WS 2050    Spring 2003
Weeks 4-6    The Body Project

"If we place pornography and the tyranny of slenderness alongside one another we have the two most significant obsessions of our culture, and both of them focused upon a woman's body." -Kim Chernin

Readings: The Body Project
            Women's Voices: 188-196, #35, #39
             video: Killing Us Softly 

Response topic #4: find one ad each in a women's magazine (for example, Glamour), a newsmagazine (eg. U. S. News), and a TV ad. Comment about how are women depicted? What assumptions are made about their bodies?    Due: Feb 4

Response topic #5: How are power relations reflected and reinforced in the ads you found? Consider the analysis of the "beauty ideal" in the text. Consider the theory of the "male gaze."     Due: Feb 11

Response topic #6: As the guide for a section of The Body Project, what did you find intriguing, compelling, enlightening?

Joan Brumberg

From Cornell University Science News is a summary of The Body Project: http://www.news.cornell.edu/science/Sept97/brumbergbook.ssl.html

From Vintage books is a statement about her book by Joan Brumberg: http://www.randomhouse.com/vintage/read/bodyproject/brumberg.html

From the Cornell Newsletter, a photo and article by Joan Jacob Brumberg: http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/97/9.4.97/Brumberg.html

Alternatives to the Beauty Myth

Women's soccer: http://www.svcn.com/archives/cupertinocourier/07.21.99/world-cup-9929.html

New Moon Magazine for girls: http://www.newmoon.org/

review of Naomi Wolf's Beauty Myth: http://homestar.org/bryannan/wolf.html

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An excellent explanation of the "male gaze": http://www.lclark.edu/~soan370/glossary/gaze1.html

Emergence of  Advertising in America: 1850-1920:
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/eaa/

 A paper comparing ads for women's cosmetics in 1990s and 1980s: http://www.uiowa.edu/~commstud/adclass/fresh_faces/Fresh_Faces.htm

Ads directed at teens:http://www.mum.org/TeenAds.htm

Advertisements as social tableaux:
http://www.aef.com/content/journal/issue_one/social_tableaus2.html

From a communication class (1999 at Columbia), Fear and Loathing and the Mirror: http://nm-server.jrn.columbia.edu/projects/masters/bodyimage/toc.html

Jean Kilbourne: http://www.jeankilbourne.com/

From the Eating Disorder Referral and Information Center, information on Body Image: http://www.edreferral.com/body_image.htm

Not Too Pretty is an organization which issues reports on toxins in body care products: http://www.nottoopretty.com/index.htm

Victorian America

For an excellent explanation of the cult of domesticity created by the middle class in order to accommodate industrial capitalism: http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/386/truewoman.html

Godey's Lady's Book: http://www.history.rochester.edu/godeys/

also: http://www.uvm.edu/~hag/godey/index.html

Selected passages from Sylvester Graham's "advise to Young Men": http://www.whitmanarchive.org/archive1/classroom/student_projects/bernie/graham.html

Formal Paper: write a 2-4 pages paper in response to one of the following using your work with the projects, the readings, etc.

1. How does Brumberg use girls' diaries from the past one hundred years to illustrate the change in girls' focus from "good works" to "good looks"? What aspects of girls' diaries have not changed over the years? What kind of information do diaries provide that is not available in other places? Why are diaries valuable as a historical resource?
2. Before the advent of mass media, girls saw themselves and the world differently. What technological developments in the twentieth century have increased their opportunities for self-scrutiny? Today, many women suffer from "bad body fever," a continuous internal critique of one's own body and body parts. Can you provide examples from your own life and/or the lives of women and girls you know? How does this kind of thinking affect your day-to-day life? How might it change with age? Is there an effective way to counter this kind of thinking?
3. Brumberg recommends that we put the emphasis on what female bodies can do, rather than what they look like. Where do we draw the line between healthy and unhealthy attention to appearance? How can we confront and counter the messages girls receive about the importance of good looks? Do we need to explicitly discuss our values about appearance and beauty or is it enough to emphasize other aspects of girls' lives, such as athletic, musical, artistic, and intellectual abilities?

First draft of paper due: Feb. 20; final draft due: Feb. 24