Diet and Society: Women Living in a Perfectionist Society
Gender is something we are born into. But did you realize that you can actually do gender. We set a place in our lives for particular roles for particular genders. We often get emotional whether good or bad when the gender line is crossed. For example the increasing amount of men as stay at home dads. This might be frowned at by males but looked at as a positive thing in the eyes of women. Also we might unconsciously realize that we are very gender conscience. A good example for this is seeing a infant wearing all white. We will subconsciously and sometimes consciously get frustrated unable to determine the child’s sex. Most parents put boys in blue and girls in pink just so that others will not ask them the annoying question of “what is it?”
Gender is often categorized in a name, dress, and other gender markers such as facial hair. But not always is categorizing gender so easy. Transvestite and transsexuals are one of the exceptions. “Transvestites and transsexuals construct their gesturing in the ways prescribed for women or men – – whichever they want to be taken for – – and so does any “normal” person. (Lorber) People of this nature are often very confused at childhood do to our constant need to keep certain genders acting in certain ways.
Sexual preferences also can upset the normal gender views. “Emergent sexuality is shaped by heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, and sadomasochistic patterns that are gendered – – different fro girls and boys, and for women and men – – so the sexual statuses reflect gender statuses.” (Lorber) People are often judged harshly by their sexual preferences especially males. The male is still seen is almost every society as the more dominant gender. Women are merely seen as a body, sex objects, or bearers of children.
Women is a gender that struggles in many societies. But even with the Women’s Movement here in the United States, women still struggle with their own identity. Women who are still seen only as a body or what to be seen as sex object, as society has seen as a fit thing, struggle with their imperfections.
Women with disabilities with their bodies often feel less of a woman. But most women all have some sort of disability which is not often focused on in the media. “We may have corrective surgeries for disabilities; our bodies may be altered by mastectomy due to breast cancer; we maybe need to use reading glasses , wheelchairs, or hearing aids.” (Lorber) These things are often not seen on the front pages of magazine. As time continues to go by woman are again turning themselves again into objects and not as an equal gender.
Childhood can transform our views. As women, we are given dolls such as a Barbie our first image of the “perfect” woman. Throughout life one is almost taken back by all the images of beauty and perfection. Half of magazines are advertisement for some product to make oneself more perfect. Perfection is something we let society take and run with. They have turned it into something almost ugly.
Society and the media had turned their industry into a evil thing. It is making money off of people’s insecurities. ” Americans spend more then $10 billion a year on diet drugs, exercise tapes, diet books, diet meals, weight loss classes, diet doctor, diet surgery, and fat farms, even though most research reveals that most diets don’t work.” (Fraser) Most people do not realize that the pictures they are seeing in magazines are airbrushed and posed a certain way, with certain lighting, to make the woman look so good. People then wonder why younger and younger girls are become incredibly self conscience and developing eating disorders.
Eating disorders are evil diseases the effect some of the strongest people, who find a weakness in themselves and get controlled by it. As young children all the way up to the elderly can be effect by this disease. But its becoming almost a trend now. Even celebrities are admitting to battling with these disorders to stay perfect in this perfect society.
Women are being held down by their ideal body image. They are spending huge amounts of money and putting in a lot of time to get a certain look. This time and money could be spent on something more productive. The gender of woman has turned into a battle against ourselves and not just the other gender.
Gender is found not only to be biological but also seen as something a society has certain expectations for. The gender of woman is seen as now becoming a battle against itself. Society has made changed the meaning of these words over time and will continue to evolve and change.
