In my eyes, women were never equal to men. They have lived in the shadows of men since the dawn of civilization. No one wants to live below anyone else throughout their lives. That is why many women have come together and stood up for their rights. I believe women have come a very long way in their fight for equality. Currently women are accepted in the workplace. They are seen holding important positions in businesses giving men the orders. Also, women are now taken seriously when they present their own ideas. These women have fought for what they rightfully deserve, but the truth is women will never be equal to men. Women are physically and emotionally different from men. Obviously womens biological makeup is different than men, but also women have different wants and needs than men. This does not mean that the previous efforts of women fighting for their equality were in vain.
They were fighting for the same chances as men and these equal chances are rightfully theirs. In Susan Bordos writing, Hunger as Ideology, I believe she is in search of an exact equality. It does not make sence for Bordo to describe the equalities that exits today between men and women in society when she feels there is a problem. To address the problem she searches for inequalities to bring to the surface so they can be resolved. I believe Bordo searches in the nooks and crannies of society for what she believes are problems of equality. I believe Bordo views woman as being far from equal. Because of this limited view, she sees any difference in society as a problem. She will view an inequality and can even give examples to back it, but I feel she does not look at it as maybe it is not an inequality and could search for examples to back it that would cancel her initial idea. Instead of just having a lot to write about she could narrow it down to a couple solid ideas that one could grasp.
In Hunger as Ideology, Bordo writes of womens differences in respect to food. Just with food, she develops many different theories where men and women are different! Bordos search for the inequalities in society is what makes her develop these many different theories. Anyone can look at something in a myriad of different ways and find any number of differences but that will just take away from the points that are of importance. I believe it is ridiculous how many different aspect of food she brings up where men and women are not equal. She brings up the idea that society believes women should be thin and in control of their eating. Also, she goes into the idea of men being in control whereas women are meant to prepare. She even goes as far off as comparing food to sex. She develops all these theories just from food. I would like two know the number of inequalities she can find between men and women in respect to clothes.
Susan Bordo gives advertisements as examples to back her ideas of where inequalities exist. I believe she looks too deeply into advertisement in her search for inequality. Bordo gives a few advertisements to develop her theory that society believes women should be thin and in control of their eating. She uses pictures of thin women eating small portions and, to show the inequality, men literally diving into a pool of ice cream. I feel these are just carefully selected advertisements to back her idea. By using the same approach I can formulate my own theory on why men are not equal to women because of what society depicts. As a thin male in society I can look at certain advertisements and view males as the suppressed gender. For example, men are depicted as having to be muscular, with well-defined bodies, and athletic, such as in a commercial for weight gainer or beef jerky being sold by a wrestling superstar. Then I can look at Bordos advertisements that include women. The models in these advertisements are not muscular, well defined, are athletic. I can then follow with, Why should I have to work out and stay in shape when women do not? It is not fair. I do not see it in that way though. I view them as just a selective group. If I am to eat beef jerky it is because I am in the mood for a spicy snack. I feel that to understand what it seems society is depicting one must understand the essence of advertisements and food. When one understands this then they can truly understand what society is depicting.
One must look at the underlying objective of advertisement. Advertisements are used to sell products. To sell these products, advertisers must show perspective customers what they want to see. In my opinion, these ads that Bordo uses that are targeted to women are showing women obviously what they want to see. I believe it is the audience, a selective group of women themselves, who want to be thin. It is not targeted at every woman, for every woman does not necessarily want to be thin. Since we are a diverse culture no one advertisement can be directed at everyone as a whole. Now, using my previous example involving men, not every man aspires to be muscular. I am an example of one because I am thin and have no desire to change. The advertisements are directed towards the ones that want that. It is not an inequality in the sense that women are not portrayed as wanting to be muscular because it is not a standard set by society for which all men must conform to.
I feel one must also understand the essence of food and its relationship to eating. To begin, food is nourishment for the body. By eating food, we gain this nourishment needed to sustain life. I believe everyone should find their own steady medium between eating in excess and not having enough. One should eat what is needed to remain healthy and sustain life. Consequentially, certain women eat more than certain men for that is what their medium calls for. Also, because of this some people are heavier than others.
I agree with Bordo on the point that eating can be viewed as pleasurable, but not in conjunction with sex. The pleasurable aspect comes from the taste of food. I do not see where food is some sort of replacement for sex. I believe taste is a sensation a person gains from food to allow us to enjoy ourselves while partaking in the task of nourishing our bodies. Taste, in turn, blurs ones perception of eating. Eating becomes viewed as a pleasurable activity rather then a necessity of sustaining life for what it is. Many tend to indulge in this pleasurable activity and enjoy to excess. As for me, I believe men as well as women should dive-in to food if that is what is enjoyable to them. On the contrary, I believe that if they are eating to excess, then by no means is that accepted by society, be it a man or a woman.
I believe Bordo should not look for the petty differences of men and women and point them out in a search for equality. Women and men are different and will never be truly equal. Women have come very far in their fight for equal chances as men. These achievements should not be shadowed by the continuous search for differences.
Hunger as Ideology
