tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302245627574027504.post8685632209103075757..comments2019-05-15T23:59:20.159-07:00Comments on Feminist Legal Theory: “I really shouldn’t have another slice . . . but why?”Lisa R. Pruitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16469550950363542801noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302245627574027504.post-17516799809797155702010-10-28T19:06:31.540-07:002010-10-28T19:06:31.540-07:00I hope that this post does not offend anyone, but ...I hope that this post does not offend anyone, but I have always had the opposite problem - that I have always been too skinny. But the interesting thing to me in regarding this post is that this double standard applies to "skinny" girls. I have been called anorexic, told that I need to "bulk up," and have been told that I don't appear athletic because I look fragile. These are trite complaints, obviously, but the fact is that somehow there is a perfect balance of skinny and pretty that no one seems to fit into. Ultimately, I have come to respect my body and to find comfort in it, but this isn't without some difficulty for a very long time.N.P.https://www.blogger.com/profile/08296347844003958446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302245627574027504.post-22783620905180229522010-10-28T18:13:41.149-07:002010-10-28T18:13:41.149-07:00I may have touched on this a little in a past blog...I may have touched on this a little in a past blog, but it seems that a very large form of influence on what is considered the "ideal beautiful women" comes from major corporations. We live in a world where advertisements are part of our daily routine, from the box of Special K cereal we pick up in the morning to the glass of Coke Zero we wash out at night, we are doing one thing, buying and using what advertisers want us too. Many ad campaigns start by first creating a consumer market. This market is usually created by spending millions of dollars to tell us what we need. Right now, that need is apparently skinny women. The market calls for different things at different times, for example, before the huge tanning craze took over the nation, the ideal image of a women was that of a paler complexion, which is still a standard of beauty in countries like Thailand and India. The ad campaigns during that era were geared around lotions and make up that would help make a women look more fare skinned. Perhaps one solution to creating a more realistic image of the ideal women could be to stop buying into ad campaigns and start letting companies know what it is we want.Bijorn Turockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16084917511662464126noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302245627574027504.post-2354012764137165272010-10-21T19:44:26.773-07:002010-10-21T19:44:26.773-07:00It is an unfortunate double standard that women ar...It is an unfortunate double standard that women are held to much "higher" ideals of physical beauty than men. More unfortunate is that I don't see this changing anytime soon.<br /><br />Furthermore, I feel that the basis for these standards has deep roots in Western civilization. Going back to Greco-Roman culture, beauty was literally personified as a woman - Aphrodite in Greek mythology, Venus in Roman mythology. As far as I know, there is no male god of beauty in either of these cultures. Men have even supposedly waged war over the beauty of a woman. (See Helen of Troy.) <br /><br />One could analyze these facts endlessly under various feminist theories, but I think that, for these purposes, it's probably sufficient to hypothesize that the aforementioned double standard is so deeply ingrained in the Western male hegemony that it would take something very radical to shake up these mainstream "ideals" that have been with us since (at least) the time of the Greeks.gtg263rhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00994504490266541297noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302245627574027504.post-84914234847916868082010-10-21T19:35:58.156-07:002010-10-21T19:35:58.156-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.gtg263rhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00994504490266541297noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302245627574027504.post-10140276413009443492010-10-20T18:33:17.935-07:002010-10-20T18:33:17.935-07:00Although the feminist movement has made great prog...Although the feminist movement has made great progress in many areas, society's treatment of a woman's body image has, in my opinion, not improved at all... if anything, it's gotten worse since the 50's when a fuller figure was viewed in a positive way.<br /><br />This is something that's annoyed me for a long time. My experiences are similar to Betty's - after I lost a lot of weight because of a bad breakup, all of my female family friends commented on how great I looked. The sad thing was that I only looked "great" (i.e. emaciated) because the only thing I felt like eating was frozen vegetables. Luckily, I recovered soon enough, but it bothered me that I was told I looked great as a result of basically not being able to eat. <br /><br />Another frustrating thing is when I hear chubby guys tell me they would never date that girl over there because she's too fat. What?! Not only is it shallow, it reflects this awful double standard. <br /><br />I would really like to see less emphasis on how women are "supposed" to look. Even phrases such as "real women have curves" is terrible because it puts down women are naturally skinny or have narrow hips, etc. It's unfortunate that a woman's body type goes in and out of style like anything else. For example, in certain time periods being chubby used to signify wealth. <br /><br />Let's celebrate the beauty in diverse body types instead of letting society tell us what body type is "in fashion".2ellehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05870959619819040005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302245627574027504.post-5563547513161615132010-10-20T16:23:28.079-07:002010-10-20T16:23:28.079-07:00Betty, this is another aspect of the double standa...Betty, this is another aspect of the double standard that women are subjected to. Obesity has huge health implications, but middle-class women tend to only worry about the effect of their perceived fatness on their attractiveness (or lack thereof).<br /><br />Studies suggest that obesity is higher among lower-income Americans, because of the particular choices of food available to us in this First World country. But studies also suggest that the correlation between lower income and obesity is stronger for women than for men, see http://www.prb.org/articles/2010/usobesity.aspx. <br /><br />Looking into these statistics shows that for women, being fat also signals being poor... holding down two or three jobs, scarfing down fast food between shifts, and so on. Accordingly, perhaps we are worried about our looks because it signifies our socioeconomic status. Signaling that we are of higher socioeconomic status is important, especially for women in the dating pool, because we want to marry upwards... or at least that's what our mothers told us to do!Chez Martahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09860566949925845908noreply@blogger.com