Rebel with a Cause

And would you call that beautiful which wants and does not possess beauty?1

Summer is in full bloom. Our screens are filled with Love Island and the World Cup. Tanned, toned and athletic bodies are ubiquitous, and as we aspire to achieve these ideals, magazine stands are full of titles that promise to help us achieve beach body fitness (e.g. Men's Health) and beauty, through a variety of exercise or diet plans. Emerging from the toxicity of popular media, are movements such as 'I weigh',  which has shunned conventional societal beauty demands and aims to move away from physical appearance as being a valuable determinant of self-worth. Many ‘body positive’ movements, fitness plans and media sites nonetheless still have at their core a particular physical ideal to which to aspire. Fitspo and ‘Strong is the new skinny’ (Holland & Tiggemann, 2016) strongly associate a specific narrowly defined physical ideal with good health, or fitness. In promoting strength and fitness, and departing from the traditional aesthetic of fashion media, these movements have claimed to be pro feminist. However, the founder of  'I weigh', actor Jameela Jamil, has criticised such movements as being "double agents for the patriarchy," as their focus is upon a strictly delineated control of the female body (Bownass, 2018). Despite these 'body positive' movements rejecting recognised traditional oppressive, unattainable or enhanced notions of a physical ideal, they still promote compliance with a specific physical appearance as acceptable. In addition, association of these ideals with 'health' serves to strengthen the implication that non-conformity is unhealthy (Holland & Tiggemann, 2016). In promoting recognition of individual value, without incorporation of a physical determinant, movements such as 'I weigh' are successfully identifying the growing recognition of the harmful physical and mental impact of media body objectification. 

Other media claiming a similar aim has been mired in controversy and criticism . The film I Feel Pretty claimed to promote positive and healthy body types and reject beauty demands. However, it has been criticised for reinforcing negative stereotypes, with the protagonist ridiculed for her weight and empathising with other 'victims' of fat shaming (e.g. Harper's Bazaar, Feb 2018). Whilst there are valid and constructive points made by this character portrayal, the aggressive rejection of media industry beauty standards by 'I weigh' is a far more positive action. Media promotion of conformity to specific body ideas, such as the 'summer beach body', and exposure to images of physical objectification has numerous harmful consequences. Strong evidence illustrates how this may lead to the development of body anxiety and dissatisfaction, and engagement in potentially unhealthy behaviours in order to achieve desired beauty ideals. This has been linked to an increased incidence of physical and mental health disorders, and even suicide (Dittmar, 2009; Frederickson & Roberts, 1997; Grogan, 2006; Mubarik, 2015, December). 

There is no fault in taking pride in our appearance. However, the societal pressure to change our appearance and to conform to a particular physical ideal is particularly acute during the summer months (Berger, 2003). Movements such as 'I weigh', which separate value and self-worth from physical appearance, are long overdue and a welcome addition to the media landscape. 

 Ajmal Mubarik is a PhD Candidate at the Centre for Social Ethics and Policy in the University of Manchester School of Law. His research explores consent and regulation of cosmetic surgery, and the use of media and technology in healthcare.

References
Bownass, H. (2018) Jamelia Jamil gets real about periods, depression, and Kim Kardashian. The Stylist.  Retrieved from https://www.stylist.co.uk/people/jameela-jamil-kim-kardashian-toxic-weight-loss-role-model-good-place-stylist-cover-story/212867
Dittmar, H. (2009). How do" body perfect" ideals in the media have a negative impact on body image and behaviors? Factors and processes related to self and identity. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 28, 1-8.
Fredrickson, B.L.,  & Roberts, T.A. (1997). Objectification theory. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, 73-206.
Grogan, S. (2006) Body image and health: contemporary perspectives. Journal of Health Psychology, 11, 523-30.
Holland, G. , & Tiggemann, M. (2016). “Strong beats skinny every time”: Disordered eating and compulsive exercise in women who post fitspiration on Instagram. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 50, 76-79.
Mubarik, A. (2015, December) Essena O’Neil: Sensation or sob story? The Mancunion.  Retreived from http://mancunion.com/2015/12/01/essena-oneil-sensation-sob-story/



1 Symposium By Plato. Written 360 B.C.E. Translated by Benjamin Jowett. Jowett, Benjamin. The Dialogues of Plato-Vol Ii. Vol. 2. Jowett Press, 2007.↩

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Ew, your legs are so hairy": #everydaylookism and the normalisation of the hairless body

Image
The changing norms of body hair removal are dramatic and illustrative. I have written previously about the rise in body hair removal as the ‘ canary in the mine’ . We now remove nearly all body and facial hair.  A survey of 7580 US residents aged between 18 and 65 found that “74% reported grooming their pubic hair, 66% of men and 84% of women” (Osterberg, Gaither, Awad, Truesdale, Allen, Sutclifee & Breyer, 2016, p.162) . A generation ago this didn’t happen; few women removed pubic hair and there was a time in 60s and 70s when underarm hair could be considered sexy. (Although there are arguments about how extensive the acceptance of body hair really was. Some think it was limited to the fairly small, fairly affluent, hippy culture.) The change from then to now is dramatic. As Rebecca Herzig argues “within a single generation, female pubic hair had been rendered superfluous” (2015, p.137).  It’s not just body hair we are obsessively removing, facial hair has also b...
Read more

“You might not notice it … but I do”: Shame and Cosmetic Surgery

Image
Augmenting the Body: Disability, Care and the Posthuman is an interdisciplinary research project that explores practices of bodily augmentation, from caring robots to prosthetic limbs, across the fields of English, Engineering, Healthcare, Philosophy, and Robotics. The project, led by Professor Stuart Murray and funded by a Wellcome Trust Seed Award, involves collaborators from the University of Leeds, the University of Exeter, and Sheffield Robotics. In this post, one of the collaborators working on the project—Dr Luna Dolezal (University of Exeter)—offers a snapshot of her work on the relationship between bodily augmentation through cosmetic surgery and beauty demands. It is only very recently that elective cosmetic surgery has entered the mainstream as a routine and socially acceptable way to alter appearance. In the 1950s, for example, aesthetic plastic surgery was a largely marginal and unknown medical practice. Just a few decades later, it is a recognized medical spe...
Read more

The pure erotics of Brazilian Waxing

Image
One of the questions I often get asked when I talk about my research is how much longer I think the trend for full pubic hair removal will last. I’m hesitant to give an exact expiry date if I’m honest. But I think this question opens up into broader discussions about what impact social, political and economic change has upon our bodily surfaces, and how embodied ideals of womanhood and femininity can both shift and remain constant over time. More revealing than any answer I might be able to give about the potential longevity of the Brazilian wax, is the asking of the question itself.  It demonstrates an understanding of pubic hairlessness as ‘current’, constructed, transitory, and it encourages conversation about where the norm has originated from, and why women in particular feel pressured to conform to it.  My Google Alerts notified me recently of an online survey examining men and women’s pubic hair grooming preferences, undertaken by Cosmopolitan.com , and suggesti...
Read more