Bodies and Fantasies

Never Just Pictures: Bodies and Fantasies

Susan Bordo in Never Just Pictures reveals the relationship between media, advertising and the human body. When looking in any magazine Susan explains that you’re going to find our society’s ideal body type in any of the pictures. We have turned magazines and advertising into a huge poster board of what us as Americans should live and look like. Bordo later on discusses how “ our idolatry of the trim tight body shows no signs of relinquishing it’s grip on our conceptions of beauty and normality” As a culture we’re obsessed with loosing weight or trying to maintain an absolute thinness, we think it’s beautiful and so all of hour goals are forwarded to trying to obtain that.  This fits really well with how Roxanne Edwards was trying to fit into the niche of a female body builder. These people who also want to be accepted and be thought of as a “normal” person see being thin as a way into being accepted. Thinking this way many psychologists think that this mentality is causing many girls to suffer an eating disorder known as body image disturbance syndrome, in which they see themselves as fat no matter how thin they actually are. This disease is often over looked being that our society promote and encourages thinness. Bordo also discusses that it is not entirely blamed on just a cultural occurrence it also has to do with a certain level of control. The Novelist Stephanie Grant discuses that “ If I had to say my anorexia was about any single thing I would have said it was about living without desire, without longing of any kind.” This control over not having any desire is what some people strive for it’s the feeling and look of being lustless and looking really fucked up These fashion designers have started attempting to deconstruct fashion by getting models who looked unhealthy and dead like.  Bordo concluded that “ theses adds are not telling us that beauty is trivial in relation to depression they are telling us that depression is beautiful and being wasted is cool. The question become not is fashion dead but why has death become glamorous?” All of this skinny business is pointing to the fact that we admire the strength of being dead in a way. As Susan references Freud and the way he talks about how psychologically death represents no the destruction of yourself but to returning into a state before you were you. In short this whole desire to become thin somewhat derives from our society’s way of trying to rise above what we are, above all desires. 

Roxanne Edwards

After listening to Roxanne Edward’s interview, I’ve come to realize that this five foot three, one hundred and thirty eight pound female body builder is probably one of the healthiest body images. Although Edwards might not appear to be super feminine. She is without a doubt all women. Edward started body building at age 30 and still continues to this day working on her body making it bigger and stronger. He goal is eventually to be “paper thin, and see through” to make every muscle and vein pop and be seen. The whole reason she started bodybuilding however was to simply look great naked. Roxanne has this huge determination to do what she loves and although most people aren’t seeing her as feminine the way she is now. Roxanne feels more feminine than ever. She explains in the interview that “ Drag queens know what it is to be feminine, they have to work twice as hard than any normal women.” She discusses how women who make the sacrifice and become female body builders suffer a loss of their feminine appearance and that instead she chooses to express her femininity in her own way. She loves the way she looks her “close to perfect body” is everything she’s worked for in since she started body building. Being a black female body builder Roxanne says, “ Her complexion isn’t marketable” even though her body is almost perfect there is still some discrimination from people of her career. “ Everyone thinks I’m great. Except for the people who think I should be great” Unfortunately not everyone can see the same beauty Roxanne sees in herself. Being both black and not having a more “feminine body” in the world of bodybuilding. Judges don’t just look at how shredded or cut someone is. They start looking at skin color and how feminine these body builders can get. Edwards saying that “It’s harder because yes, I am darker. And even in regular media my complexion isn’t marketable.” Roxanne faces huge steps in the world of bodybuilding but even still with these challenges she marches forward and doesn’t plan to stop. Her strong determination and will does not bend to everyone else’s idea of perfection. Instead she creates her own path, one that she is happiest with. One could argue that Roxanne couldn’t be more unique especially in the world of bodybuilding where uniformity is king. Her positive body image no matter who is judging her or staring, she supports and understands what it means to be unique. That if you’re happy doing what pleases you the most then that’s all that really matters. Roxanne Edwards may not be the most feminine of women but she decided to go against the normal and become a black female body builder and the fact that she goes against so many hurdles and still manages to succeed is something that should motivate not just women and minorities but everyone who is hesitant to do what they truly want and are being held back by fear.