What Does Your Body Say?

Women get judged on their appearances every day. Television shows such as America’s Next Top Model emphasis the need to be Barbie perfect and eliminate anyone who falls a little short. A myriad of stereotypes exist for women, and most can be based on looks. For my women’s studies project I wanted to show some of the famous women who appear to be the epitome of these stereotypes. I also found it interesting that most of them have prominent quotes either affirming or denying these. My question for fellow women is two-fold, what does your body say to society and what do you want it to say? Thanks.

Anorexic~ Athlete~ Baby Machine~ Bachelorette~ Ball Breaker~ Beauty Queen~ Bimbo~ Bitch~ Cunt~ Daddy’s Girl~ Diva~ Dominatrix~ Drama Queen~ Dumb Blonde~ Feminist~ Femme Fatale~ Gold Digger~ Heroine~ Housewife~ Intellect~ Lesbian~ Man Hater ~ Mistress~ Obese~ Princess~ Prude~ Saint~ Slut~ Soccer Mom~ Spinster~ Spoiled Brat~ Tomboy~ Trophy Wife~ Virgin~ Witch




As a model, you’re so used to taking your clothes off that you just don’t care.
-Tyra Banks

Step Away from the Mean Girls… …and say bye-bye to feeling bad about your looks. Are you ready to stop colluding with a culture that makes so many of us feel physically inadequate? Say goodbye to your inner critic, and take this pledge to be kinder to yourself and others. This is a call to arms. A call to be gentle, to be forgiving, to be generous with yourself. The next time you look into the mirror, try to let go of the story line that says you're too fat or too sallow, too ashy or too old, your eyes are too small or your nose too big; just look into the mirror and see your face. When the criticism drops away, what you will see then is just you, without judgment, and that is the first step toward transforming your experience of the world." -Oprah Winfrey

I think that whatever size or shape body you have, it's important to embrace it and get down! The female body is something that's so beautiful. I wish women would be proud of their bodies and not dis other women for being proud of theirs!
-Christina Aguilera

The thing I like about my body is that it's strong. I can move furniture around my apartment. I can ride my horse... I can play basketball. It's a well functioning machine. -Cindy Crawford

Art is not the application of a canon of beauty but what the instinct and the brain can conceive beyond any canon. When we love a woman we don’t start measuring her limbs. -Pablo Picasso

For me, it might sound cliche, but beauty for me really does start on the inside. It's like a state of mind, a state of love if you will. Then, whatever you can do on the outside is all like a bonus. -Queen Latifah

Beauty is grace and confidence. I’ve learned to accept what nature gave me.
–Lindsay Lohan

Just because I look sexy on the cover of Rolling Stone doesn't mean I'm naughty. -Britney Spears

I don't see myself as beautiful, because I can see a lot of flaws. People have really odd opinions. They tell me I'm skinny, as if that's supposed to make me happy. -Angelina Jolie

Belly II

1. What is the physical feature of your body that you hate the most?
My belly.

2. Please explain why:
It looks like a road map through the hills.

3. Describe one time when you were particularly angry with this part of your body, or when you felt the most aware of it.
After I gave birth to my second son (Brody).

4. If you could name this body part, what would you call it?
A Road Map to sadness...

The Body's Breath

Legs

1. What is the physical feature of your body that you hate the most?
My legs

2. Please explain why:
Please let me introduce you to my legs. They’re short, chubby, red, curved in all the wrong directions, lanced with stretch marks and old scars: and of course, lots of black hair. If I let them out of confinement and into the sun, they glow like moonlight—sickly, pallid yellow moonlight. Only I get to see them. Even in the sun, only I get to see them. I am the only one who knows after I learned to bike, I had bright purple and black bruises on my legs. I didn’t want to brag about my biking accomplishments—that would involve showing off all that I’ve never accomplished: like Barbie-thin shapely legs.

3. Describe one time when you were particularly angry with this part of your body, or when you felt the most aware of it.
It wasn’t always like this. In fact, for most of my childhood I wore shorts and was glad to run around. I actually terribly miss the feeling of the breeze and green grass on my calves and thighs. Around 12 or 13 I was sitting beside my dad. He patted my bare ankle and asked, “When you gonna start shaving these hairy monsters?” I excused myself. He didn’t know he hurt my feelings. He doesn’t know to this day how my self consciousness has grown from a vague feeling of unease to days when I don’t want to get out of bed. I recall standing in the bathroom with my shorts off looking at my legs. I tried to shave then, with a straight razor, and badly scarred my legs. My skin takes scars very easy as is. Now I wear a series of hatch marks from the times I tried to fit in. This line is from shaving for graduation, and this purple dot from a first date. Eventually I gave up, and stopped shaving. But now I must always be in hiding, or face being labeled a “dirty European women” or “lesbian” or “hippie.” All because I naturally have hair on my legs. I never knew my short-freedom would end as soon as I reached puberty.

4. If you could name this body part, what would you call it?
My dad would call it those hairy monsters. It’s hard to get past this name. I want to call them my legs, but I find I call them My Uglies, to refer to the Good, Bad and Ugly... for I am the most bowlegged woman who never rode a horse.

Inner Thighs

1. What is the physical feature of your body that you hate the most?
My INNER thighs

2. Please explain why:
Well, most women complain about saddle bags.. I just have the whole damn saddle, thank you very much. No matter how much I work out this particular part of myself I cant seem to get anything accomplished with it. It just maintains its...gross-ness

3. Describe one time when you were particularly angry with this part of your body, or when you felt the most aware of it.
I hate this part of my body when I'm intimate with the love of my life. I'm self concious about it and I know it frustrates him that I don't think every part of myself is beautiful--including that particular area. Also, any time during swimsuit season... its so embarassing and I feel like I catch people staring at that particular part of me--maybe I'm just paranoid

4. If you could name this body part, what would you call it?
The Saddle (of course)

Skin

1. What is the physical feature of your body that you hate the most?
My skin.

2. Please explain why:
My skin is dry and pale and pockmarked and stretched and hanging and creased in places that should be smooth.

3. Describe one time when you were particularly angry with this part of your body, or when you felt the most aware of it.
After years of gaining/losing weight, my skin began to change in texture and appearance. It started with stretch marks from giving birth. I became angry with this part at age 20. We’ve been fighting ever since.

4. If you could name this body part, what would you call it?
Poor packaging.

Stomach VII

1. What is the physical feature of your body that you hate the most?
My after-a-big-baby-belly

2. Please explain why:
Unless I am wearing a smoother, my flabby, leftover skin from having my son is very obvious. Going from a size 8 to a size 12 really limits my choices already, and having to dress around my stomach has made it that much harder.

3. Describe one time when you were particularly angry with this part of your body, or when you felt the most aware of it.
When I first started to buy post-pregnancy dress clothes, I had to turn away hundreds (literally!!) of shirts that I fell in love with while they were on the hanger because they just didn't hang right on me.

4. If you could name this body part, what would you call it?
Wrinkly McFats