Ways Women Mutilate Themselves for the Sake of Beauty
I was reading the book Peony by Lisa See and it occurred to me that culture has manipulated women to mutilate their bodies for centuries. The story is set in China in 1644. Peony is an only child and her parents arranged her marriage to a man, sight unseen. I really don’t want to get into the story of the book, I just want to reflect on the part about foot binding.
Mothers and grandmothers thought that their young girls should have their feet bound starting somewhere around age 6, sometimes earlier. Their reasoning was that the daughter could not attract a wealthy marriage if her feet were big. The ideal size was at least a 3 inches foot, called gold lotuses, and no longer than 4 inches, called silver lotuses.
Small feet were seen as perfect on a women and necessary to arrange a good marriage (read: wealthy), and this marriage could not be obtained without bound feet. Small feet made a young girl more desirable. Qing Dynasty sex manuals listed 48 different ways of playing with women’s bound feet–small feet are sexual turn on for husbands.
I started to think of other body mulitations, such as female genital mutilation and I found a list of some of the reasons it is practiced:
- Preservation of virginity
- Enhancement of fertility
- Prevention of promiscuity
- Increase of matrimonial opportunities
- Pursuance of aesthetics
- Improvement of male sexual performance and pleasure
- Promotion of social and political cohesion
Female genital mutilation is regarded in many societies as a pre-requisite for honorable marriage. I can’t understand this list. As I see it, all of the above “reasons” can be accomplished without mutilating the woman’s genitals.
Then there is the neck ring worn by women in African and Asian cultures. This practice starts on a young girl at around age five. Neck rings push the collarbone and ribs down and stretch the neck muscles several inches. If the rings are removed and the head not supported, the woman can choke on her own tongue.
There are other examples of body mutilations that can be given, but these are enough examples to have a sense of what is happening to young girls. When are women going to wake up and stop sacrificing girl babies?
These images of bound feet, stretched necks and genital mutilation may seem so foreign and unreal to American and European women. Why do these African and Asian women mutilate their daughters? Wait, maybe the women of African and Asian cultures are asking why American and European women are cutting open the chests of their girl babies and stuffing in bags of silicone to make their chests bigger, so their daughters may make better marriages and be more desirable. Ok, you may say we don’t do it to girls at age 5 or 6. But the idea is planted at that age. Does the word Barbie sound familiar? Big-breasted Barbie with the big house and car and the beautiful boyfriend Ken are real to a 5-year-old. She wants to be like Barbie.
How many of us bought the idea that big breasts equate to better jobs and a better marriage? I don’t know how to stop this madness of mutilating women’s bodies with the perceived notion that the girl will be better off in life with the mutilations. What can we do to save the daughters of the world?
There is a new television series coming on TV, more propaganda for young adults to view: Without Breasts, There is No Paradise.
These are just some observations of mine. Anyone have any thoughts on any of this?
I have thought a lot about this issue. I used to imagine a campaign of beautiful stylized illustrations that showed a corseted women with a tiny waist next to a food in a beautiful skyscraper high heel next to an African woman with a disc inserted in her lip next to an American woman with impossibly large puffy lips next to the tiny feet of a Geisha. The images would be highly stylized, very feminine and beautiful — pieces of art, each. But each image would seem impossible and would also, upon second glance, show the pain inherent in each form of this beauty.
In closing, a personal story/joke. Many, many years ago I dressed as a “cyberpunk assassin” for Halloween. As part of this costume, I took apart a calculator and glued microchips to my neck. Through the evening the glue started to burn my neck, but I ignored it. When I came home, I pull the microchips off and there were large wounds all over my neck. This took many weeks to heal. When people asked me “didn’t you feel the burning? why didn’t you take them off sooner?” I answered honestly — it was no more painful than high heeled shoes or heavy earrings. I didn’t even think about it.
The moral of that strange story is that, until that time, I didn’t realize how much we suffered for our beauty. I mean, after all, at that time in my life I would wake up every night because I was so hungry, as I battled to maintain a weight that kept me in size 4’s and 6’s. (And I wish I could get back to those sizes - will I never learn?)
Anyway — peace to all!
Suzanne
Comment by suzannabanana23 — March 20, 2008 @ 9:42 am
“Without Breasts, There Is No Paradise,” is not at all propaganda for teens. It’s about teenage prostitution and the poverty and drugs around it. It’s about the aesthetics values that spring from such an environment. The writer, Gustavo Bolivar, said, “When I wrote it, I never imagined that such a local story could transcend. What happens is that it touches a theme that is indeed universal: the beauty based in vanity and its connection with money…. No book before had denounced in such bad terms the drug dealers, the ignorant mothers who confuse the love for their daughters with pimping, and the unscrupulous plastic surgeons.” For the purposes of this blog, the program seems like it will be a strong commentary on how the plastic surgery industry is a capitalist machine, with little regard for the lives it damages or hurts as long as the business is profitable. It also seems like a terrific opportunity to talk about breast implants — why women from all walks of life want them. There will probably be an absence of acknowledgment of how dangerous they are. But according to the synopsis of the show on Wikipedia, the heroine goes through a whole series of operations before killing herself — so may complications will be involved? Dare we hope?
Comment by Gloria — March 22, 2008 @ 1:05 pm
I read the title and this much (see below) and was turned off. To me it glorifies the use of implants. It sends a message that you need big breast in the first place, to attract a “rich” male. Just as foot binding was intended to do.
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Without Breasts There Is No Paradise is the working title of an NBC drama series produced by Universal Media Studios which is in development for the 2008-2009 season.. It features the travails of a pretty young hooker, who seeks massive breast implants to attract a rich cocaine smuggler..
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There is a controversy surrounding the show too.
Sin Tetas No Hay Paraíso has become famous because of the controversy it has caused. Many are upset over the negative image of Colombian culture it portrays. Critics also say that it fails to address the obsession with breast surgery and instead feeds the fantasies of males.
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http://www.sfgate.com/templates/types/popunder/iii-interactive/iii-interactive.html
Breast-Obsessed TV Show a Colombian Hit
By JOSHUA GOODMAN, Associated Press WriterTuesday, September 19, 2006
( I copied this , taken from the article-Kathy Nye)
In newspaper columns and radio interviews, feminists and family groups have decried the show’s portrayal of women as a sexist affront, more inclined to satisfy flesh-filled male fantasies than generate meaningful debate about Colombia’s unrivaled obsession with plastic surgery.
Catalina’s catty antagonist in the series, Jessica, tells her: “What matters today is having a good pair of (breasts) — no matter if they’re made of rubber, wood or stone.”
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I am all for stories that show the terrible times that women have with breast implants, but at what cost? Kathy Nye
Comment by Kathy Nye — March 22, 2008 @ 2:57 pm
Neither of us has seen this show, and I am leery of putting too much store in people’s opinions without the chance to judge for myself. So, let’s hope the program delivers what the writer seems to think it does and is not as bad as how the critics describe it.
Comment by Gloria — March 22, 2008 @ 11:50 pm