Are Women Psychologically Oppressed by a Culturally Imposed Image of Female Beauty?

Bartky (1990) argues that women are psychologically oppressed by a culturally imposed image of female beauty. She starts with the observation that the image of feminine beauty is standardised in such a way that it is impossible to actualise. As well as the imagery of slenderness and other distortions of body shape there is also a tendency for this imagery to involve racist undertones, making the norms extremely difficult to attain for people of different ethnicities. The images of black women in advertisements and in commercial imagery are often chosen for their caucasian likeness, having thin lips, smaller noses, blonder hair and paler skin are advantages. There have been well documented increases in surgery by non-caucasian women to westernise their nose or eyes. The Iranian Republic has one of the highest rates of rhinoplasty in the world (Rhinoplasty All the Rage in Iran, ABC News, 15th Feb. 2007), for example, and the most popular surgery for Asian Americans is eyelid surgery (Asian-Americans Criticize Eyelid Surgery Craze, WeNews, 2008). Moreover the norms of appearance have been empirically proven to be linked to a women's success. Studies show that women who wear make up earn 20-30% more than women who don't (Hamermesh and Biddle 1994).

Bartkly argues that if these norms are internalised a sense of inferiority will also be internalised. This, Bartkly claims, creates a fragmentation of the self as women are both the body to be judged, and the person judging. This results in alienation, beauty products provide a repressive pleasure which prevents women from attaining real pleasure.

The first objection to Bartkly's account is that the internalisation of a judgement is not oppressive by itself and, in some cases, may in fact be valuable. We internalise morality for example, and self-awareness is not deemed wrong, even bodily self-awareness. However, fragmentation and alienation do not occur in the internalisation of these norms because they do not require the internalisation of a sense of inferiority. The problem is not the internalisation itself, this is merely a way of explaining how fragmentation and alienation occurs.

Another objection is that it is insulting to women to claim that they blindly follow norms which oppress them, but it can be seen empirically that both men and women are affected by cultural and social conditioning. Magazines read by girls before puberty include images of teenagers living up to the norms. These norms can be seen in films aimed directly at young children and in children's toys such as the Barbie doll. Primary school children are conscious of body image and many claim to feel bad about their bodies.

In contrast to this, Walter (1999) shows that there is empirical evidence that women will not follow any fashion trend. In the spring of 1995 when pointed toe stiletto shoes were popular on the catwalks they were too uncomfortable to make it into mainstream fashion and many shoe shops, who believed that women would do what the catwalk told them, lost money. This shows the autonomy of women in these decisions but does not address the problem that they have such a narrow range of culturally acceptable images to choose from.

There used to be a time when law dictated how men and women could dress. It is interesting to notice that it is now socially acceptable and legal for women to dress in traditionally male clothing, but men are still not given the same freedom. In 1999, Paul Kara lost a sex discrimination case after he was banned from wearing a formal skirt to work despite the fact that women were allowed to do so (Walter, 1999, pp.103). The image that women are asked to comply to is considered undignified for men, this is highlighted by the fact that in sadomasochistic relationships, femininity is associated with humiliation for men. This sex reversal is not evident for the humiliation of women, implying that it is femininity that is seen as degrading, not the reversal of sex roles.

Even freedom in law is not enough to protect against fashionable opinion. De Tocqueville first discussed this problem: "The sovereign can no longer say, 'You shall think as I do on pain of death': but he says, "You are free to think differently from me, and to retain your life, your property, and all that you possess; but if such be your determination, you are henceforth an alien along your people'" (De Tocqueville, 1839, pp.206).

This problem was later discussed by Mill in On Liberty: "Society can and does execute its own mandates; and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with which it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself" (Mill, 1859, Chapter 1).

Bartkly (1990) argues that women feel dissatisfaction with their bodies and appearance because they have internalised a sense of inferiority. This is then relieved by adherence to the norms and so the enjoyment that women get from fashion and beauty may make it in their best interest to adhere to them. Not complying with the norms of appearance would not only lead to social sanctions but they would also leave women without the narcissistic pleasure they would otherwise attain.

Women can not choose not to be psychologically manipulated by the internalisation of oppressive norms, and so once they are internalised it is in the interests of most individual women to adhere. I propose that the best way to stop this internalisation is by women refusing to adhere to the norms. This would prevent women from competing to attain them and would possibly mean that their power over us would decrease. This would not give the women involved the short term pleasure they would attain from adherence but the sense of self worth they will gain once the norms are no longer internalised justifies the loss of this short term pleasure. This problem could be described as being analogous to a system of slavery: it is in the short term interest of the slave to adhere to the wishes of their master because adherence prevents sanctions. However, it would be better not to be a slave at all, which can only be achieved if the slaves refuse to comply. Without the destruction of the oppressive system itself it is difficult to envisage how individual women can resist feelings of inferiority. I do not expect that this will happen any time soon.

References.

Bartky, S.L. (1990) 'Femininity and Domination', Routledge Press, New York. 

De Tocqueville, A. (1839) 'Democracy in America', Sever and Francis, Cambridge, 1863 ed.

Hamermesh, D. S. and Biddle, J. E. (1994) 'Beauty and the Labor Market', The American Economic Review, vol. 84, pp. 1174-1194.

Mill, J.S. (1859) 'On Liberty', in On Liberty and Other Essays, Oxford World's Classics, Oxford, 1998 ed.

Walter, N. (1999) 'The New Feminism', Virago Press, Boston.

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