tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8770341086445997547.post3062377194690584814..comments2023-10-07T22:37:49.244+13:00Comments on The Hand Mirror: we're more than boobskatyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15742280289613450293noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8770341086445997547.post-54717759709315269432008-08-05T11:46:00.000+12:002008-08-05T11:46:00.000+12:00It's disrespectful to Chinese women to directly co...It's disrespectful to Chinese women to directly compare boob jobs with foot binding, but it is interesting to note that when the communists tried to outlaw the practice, much of the opposition they met with was from women. Women were afraid that if they didn't bind their daughters' feet, the girls would be unmarriageable - something even worse than having their bodies painfully disfigured. So footbinding was really a concession to a shitty misogynist culture, made to avoid an even more harmful cultural sanction. That much should sound familiar.Annahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06076244041878300351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8770341086445997547.post-64786651451946843742008-08-05T11:09:00.000+12:002008-08-05T11:09:00.000+12:00Completely agree stargazer - it's easy to let the ...Completely agree stargazer - it's easy to let the individual agency stuff overshadow the greater cultural issues. As Miss P says, it's vital to retain the ability to make those larger cultural critiques. The individualist turn which has made those sort of critiques less popular (because they impinge on people's personal agency) really worry me - I see it as backlash, in fact.Annahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06076244041878300351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8770341086445997547.post-91526281327848050042008-08-05T10:25:00.000+12:002008-08-05T10:25:00.000+12:00Hugh,It seems like you're boiling the issue down t...Hugh,<BR/><BR/>It seems like you're boiling the issue down to individual choice, which is a really limited way to analyse comsmetic procedures. The choice to get implants may be an individual woman's, but where does the impetus come from? From a society that tells women that their natural bodies are not good enough, not sexy enough. <BR/><BR/>I think women get implants because there are benefits to doing so - women who are seen as more attractive get more societal approval and I think studies have shown they are more likely to be successful at getting jobs/getting paid more. However, there can also be serious consequences and the fact that our society values a woman adhering to unnatural beauty standards at the risk of natural functions such as breastfeeding points to the similarity with FGM, in which a woman adheres to particular customs of womanhood at the risk of natural functions such as urinating and sexual pleasure.<BR/><BR/>And no, breast implants are not comparable to smoking. A habitual behaviour common to both genders, albeit with longterm health risks, cannot be compared to invasive cosmetic surgeries with potentially serious health consequences undertaken predominantly by women in response to overwhelming social pressures about appearance.<BR/><BR/>I think its perfectly acceptable to be personally opposed to harmful cosmetic procedures. Women will probably still choose to do them in this culture but someone needs to be saying 'hang on, this makes a lot of money for surgeons but it can be harmful, it's not necessary.' Boiling everything down to personal choice seems to suggest that we can't critique our culture at all. And we need to, cosmetic surgery is a business which requires constantly trying to drum up more business which means making women ashamed of more and more parts of their body. Hence the emergence of 'vaginal rejuvenation' - which just this week was condemned in the media by professionals as dangerous. Yet if we accept that all cosmetic modification is fine as long as it is a personal choice and we have unreal images of women in the media, porn etc, this procedure will take off too (as I hear it has done in the US).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8770341086445997547.post-50690462625693744082008-08-05T10:07:00.000+12:002008-08-05T10:07:00.000+12:00as long as her choice doesn't impact others, that ...as long as her choice doesn't impact others, that would be an argument.<BR/><BR/>but my issue is more with the cultural environment created with this event than the choices of individual women.stargazerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00430290445762377335noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8770341086445997547.post-46583326586246374992008-08-05T06:58:00.000+12:002008-08-05T06:58:00.000+12:00Would you also be against a woman taking up smokin...Would you also be against a woman taking up smoking? I'd say the health consequences of smoking are worse than getting breast implants, and the benefits to the woman are similarly ephemeral.<BR/><BR/>I realise that I may seem like I'm comparing apples and oranges, and that breast implants are a separate issue to boobs on bikes. But I think you're potentially heading down a slippery slope by saying you're opposed to any cosmetic measures that have adverse health effects for the woman indulging in them. Isn't the principle 'her body, her choice' operative here?DPF:TLDRhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06372937855256319716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8770341086445997547.post-1148953991235404882008-08-04T23:36:00.000+12:002008-08-04T23:36:00.000+12:00no, hugh, FGM in it's most extreme form affects th...no, hugh, FGM in it's most extreme form affects the ability for women to have sexual pleasure by removing the clitoris. it may also affect the ability to urinate and has life-long health impacts (including a lot of pain).<BR/><BR/>similarly, breast implants can lead to chronic back pain and can affect a women's ability to breastfeed her children.<BR/><BR/>i don't know anything about genital piercing, but i suspect it wouldn't have the same consequences. if it did, then i would be against that too as a cosmetic measure.stargazerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00430290445762377335noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8770341086445997547.post-46040160844131589272008-08-04T22:38:00.000+12:002008-08-04T22:38:00.000+12:00Great post. I too am very uncomfortable with the t...Great post. I too am very uncomfortable with the tendency to shy away from critiquing something for fear of offending women involved. We have to be able to distinguish a critique on a cultural level from a personal attack. And like you, I'm unequivocal in opposing BoB.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8770341086445997547.post-15638987503770122302008-08-04T22:33:00.000+12:002008-08-04T22:33:00.000+12:00let's say the operations were done in sanitised ho...<I>let's say the operations were done in sanitised hospitals, and the women consented to having their genetalia surgically modified because that would help their confidence and sense of self-worth. would that be ok?</I><BR/><BR/>Isn't that basically what genital piercing is?DPF:TLDRhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06372937855256319716noreply@blogger.com