What is Normal??

Our images of normal are constantly fluctuating. Normalcy has changed again and again, and will continue to change. This week’s readings all discuss these changes and similarities while also pushing body image forward into the modern feminist struggle. Amy Adams suggests that “Body image, in fact, may be the pivotal third wave issue—the common struggle that mobilizes the current feminist generation” (196). I couldn’t agree more. Adams piece, as well as the others, highlights the fact that all of these body image issues boil down to one problem—being whiter. Even the white women are trying to get lighter in order to match these unattainable goals. These standards show a great need for intersectionality in the study of body issues. We need to take all figures and bodies into account, all standards and stereotypes.
Looking to the past, we can see that these standards of beauty have vastly changed over the years. They changed based on whatever the times fads are, as explained by Collins and Lutz in “Excerpts From Reading National Geographic”. They assert that “To the extent that people accepted and participated in the products of mass culture, they were duped and misled, encouraged to develop a false understanding of their situation in a capitalist society” (318). These citizens, by participating in the pop-culture of the time, are reinforcing these stereotypes onto themselves without even realizing it. We will never be able to change these negative portrayals of women’s bodies until we are able to change the media system. Girls are fed into these stereotypes by advertisements, cartoons, and other media often before they are even able to talk or walk. As they grow older, the advertisements and shows become more and more sexualized, pushing them into an image of beauty that is truly unattainable. As shown in Lebesco’s piece, these stereotypes are even stronger for obese girls. Boys are even affected by these media giants. Where is it that they learn to objectify us? Where do they see the quiet wife sitting alone while her husband rides the range alone; smoking and drinking to his heart’s content?
The media’s portrayal of bodies in society is a major issue which has not been resolved. People all over the world, men and women alike, are striving to reach an imperfectable goal; and destroying their lives in the process. Some blame the obese for strain on a failing healthcare system, but who is laying the blame on the media conglomerates that pushed them to these struggles? Body image issues affect all people from all backgrounds, and must be made a front runner in the fight to change our society for the better.