Bordo Male Identity And More

Are heterosexual men are not supposed to care about how the look or dress? Do they do not like being looked at by women? These are two of the claims made by Susan Bordo in her writings of "Beauty (Re)discovers the Male Body" where she discusses these two topics and some others in great detail. In her writings she reveals her view of men and also the view that society portrays about their attitudes towards life, women and clothes. The male identity is very complex and does not run in just black and white. Many of the impressions she drew from men were very much skewed to fit female views. Most of the ideas about looks, style and fashion come from media form today's society. Places like billboards, music videos, magazine ads, movies and many other areas shape the way all ages think they should look and act. It is these forms of media that lead the different genders into expecting certain things from the other.

Bordo makes it clear that media all depicts this image of a man in control and not caring about the way he looks. "but men are not supposed to enjoy being surveyed period. It's feminine to be on display." (172). In my experiences both genders "survey" each other continuously. She explains the why she thinks that women have fallen into dressing to attract men's attention. "When women are transformed from professionals to "pussies" by the comments of men on the street, it's humiliating, not so much because were puritans as because we sense the hostility in the hoots." (172). She thinks that men have set up this standard to make women turn themselves into attractive objects to avoid their own humiliation. The reason that women put on all of the sexy clothes is to turn the humiliation into pride. She also hits upon aging as a very difference between men and women. As a man gets old he gets wrinkles as a sign of "wisdom and experience" as when a woman is getting older she starts to sag "advancing into decrepitude". She also points out how all of the clothes men wear are made plain and reinforce the image that men are supposed to be "oblivious to their beauty" (191) and all of the advertisements reinforce that.

Bordo definitely is right about the image of men and women in America on several different levels. She definitely makes it seem more biased than it really is. One area I disagree with is when she says that men do not like to be looked at in sexual manner by women. I think it is human nature to try and attract the opposite sex. Every man and woman are both waking up in the morning and fixing their hair to make an impression to other people. If not for sex it is to maintain or gain social standing and respect. With today's society it is equally important for a man to dress up and do his hair as it is a woman. She also says how men do not look in the mirror unless it is being used as a tool. Women admire themselves in the mirror and examine their features. I believe on a certain level men do this as well. When a man looks in the mirror they do it to make sure that they look good. As much as Bordo thinks that the advertising and clothes are made for men not to care how the look, it really is just a style. The plainness casual look on men is supposed to attract women, it just a style to look cool. If a woman sees a man all dressed up wearing different colors and made hair they are going to be turned off and think that he is trying to hard.

Bordo also addresses the amount of nudity of females and males in movies and other types of media. This is true to an extent but is way over exaturated. Just because films will show a woman's breasts in films does not mean that they should allow male frontal nudity. There are no movies (except those of pornographic nature) that show the lower region of either gender. There are so many movies around that have shirtless men in the scene for the soul purpose of sexuality. It is true that male nudity is used more in comedy but it is just as much so that the female body is too. I think that a lot of this issue has to do with how comfortable society is seeing the naked body. The naked male body is steadily on the rise because society is starting to adapt to the increase in male nudity.

Society becomes concentrated on body image and style due to ads in magazines and billboards. Cases of anorexia and bulimia show up all the time in teens and adults. They become so pressured into thinking that they need to look a certain way that they are willing to put their health at risk to achieve it. Bordo mentioned that after publishing her work about the female body that she lots of mail from men telling her that women were not the only ones with that problem. As a male I know that many guys are dissatisfied with their bodies. I think it is people both sexes that feel inadequate with their bodies. The ads in the media only show the best bodies and best looking people, this leaves the other 99% of the population feeling less than average when the truth of the matter is they do not have anything to be ashamed of. Even though I was a three sport athlete in high school and was bigger and taller than most of the kids in my school it is impossible not to notice imperfections and the things you need to fix to bring yourself up to the standards of the people you see on TV. I can imagine how it must feel for overweight people to go everywhere and keep being reminded of their weight problem with every billboard and advertisement they pass. Later on in her writing Bordo recognizes this change in history how she was finding "men would comprise over a quarter of cosmetic-surgery patients." (207) This is proof to the fact that both genders are feeling the strain put on them by society to look better. Although still more women than men it is beginning to even out as time goes by. It is this reason that I find it hard to read much of Bordo's work because things change so fast that a lot of her apply to new generations of men as well.

Today's society is based around sex both gay and heterosexual. Sex is everywhere around us and the issue can become very big. Many times women feel they are too big to draw the other genders attention and therefore need to fix themselves. Bordo brings up a good example when she talks about the movie The Full Monty. "In the film, a group of unemployed metalworkers in Sheffield, England, watch a Chippendale's show and hatch the money-making scheme of presenting their own male strip show in which they will go right down to the "Full Monty." They get past their discomfort, in the end, and their show is greeted with wild enthusiasm by the audience. The movie leaves us with this feel-good ending, not raising the question obvious to every woman watching the film: would