The policing of women’s bodies is a common recurrence built of our capitalist supremacist patriarchal system of living that is so deeply ingrained, people rarely take notice of its happenstance. It is the foundational blood that runs through society’s woes. Through such policing and thought women’s bodies are devalued in society, further perpetuating the same objectifications, commodifications and depersonalizations of women adamantly and consistently. This is found in the political air we breathe and on a smaller scale, in social settings.
Women are commonly told how to dress and act towards their peers. Physical appearance, including body features and clothing, are constantly scrutinized by media and other women who are taught to scrutinize women and themselves to the harshest degree, in a way that men who identify as men would not receive. According to media, politics, government, your neighbors, etc. women are not more than their bodies and should only be valued and marked as other due to such bodies that presumptively can produce children. Pregnancy becomes a “public” rather than private experience (Gay 269).
The government regulates the choices women can make in terms of reproductive rights. This same government is generally run by old, white, conservative, men who do not take any time to learn about women’s reproductive health or sexuality before invoking their “knowledge” on the matter. Here’s a list of ridiculous things politicians have said in regards to women’s bodies: http://www.refinery29.com/2015/03/83469/things-politicians-said-about-women-bodies-rape
If legislative policies are not created for the health of women but for economic benefit to the state, then women's bodies are a commodity and creation of capital. Their bodies are vessels to bore children, essentially producing more capital (Nelson 2).
A major factor of the propagating and creation of body shaming is attributed to media. Television shows and films marked “comedies” frequently use overweight women as the butt of jokes. Shows that feature body positivity are usually canceled or are falsely “body positive.” CBS’s Mike and Molly is considered a proud representation of overweight people, however the show is ridden with the characters making jokes about their bodies and physical appearance. Then there are Hollywood films about the stereotype of the “nerd” turning into the "beauty". In these, the change in their physical appearance serves the purpose of appeasing the man’s, and the presumed male viewer’s, eye and gets the women what they want which is supposed to be the man, representative of their only source of happiness. The women viewers are expected to be passive, internalizing these ideas and applying them to their lives. In both these examples, women’s bodies then become a commodity to be bought, rebranded and sold back to them (Cortese 45).
I went to a high school that regulated what women students wore and enforced heavy restrictions with tough punishments to those who did not follow dress code. As part of this dress code, women could not wear skirts that did not go past their fingertips, they could not wear spaghetti straps or shorts, they could not expose any part of their midriffs. If a woman was caught wearing clothes that did not fit their enforced dress code, demerits were handed out. Then, depending on the number of demerits you were given, according to how many authority saw fit to give, the repercussions ranged from detention to even exclusion from student activities like prom. Not only were women objectified by school guards and authorities who would analyze their dress as they walked into the school building, but they constantly had to monitor if their skirts rode up and worry about punishment. The summer months were grueling, as there were no air conditioners in classrooms and women had to sit through class bundled up while men students could wear what they wanted. When this was questioned by many students, authorities said “spaghetti straps were too distracting for students.” If this statement were further explained, presumably the result would be: “tank tops where women’s shoulders are exposed are too distracting for the assumed heterosexual men in our classrooms, perhaps resulting in lower grades for them and lower acceptance rates of men to ‘good’ colleges. We cannot control men’s raging sexuality but we can certainly control how women appear in our educational space.” This, of course, speaks to the rape culture we live in--we readily blame the victim for her rape based on what she was wearing and what she was doing but we do not teach men not to rape.
A facebook page, “Feminism in *My High School Name Here* ” has sprung up explaining this dress code issue. An article about the issues with the dress code appeared in the school’s paper. When a school authority was asked why there was such strict enforcement on what women wear, she said “it is to teach women how to dress professionally in the workplace and beyond”. This would make sense if we were not allowed to wear sweatpants (different from yoga pants which were not allowed) which have never been deemed professional in the workplaces the teacher was speaking of. This is a form of policing many students are faced with and take with them in their futures by self-criticism, for example. Because women are faced with such scrutiny at a young age, they learn to value physical appearance and standard definitions of beauty, which in turn makes them critical of themselves. The article based on the protests of the students appeared in The Daily News, here: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/newsies/feminism-activism-heated-debate-article-1.2023126
The media seems to forget women of color are just as often policed as men of color in the United States. There is a lack of these horror stories the news has brought attention to about the trauma, violence and abuse women of color face at the hands of police. Often, women are portrayed as the mothers of victims of police brutality. I have seen that in protests, where women of color who speak out say things like "what if that were my son lying dead for four hours? I'm afraid for my son or future son." Because the media has created an invisibility for the many women of color murdered by police, protesters believe the fight is primarily for men of color. The names of women murdered by police include Aiyanna Jones, Eleanor Bumpurs, Pearlie Golden,Yvette Smith, Kathryn Johnston but are rarely mentioned in memorials created at such protests. Media fails to bring as much attention to women of color being brutalized as men of color being brutalized because it does not fit their storyline of the “thug” or “gangster” who “deserves death.” Black women can only be seen in few stereotyped roles by the media. They are the “mammy figures...standing in a crooked room” (29), as Melissa Harris-Perry writes in “Crooked Room.” The death of women and men of color is not a passive act, but an active form of necropolitics that media fails to recognize and address responsibly.
If there has been attention to feminisms through media, it has been distorted and riddled with ignorant comments. Men like this fellow below use what they have glazed over on their facebook newsfeed about feminisms, body empowerment, positivity and self-love to send women messages like this:
Unfortunately Tony has misunderstood what body positivity means for women, misinterpreted it for his advantage and reinforced/asserted his role as a policer and oppressor of women. This could be seen as the issue of the more we educate men about such issues, the more new ideas they can use to create more oppression. But with more media literacy programs and gender studies courses at a young age, the policing will lessen and we can at least begin to create a society that is free of institutional oppression. However, it starts at the judicial level.
Works Cited:
Benincasa, Sara. "9 Insanely Dumb Things Politicians Have Said About Women’s Bodies." Refinery29. N.p., 8 Mar. 15. Web. <http://www.refinery29.com/2015/03/83469/things-politicians-said-about-women-bodies-rape>.
Cortese, Anthony. “Constructed Bodies, Deconstructing Ads Sexism in Advertising.” Provocateur: Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising. United Kingdom: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008. 45-76.
Gay, Roxane. “The Alienable Rights of Women.” Bad Feminist. Harper Perennial, 2014.
Harris-Perry, Melissa V. “Crooked Room.” Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America. United States: Sheridan Books, Inc., 2011. 28-39.
Luciano, Alex. "Feminism Activism Follows Heated Debate." NY Daily News. N.p., 23 June 14. Web. <http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/newsies/feminism-activism-heated-debate-article-1.2023126>.
Nelson, Jennifer. "Introduction: From Abortion to Reproductive Rights."Women of Color and the Reproductive Rights Movement. New York: New York UP, 2003. 1-20.
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