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History of Feminism

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(8,155 posts)
Mon Feb 17, 2014, 05:48 PM Feb 2014

Discussing what constitutes a "healthy" body is a potentially dangerous but necessary debate... [View all]

It comes in layers in the same way that feminism comes in waves.

The primary layer to me is the initial rebellion against largely unattainable body ideals. This usually comes in variations of extremely thin bodies. Sometimes these women are very thin throughout their entire body and others have exaggerated proportions with thin legs, stomachs and wide hips with large breasts. To the general population, these body types are rarer than others. And it is not the unlikeliness that makes media portrayal such an issue. It is the obsession with these body types to the neglect of all others that is the problem.

The second layer to me is the recognition that we are not fighting against specific body types. We should not be shaming the model body type because, despite most of the population not possessing such proportions, there are still many women who look just like them. We have to be careful to criticize the exploitation of these types of bodies without producing an overt shame towards them.

The third layer to me is the final stage. It seeks to make a fully informed, well rounded argument that does not trip itself up on petty bickering or accidental shaming. This third layer correctly identifies the true enemy which is not the body of any woman but, instead, the sexual colonization of the female body.

The bottom line is we have to be able to attack publications like Sports Illustrated while reminding ourselves that, despite their complicity in the colonization process, these magazine models are not ugly. They are not disgusting or vile or impossible figures. They, like all other women, are beautiful human beings whose bodies are their own and we must reinforce their subjective ownership and self-esteem



I didn't want to post this in GD because it has become a total circus. But I felt it needed to be posted somewhere.

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