Susan Bordo

Çağlar DEMİR

Susan Bordo

Çağlar DEMİR

2017, Understanding Susan Bordo and her work; Unbearable Weight :Feminism, Western Culture, Body

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Throughout history of thought, there have been many views about the women, their status in society, their struggle with patriarchy, and inequality applied to them in all areas. There are different ways of oppression on women, such as confinement to home, inequality in wages between both sexes. However, few scholars have written and declared their own views about how the patriarchal world and companies form women as they wish. Susan Bordo is one of the most outstanding and distinguished feminist writers in terms of weight and weakness. According to Susan Bordo, male dominated capital world decides on women about what to wear and what to eat and women try to lose weight to be in the form men wish. State of starving all the time leads to an illness called anorexia. The writer bases her views on the thoughts of literary critic and thinker, Foucault. The objective of this article is to help the readers understand Susan Bordo's views and her impressive work; Unbearable weight, Feminism,Western Culture and the Body and make her known in academic world.

Ro Œ u]Œ: hE hE Z^d E 7E' ^h^ E KZ K E , Z tKZ<V hE Z > t 7',d, & D7E7^DU t ^d ZE h>dhZ U K z Z^d E 7E' ^h^ E KZ K E , Z tKZ<V hE Z W& D7E7^DU t ^d ZE h>dhZ U K z > t 7',d d$ö/$5 '(0ø5, (QJOLVK /HFWXUHU %DOÕNHVLU 8QLYHUVLW\ Email: [email protected] Abstract Throughout history of thought, there have been many views about the women, their status in society, their struggle with patriarchy, and inequality applied to them in all areas. There are different ways of oppression on women, such as confinement to home, inequality in wages between both sexes. However, few scholars have written and declared their own views about how the patriarchal world and companies form women as they wish. Susan Bordo is one of the most outstanding and distinguished feminist writers LQ WKH ZRUOG ZKR IRFXVHV RQ KRZ SDWULDUFKDO FDSLWDOLVW XQGHUVWDQGLQJ ZRUNV RQ ZRPHQ¶V ERG\ in terms of weight and weakness. According to Susan Bordo, male dominated capital world decides on women about what to wear and what to eat and women try to lose weight to be in the form men wish. State of starving all the time leads to an illness called anorexia. The writer bases her views on the thoughts of literary critic and thinker, Foucault. The objective of this article is to help the readers understand SusaQ %RUGR¶V YLHZV DQG DQDO\VH KHU LPSUHVVLYH ZRUN 8QEHDUDEOH :HLJKW )HPLQLVP Western Culture and the Body and make her known in academic world. Key Words: Women, Susan Bordo, Diet, Patriarchy I. Introduction Throughout the history of Ideas, patriarchal societies have looked down on women and constructed new gender roles on them. They used different instruments to suppress and control women.Today, in an post-PRGHUQ DJH WKH WHFKQLTXHV DQG LQVWUXPHQWV RI SDWULDUFK\ KDYH FKDQJHG WR IRUP DQ µLGHDO¶ ZRPDQ For instance, male-dominated capital industry decides what to eat and what to wear. In particular, Female body is what they spend much time and money on. However, women are not aware of the fact that they are oppressed through the instruments of patriarchal capitalism, such as diet, make up and fashion. There have been few men and women thinkers and writers who express their ideas on that issue, except for Susan %RUGR D SURPLQHQW 3URIHVVRU RI *HQGHU DQG :RPHQ¶V 6WXGLHV LQ WKH +XPDQLWLHV DW WKH 8QLYHUVLty of Kentucky. She is not only a Professor but also a scholar in Gender analysis with her impressive Works, such as Twilight Zones: The Hidden Life of Cultural Images from Plato to O.J, The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private, The