most women value certain aspects of their bodies: eyes, hair, teeth, smile. This

348

Section

I Consumer Beauly Culture

there, waiting for their day, forming the basis of the escape route away from the destructive and limiting ideals which are placed on women's bodies.

positive self-image has to be maintained against the grain, for the dice are loaded against women liking themselves in this society. But such feelings do lurk

KEY TERM
androgynous Having both male and female characteristics.

NOTES
2.

Diabetes, and Other Killers (Bantam Books, New York,

NY, 1974).

1. See S. Orbach, Fat Is a Feminist Issue (Hamlyn, 1979). J. Yudkin, Sweet and Dangerous: The New Facts About the Sugar You Eat As a Cause of Heart Disease,

Nancy Worcester

Nancy Worcester, professor of nutrition, points out the importance of a proper diet for the health and work needs ofwomen. Arguing that the subordinate status of women across the world is responsible for their malnutrition, especially in a context of poverty or war, Worcester sees the need for everyone to understand the consequences offood deprivation and eating disorders. Cultural as well as economic phenomena such as food taboos, dieting, ideals of slimness, and conditions of poverty all contribute to the ways gender affects health.
What could be more ironic? Nourishing others is a fundamental part of women's lives, but that very role

Nancy Worcester, "Nourishing Ourselves," Women's Health: Readings on Social, Economic, and Political Issues (2nd e.), Nancy Worcester and Marianne H. Whatley, eds. Dubuque, lA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1996: 385-87,389-93.

itself limits the ability of women to take care of their own nutritional needs. Women are the world's food producers and throughout the world, within a wide range of family units, women have responsibility for purchasing and/or preparing the daily food. Yet, both globally and within families, women are much more likely than men to be malnourished. Nearly universally, wherever there is a shortage of food or a limited supply of quality food, women's diets are inferior to men's quantitatively and qualitatively. Even when food supply is adequate or abundant, women's diets may be nutritionally inferior to men's. It matters! At some level we all have a feel for how important a good diet is: "We are what we eat:' If we feed our bodies the basic nutrients, the healthy body is amazingly clever at being able to take care of itself. An adequate diet is obviously important for every man, woman, and child. However, both societally