Wait....you're not a size 00?? Smh.

I must say that previous to reading Bordo’s article I didn’t completely see my body to be a medium of culture-like she put it. I like to think I’m a stylish girl and I would love to say that my style stems from the creative juices I have brewing in my brain-but alas, I cannot. Truth of the matter is, what I wear, what I buy and what I put on my face is predetermined by the products that I see all around me. I really like the term that Bordo uses in her article to describe women and their bodies- their “docile bodies.” If I were asked to define this and explain it, it would be rather difficult without a scenario. So here one goes- a girl of age 13 is entering that stage where what she wears, how she looks and what her body looks like is of importance, because everyone knows that’s how she will get that cute boy in the blue polo to notice her. So she picks up a magazine or goes online or watches tv only to find thousands and thousands of ads of gorgeous women- like the one’s you see above- dictating to her what she should look like. And if she doesn’t look like this, well then that boy in the blue polo just won’t look at her. Because the boy in the blue polo is also exposed to these same images and so he gets it in his head that this is what is “hot” or “sexy” and so now he has preconceived notions of what he is looking for in a girl. Bordon says it best when she says that the female body, now becoming the docile body, is subjected to all this “external regulation” and made to concur with whatever is needed or accepted of it at the given age and time. It’s not fair? True but society isn’t fair now is it? And besides- we are all guilty of this sort of subconscious regulation. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t compare myself to some girl somewhere. And the funny thing is I do it without realizing it, and then I stop and think to myself- wow, I’m doing it again. It’s a rough cycle that I put myself through and up until now I always thought to myself that I being the independent woman that I claim to be- dressed, acted, spoke, hated, loved, etc. the things I do because I chose to. It’s my decision and that’s that. Now taking a second look at it I see that really is not the case. This kind of scares me a bit though because it really shows that I like many other women, am easily led to believe that I should look a certain way-big breasted, small waisted, slightly curved in the thighs, and with long beautiful legs. Ummm newsflash I don’t look like that. And another newsflash- I don’t know many girls who have ALL of those features. So why, oh why then do I still compare myself to those girls if I know that they very well may have flaws like I do? What is it that makes me and the hordes of other females do this? Is it really the millions of ads that come out every month to share with me how it is I should be? A sort of brainwashing? Or something more? Who know’s truly what the answer is? All I know is that it shouldn’t be this way, but it is. And will be for a long while unfortunately. However-to tie my photo in-there is some type of movement within this “females should look like this” spectrum. It seems that there is a realization ,finally, that not all females look like that. The cool thing now is to share and advertise different women of different looks and shapes and sizes. This new advertising method is quite interesting indeed because although its refreshing to see that I’m not a freak and my abnormally large hips (in my mind at least) aren’t that abnormal after all, these images are still competing with the images of the sex-goddesses of Victoria’s Secret and women who are top models. It seems that the market is changing to incorporate a more global perspective on what women really look like. I notice however that although this may be the case there is still a desperate-ness in females to attain the “perfect image,” hence my inability to stop comparing myself to others. It’s as if our own images aren’t correct or acceptable to ourselves because it’s been engrained in their minds and our bodies for so long, that it really is not.