Flight to Objectivity: Essays on Cartesianism and Culture, and Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body, As a modern and intellectual woman of the 21 th century, Susan Bordo enlightens the people by expressing her views on the new kinds of suppression instruments on women in her precious work, Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body. JOURNAL OF HUMANITY, VOL.5, NO.1, FEBRUARY 2017 21 hE Z^d E 7E' ^h^ E KZ K E , Z tKZ<V hE Z > t 7',d, & D7E7^DU t ^d ZE h>dhZ U K z II. Patriarchy and Female Body According to her, female body is culturally constructed.In post modern period, one of the aims of dominant power is to suppress women through media to be in the shape that men desire. A thin body is H[SHFWHG DQG YDOXHG E\ WKH VRFLHWLHV LQ WRGD\¶V ZRUOG 6R WR EH YDOXDEOH LQ WKH H\HV RI PHQ PRVW ZRPHQ tended to become thinner by experiencing great hungers for a long time. Bordo argues that these women experience hunger as an alien invader,marching to the tune of its own seemingly arbitrary whims,disconnected from any normal self regulating mechanisms.Male dominated capital understanding brainwashes women in terms of focusing on the shape of body and succeeds to make them accept the view that the ideal body passes from thinness.This indirect oppression comes to such an unbearable extent that VRPH ZRPHQ ZKR GRQ¶W KDYH µ WKH LGHDO ERG\¶ EHFRPH FOLQLFDO FDVes.Bordo remarks and quotes the statements of the women who suffer from Anorexia; ³:KLOH WKH ERG\ LV H[SHULHQFHG DV DOLHQ DQG RXWVLGH WKH VRXO RU ZLOO LV GHVFULEHG DV EHLQJ WUDSSHG RU FRQILQHG LQ WKLV DOLHQ ³ MDLO´ DV RQH ZRPDQ GHVFULEHV LW , IHHO FDXJKW LQ P\ ERG\ ´ Õ DP D SULVRQHU LQ P\ ERG\´ 7KH WKHPH LV UHSHDWHG DJDLQ DQG DJDLQ $ W\SLFDO IDQWDV\ HYRFDWLYH RI 3ODWR LPDJLQHV WRWDO OLEHUDWLRQ IURP WKH ERGLO\ SULVRQ ³ , ZLVK Õ FRXOG JHW RXW RI P\ ERG\ HQWLUHO\ DQG IO\ ´ ³ 3OHDVH GHDU *RG KHOS PH«, want to get out of my body, I want to get out! Ellen West, astute as always, sees a central meaning of her self-VWDUYDWLRQ LQ WKLV ³ LGHDO RI EHLQJ WKLQ RI EHLQJ ZLWKRXW D ERG\ ´ %RUGR Anorexia is a modern woman illness which patriarchal capitalism created by imposing on women about what to wear and eat and most women fell into this trap consciously or unconsciously in order to VDWLVI\ WKHLU IHHOLQJV RI DGPLUDWLRQ E\ PHQ 0DUJDUHW 0F/DUHQ UHPDUNV WKDW µ%RUGR H[DPLQHV WKH ZD\ WKDW the cultural LPSHUDWLYHV RI IHPLQLQLW\ JHW H[SUHVVHG WKURXJK ZRPHQ¶V IL[DWLRQ RQ GLHWLQJ DQG VOHQGHUQHVV She identifies two levels at which cultural practices exert power over bodies: (1) the body as the text of culture and (2) the body as the practical locus of social control. The body as the text of culture refers to the ways that our lived bodily experience is affected by the changes in social practices and cultural categories, VXEVHTXHQWO\ FKDQJLQJ RXU ERGLHV WKHPVHOYHV ¶ 0F/DUHQ Bordo attracts her rHDGHUV¶ DWWHQWLRQ WR WKH SRLQW WKDW ZRPHQ JR RQ D GLHW EHFDXVH RI FXOWXUDO imposition of the male dominated society.She specifies that being thin is not the wish of women.In fact, it LV WKH RUGHU RI SDWULDUFKDO FDSLWDO WKLQNLQJ ,Q RWKHU ZRUGV LW LV ³WKH Sower which operates on the body to SURGXFH WKH VRXO DQG WKH FRQFHSWV RI SV\FKH VXEMHFWLYLW\ SHUVRQDOLW\ DQG FRQVFLRXVQHVV´ 0F/DUHQ DV )RXFDXOW HPSKDVL]HV LQ 'LVLSOLQH DQG 3XQLVK ,Q WKDW UHVSHFW %RUGR¶V YLHZV RQ GRFLOH ERGLHV DUH based on )RXFDXOW¶V LGHDV RQ WKH UHODWLRQ EHWZHHQ SRZHU DQG ERG\ 3RZHU XVHV YDULRXV WHFKQLTXHV WR FRQWURO 22 JOURNAL OF HUMANITY, VOL.5, NO.1, FEBRUARY 2017 hE Z^d E 7E' ^h^ E KZ K E , Z tKZ<V hE Z > t 7',d, & D7E7^DU t ^d ZE h>dhZ U K z ERGLHV DQG FUHDWH VXEPLVVLYH ERGLHV )RXFDXOW VHHV WKH ERG\ DV ³VXEMHFWHG XVHG WUDQVIRUPHG DQG LPSURYHG ´ 7KH ERGLHV DUH RSHUDWHG RQ WKURXJK PHGLD DQG