Basing on Michel Foucault’s view on the body as that controlled in terms of space and time, Sandra Lee Bartky in her article “Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power” reviews the way female bodies are controlled in terms of space and appearance and emphasizes that in modern conditions women are more than ever restricted by those factors (22).
On the one hand, standards of feminine behavior presuppose that woman demonstrates submissiveness and deference, which is done through taking more humble poses than men and smiling much more often (Bartky 22–23).
On the other hand, demands to appearance result in women considering their bodies as enemies that should be monitored through diets, exercise, and cosmetic procedures to keep up to feminine standards (Bartky 22, 23–24). In this monitoring there remains no place for self-expression since every procedure corresponds to standardized rules.
The especial tragedy of this constant monitoring situation is seen by Bartky in the fact that in their attempt to control and monitor their feminine compliance, women become objects of male ridicule (Bartky 24). Male society pretends to keep away from giving any standards or prescriptions as to female standards, and only scoffs at the typically female attention to fashion and make-up trends.
The disciplinarians of women appear to be “everywhere and nowhere”: whereas ideas and standards of female ideal saturate everyday environment at work, school, in the street or mass media, nobody takes the responsibility for intrusion of female standards (Bartky 24).
Women actually carry out constant self-monitoring and self-surveillance, and in this respect turn out to be their own disciplinarians (Bartky 26). Such situation results partially from the “revision of femininity” when not female duties and obligations characterize a woman as belonging to female society but her appearance outward behavior is the crucial factor defining her ‘membership’ (Bartky 25).
The issue of whether women display compliance with social standards of femininity or engage in self-expression by following the fashion trends is quite a debatable one. It cannot be justly claimed that such interest for the outward appearance is only a recent phenomenon: women have taken care of their appearance throughout history.
Moreover, men are nowadays doing it no less than women, attending spa salons and tracing trends in clothing. The art of dressing and applying appropriate make up indicates the taste of the woman, her sense of beauty and measure. It is true that certain part of female population is obsessed with copying some conventional standards; but that does not mean women do not express themselves through clothing or make-up. Following a standard means lacking in personal fantasy but not limiting it in any case.
Involving in the modern feminist-political debate, Rose Weitz in her article “A History of Women’s Bodies” characterizes the historically dominant attitude to female body as an object constituting men’s property (4). Seen as defective and even dangerous already from the ancient times, female body, together with its frailer constitution, was vested with such degrading qualities as “less developed brain and emotional and moral weaknesses that could endanger any man who came under their spell” (Weitz 4).
In the Middle Ages this view of female body resulted in witch-hunt, with the situation changing but a little in the eighteenth century when women still have no civil rights and fully belonged to their husbands. As a counter reaction to women increased access to education or employment, nineteen-century men proclaimed them too frail to be involved in any men-equal activity, and this degrading treatment lasted till 1970s (Weitz 6–8).
As feminists emancipation movement activated in the second half of the twentieth century, there has been observed a series of backlashes to the changing of social view on female body (Weitz 9). Firstly, women are held in great pressure as to maintaining the “acceptable appearances”: large amount of exercise, cosmetic surgery, and dieting have become essential for keeping up to the standards (Weitz 10).
Secondly, PMS condition is by large controlled via medical services since it is considered an illness to be treated. Thirdly, abortion rights are debated as contrasted to “fetal rights”: abortive mothers are often prejudiced in society as baby-killers (Weitz 10–11). Such social attitudes to appearance, PMS, and abortion issues actually limits the woman’s right to fully control her own body.
In the long run, it appears that feminist struggle for recognition of equality or even superiority of female body over the male one has led to a double result. On the one hand, women have attained opportunities to involve in activities that were previously considered typically male, such as politics or large-scale business.
Nobody is supposed to make an allowance for gender when deadlines project have to be met or important decisions taken: women take equal responsibility as men for the result of their professional activities. On the other hand, the male society still executes control over the female body by prescribing certain hardly achievable standards of appearance and by treating the monthly PMS as an unhealthy state. Those are the prejudices to be yet overcome.
Works Cited
Bartky, Sandra Lee. “Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power.” Sociology of the Body: A Reader. Eds. Claudia Malacrida and Jacqueline Low. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. 21–26. Print.
Weitz, Rose. “A History of Women’s Bodies.” The Politics of Women’s Bodies: Sexuality, Appearance, and Behavior, 3rd edition. Ed. Rose Weitz. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. 3–12. Print.