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The nature of the body is universal; the human body is culturally
artifact and the result of social modification which not only expresses
species and culture, but also presents an individual (Kasuli et al.,
1993). The women who suffer from anorexia nervosa have a skinny skeleton
appearance that their bodies are representing for other people and social
relations--how people perceive these bony bodies. In further, examining
the anorectic body and social relations, especially the founder of
psychology, Freud gave an account of the conceptualization of male and
female bodies as kinds, and the origin of the masculine / feminine
distinction. Therefore, women's bodies are classified as feminine in
social relations by others' perception.
Furthermore, body can be interpreted as a place of oppression,
discursive formation and symbolization. First, as oppression, the body is
a system of meanings and representations, an object of coercion,
inscription and exchange in patriarchal society. Second, as a process of
discursive formation, bodies are constructed by discourses and
function as both a text and a locus of social control. Third, as
symbolization, the body symbolically represents the cultural hierarchical
relations of the patriarchal symbolic order (Mohanty, 1991).
With the above concepts of body, it becomes a signifying system to
control and regulate body practice. Eventually, the female body is
inscribed as socially deviant when compared with the male norm and
excluded such as extreme obesity or thinness. In a word, constructing
the meaning of the symbol of the body occurs through all forms of
representations, social practices, language, ideologies and images.
Female adolescents seem to precipitate the desire for thinness during
their puberty. This desire for being little frame is socially constructed
by the effect of mass media, models, actors and successful women. The
current social norms advocate women to conform with an importance of body
control through dieting, and thinness means a feeling of looking pretty
and attractive as well as fitness is equivalent to health (Blau &
Gullotta, 1996). Under the influence of such social norms, these
adolescents alter the concept of normal growth and loss of control by
getting body mass. For the normal growth, they perceive normal development
and changes of the body fat distribution differently. For instance, they
interpret the development of breasts and curve of the body as fat. For the
loss of control, the physiological changes on bodies during adolescence
are completely out of their control and may result in some feelings of
confusion and powerlessness. In this vein, these girls are experiencing
the normal bodily growth that has been medicalized as fatness, ugly,
laziness, out of control and a sense of failure.
References
Blau, G. M. & Gullotta, T. P. (1996). Adolescent dysfunctional
behavior: Cause, interventions, and prevention. Thousand Oaks: Sage
Publications.
Kasulis, T. P., Ames, R. T. & Dissanayake, W. (1993). Self as
body in Asian theory and practice. United States: State University of New
York Press.
Mohanty, C. T. (1991). Cartographies of Struggle: Third World Women
and the Politics of Feminism in Third World Women and the Politics of
feminism, Mohanty, C., Russo, A. & Torres, L. Indiana University
Press: Bloomington, pp. 1-50.
Female bodies are socially constructed
The nature of the body is universal; the human body is culturally
artifact and the result of social modification which not only expresses
species and culture, but also presents an individual (Kasuli et al.,
1993). The women who suffer from anorexia nervosa have a skinny skeleton
appearance that their bodies are representing for other people and social
relations--how people perceive these bony bodies. In further, examining
the anorectic body and social relations, especially the founder of
psychology, Freud gave an account of the conceptualization of male and
female bodies as kinds, and the origin of the masculine / feminine
distinction. Therefore, women's bodies are classified as feminine in
social relations by others' perception.
Furthermore, body can be interpreted as a place of oppression,
discursive formation and symbolization. First, as oppression, the body is
a system of meanings and representations, an object of coercion,
inscription and exchange in patriarchal society. Second, as a process of
discursive formation, bodies are constructed by discourses and
function as both a text and a locus of social control. Third, as
symbolization, the body symbolically represents the cultural hierarchical
relations of the patriarchal symbolic order (Mohanty, 1991).
With the above concepts of body, it becomes a signifying system to
control and regulate body practice. Eventually, the female body is
inscribed as socially deviant when compared with the male norm and
excluded such as extreme obesity or thinness. In a word, constructing
the meaning of the symbol of the body occurs through all forms of
representations, social practices, language, ideologies and images.
Female adolescents seem to precipitate the desire for thinness during
their puberty. This desire for being little frame is socially constructed
by the effect of mass media, models, actors and successful women. The
current social norms advocate women to conform with an importance of body
control through dieting, and thinness means a feeling of looking pretty
and attractive as well as fitness is equivalent to health (Blau &
Gullotta, 1996). Under the influence of such social norms, these
adolescents alter the concept of normal growth and loss of control by
getting body mass. For the normal growth, they perceive normal development
and changes of the body fat distribution differently. For instance, they
interpret the development of breasts and curve of the body as fat. For the
loss of control, the physiological changes on bodies during adolescence
are completely out of their control and may result in some feelings of
confusion and powerlessness. In this vein, these girls are experiencing
the normal bodily growth that has been medicalized as fatness, ugly,
laziness, out of control and a sense of failure.
References
Blau, G. M. & Gullotta, T. P. (1996). Adolescent dysfunctional
behavior: Cause, interventions, and prevention. Thousand Oaks: Sage
Publications.
Kasulis, T. P., Ames, R. T. & Dissanayake, W. (1993). Self as
body in Asian theory and practice. United States: State University of New
York Press.
Mohanty, C. T. (1991). Cartographies of Struggle: Third World Women
and the Politics of Feminism in Third World Women and the Politics of
feminism, Mohanty, C., Russo, A. & Torres, L. Indiana University
Press: Bloomington, pp. 1-50.
Competing interests: No competing interests