GLVFourses. Foucaults ideas help Susan Bordo to contemplate on the cultural construction of female body. In Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body, she tries to make the people and women, in particular, be familiarized with the eating disorders which results from patriarchal capital power in the world. She puts forward her postmodern feminist interpretations on how the female body is contructed culturally in the Western Society by supporting her views with philosophical background. Throughout the human history, women has been defined with their bodies. According to her, female is UHJDUGHG DV µDOLHQ VXEPLVVLYH LQVWLFWXDO SDVVLYH DQG IDOVH VHOI LQ ZKLFK WKH WUXH VHOI- the active and manly PLQG VRXO LV FRQILQHG ¶ %RUGR 6KH DUJXHV WKat culture forms the femininity according to its rules. &XOWXUH¶V UHSUHVVLRQ RQ ZRPHQ LV H[HUWHG WKURXJK ZRPHQ¶V ERG\ VW\OH RI GUHVVLQJ ,Q &KDSWHU 7KH ERG\ and the Reproduction of Femininity, she remarks; ³ 7KH ERG\-What we eat, how we dress, the daily rituals through which we attend to the body-is a medium of culture.The body, as an anthropologist Mary Douglas has argued, is a powerful symbolic form, a surface on which the central rules, hierarchies and even metaphysical commitments of a culture are inscribed and thus reinforced through the concrete language of the body.The body may also operate as a metaphor IRU FXOWXUH«7KH ERG\ LV QRW RQO\ D WH[W RI FXOWXUH ,W LV DOVR DV DQWURSRORJLVW 3LHUUH %RXUGLHX DQG SKLOLVRSKHU Michel Foucault have argued, a practical, direct locus of social control.Banally, through table manners and WRLOHW KDELWV WKURXJK VHHPLQJO\ WULYLDO URXWLQHV UXOHV DQG SUDFWLFHV FXOWXUH LV µPDGH ERG\¶ ´ %RUGR 2001:2362) 'RPLQDQW SRZHU LQ WKH ZRUOG PDNHV XVH RI µRUJDQL]DWLRQ DQG UHgulation of time, space and PRYHPHQWV RI GDLO\ OLYHV¶1 ( Bordo 2001 2363) to form the female bodies, which can be called as gender RSSUHVVLRQ :RPHQ JR RQ D GLHW IROORZ ZHDU IDVKLRQ DQG PDNH XS WR IHHO PRUH IHPLQLQH +RZHYHU ¶ through these disciplines,central organizing principles of time and space in the day of many women ±we DUH UHQGHUHG OHVV VRFLDOO\ RULHQWHG DQG PRUH FHQWULSDOO\ IRFXVHG RQ VHOI PRGLILFDWLRQ ¶ %RUGR :RPHQ¶V JRLQJ RQ D GLHW PDNLQJ XS DQG IDVKLRQDEOH GUHVVLQJ PDNH them feel insufficient and IHHOLQJ RI µQHYHU EHLQJ JRRG HQRXJK¶ %RUGR DUH ZKDW SDWULDUFKDO FDSLWDO V\VWHP GHVLUHV WR VHH $SSDUHQWO\ ZRPHQ VHHP WR IHHO JRRG IRU WKH\ ORRN JRUJHRXV DQG FKDUPLQJ +RZHYHU µDW WKH IDUWKHVW extremes, the practLFHV RI IHPLQLQLW\ PD\ OHDG WKHP WR XWWHU GHPRUDOL]DWLRQ GHELOLWDWLRQ DQG GHDWK ¶ %RUGR 2001: 2363) Moreover, they come down with illnesses called, hysteria, agoraphobia, and anorexia nervosa. JOURNAL OF HUMANITY, VOL.5, NO.1, FEBRUARY 2017 23 hE Z^d E 7E' ^h^ E KZ K E , Z tKZ<V hE Z > t 7',d, & D7E7^DU t ^d ZE h>dhZ U K z III. Conclusion In post modern era, as everything in people¶V OLYHV KDYH FKDQJHG WKH LQVWUXPHQWV RI RSSUHVVLRQ RQ ZRPHQ have also altered. As Susan Bordo stresses in her work, oppression goes on by imposing diet, make up and clothes for female body. The principle of patriarchal societies is to make women docile and be subjected to male domination. Moreover, dominant ideology designs female body according to their own wishes. Bordo also sheds light upon the illnesses women catch because of social control and imposition of male dominated global industries. Reference Susan Bordo (2001) Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body, Vincent B. Leitch,editor, Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, W. W . Norton & Company, USA. Margaret A.McLaren (2002) Margaret, Feminism, Foucault, and Embodied Subjectivity, State University of New York Press, USA. 24 JOURNAL OF HUMANITY, VOL.5, NO.1, FEBRUARY 2017

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