Social Construction: Sexuality

As Susan Bordo explains, female bodies have now become docile bodies-bodies whose forces and energies are habituated to external regulation, subjection, transformation, and "improvement". I think that one of the most insidious ways that women's bodies have become docile bodies is in the idea of sexuality and the amount of 'management' and things we attend to in order to facilitate that idea. An good example of this 'docile body' behavior where things about our physical bodies are managed and done TO US instead OF US could be seen in the practice of brazilian waxing. This is a huge aspect of bodily management for a sexual woman in today's society. The idea that in order to be coded sexually feminine you have to attend to your pubic hair is a really odd concept. The code implied is that to be feminine is to be infantilized and stripped of adult womanhood. And this is all done to our bodies in an effort to transform ourselves into what is deemed an appropriate sexual identity. Not only is this idea spread throughout communities through magazines, movies, television shows but it has not seeped into our cultural habits and rituals to the point that waxers are probably the only people who will never lose their jobs as long as we are a vain society.