The Empire of Images in Our World of Bodies
Giancarlo Franchini
ENC1102
Prof. Aron Pease
Sept. 21 2007
The Empire of Images in Our World of Bodies
By Susan Bordo
Susan Bordo depicts the world’s obsession with conforming to the media’s ideal of what a person should look like through the media’s use of body images. From the moment we wake up, to the moment that we go to sleep, we are bombarded by advertisements in magazines and television shows portraying thin models, young actresses, sexy apparel, and what’s “cool.” It is almost unavoidable to see some sort of magazine ad that has “tips on how to dress, how to wear your hair, how to make him want you.” People are glued to the T.V., pretending to ignore the infomercials but consciously listening in on the latest trends and current celebrity lifestyles. Everywhere you go there are advertisements on how a person should look like. You can’t walk downtown without seeing an advertisement for Calvin Klein without seeing some guy with zero fat and six-pack abs wearing the underwear. Bordo writes this article to express her growing concern with the media’s influence on the world. She supports her idea by explaining the world’s new obsession with cosmetic surgery and gender stereotyping.
Bordo gives a valid example on how people are sucked into to what the media shows as trendy and “acceptable.” Fiji, a country once untouched by the evils of television, was a country based on Fijian aesthetics, which favored voluptuous bodies. But, “until television was introduced in 1998, three years after programs from the United States and Britain began broadcasting there, 62 percent of the girls surveyed reported dieting.” This just shows that media conquered Fijian ideals. “They know, no matter what their parents, teachers, and clergy are telling them, that ‘inner beauty’ is a big laugh in this culture.” Morals that were once standard in American culture have almost disappeared, probably because today it is possible to change almost everything about your physical self through medical means.
The trend today is to look perfect, and people do this through cosmetic surgery. “Aging beautifully used to mean wearing one’s years with style, confidence, and vitality. Today it means not appearing to age at all,” Bordo claims. She becomes angry at the changing normalcy around her and feels helpless at the fact that surgery has become the norm. Body alteration procedures have become, cheaper, quicker, and more common. This brings mostly everyone with the opportunity to “perfect” themselves. Bordo becomes angry, thinking that women are succumbing to the misleading ideals of society and the media. “To add insult to injury, the rhetoric of feminism has been adopted to help advance and justify the industries in anti-aging and body alteration. Face-lifts, implants, and liposuction are advertised as empowerment, ‘taking charge of one’s life.’” The last quote implies that although it may seem that women are taking charge of their life, they’re really just being “brainwashed” into thinking that cosmetic surgery is normal. Bordo then attacks women who have injected their faces with botox, by quoting a New York Times Reporter: “It’s now rare in certain social circles to see a woman over the age of 35 with the ability to look angry.” This is because botox, which in reality is a toxin, in injected into the desired place, making it look fuller but also psychically numb. With so many opportunities to look younger, there is no excuse to look your old age.
Bordo shows her dissaproval of the media when it conveys a sense of gender stereotyping. She shows her concern when she gives an example of a television talk show trying to convert “tomboys” back to their “feminine side” through a fashion makeover. Who is to say what a girl is supposed to look like? What is wrong with a girl trying to dress comfortably? The media takes away individuality and makes it its own. What stunned Bordo the most, was why these girls chose to go along with the makeover. The most reasonable answer was to please their mislead mothers. In such a superficial world, it’s hard to fight the growing power of the media. According to Bordo, “They understand that you can be as cynical as you want about the ads- and many of them are – and still feel powerless to resist their messages.” Bordo then describes a magazine in which she tries to look for a room set for her daughter. It angered her how the boys room and girls room had a distinguishable look. Just because her daughter is a girl doesn’t mean that she should only like girl things. The media shouldn’t have to put boundaries on what is boyish or girlish.
In this article, Susan Bordo shows the helplessness of the population’s nature to conform to the ideals of the media through body images. She expresses her ideas by explaining the world’s new obsession with cosmetic surgery and gender stereotyping.
Bordo worries about the changing norm and the increasing superficiality around her. Will the population fully adapt to what the media tells it to do? Though Bordo has feminist ideals, her argument goes for both men and women being affected by this, in hopes of trying to enlighten the public that they are all being mislead. The media could cause the end of natural beauty on this earth.
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