Week 6 Blog Post

Culture is a very important aspect to any given respective domain no matter how you look at is as an individual. I feel like many of our previous blog posts have shown signs of controversy and potential possibilities to offer varying opinions in regards to women’s health and social impacts across the board. This prompt, I can confidently say has a common theme that transgresses how individuals perform and operate in societies all around the world today. Culture is typically defined as a way of life and is commonly alluded to be bound and refined by time. Developments in society, and environmental aspects. However the basis for many different kinds of culture ultimately ends up being the term: tradition. What does it mean to be traditional and follow traditional customs? A dictionary definition of tradition alluded to, “ the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation, or the fact of being passed on in this way. There will always be one aspect through which one can argue for tradition, and that is the age old aspect of unchanged and common beliefs that link one another as a society. But this alludes to an even bigger question, which then begs to ask, “ what does to mean to be a part of society?”, and next, “how do societal functions affect the definitions of feminine beauty?”. Firstly, to be a part of society means to contribute and or follow a common way of life as several others do within one’s atmosphere. Next, the idea of being feminine has constantly and consistently evolved over time and has offered several new facets and aspects to discover as humanity continues to take deeper and wider takes into exploring its possibilities. For starters however, this does mean that we as individuals are accustomed to finding women as weak and incapable of doing manly tasks. Several traditions outline this aspect, such as the kikyou costumes, the African rites of passage (genital cutting), and ultimately a commonly found aspect in American culture: Plastic surgery. To start off with, as the name suggests Chinese foot binding alludes to the shortening of female foot length which would be done to keep a Chinese female from showing any strength in comparison to their special other and to also limit the possibilities of a females ability to grow as an individual. This is an age old aspect, that has obviously had to change over the course of time. However, culture’s impact on the idea of being feminine has allowed for things likes these ideals to not only thrive but serve as a cultural norm as well. One of the next aspects to discuss would be the idea of being able to put together a deeper understanding of what is ahead in terms of female genital cutting, which also alludes to similar depth of meaning and idealism in terms of cultural and societal impact of females and their presence within a society on the whole. Their ability to put together a deeper understanding of what is ahead on a universal platform is what has allowed for the development of beauty on a feminine level and more importantly what it means to be considered “beautiful” in this regard. Next is the most common approach to beautification I have seen as a student who is an American citizen: Plastic surgery. The idea that an individual will cut up and shape up their body to conform to societies’ idea of beauty is a matter of not only culture but also sheer will of an individual. Plastic surgery is an interesting aspect to touch on in particular as it doesn’t touch on just one aspect of the human body. The aspects of a human body that I personally hear being commonly manipulated include, boob size, butt size, facial structure, nose structure, liposuction, and other ideals. Through and through it can be seen that in this day and age and within American culture, sometimes even women find the need to conform to such culture in order to be seen as “beautiful”. However, this may not be the case. Ultimately, all of these practices are connected a societies’ view of beautification within a woman. In this day and age all women should be considered beautiful in their own way. However, these practices can be served to seen as limiting to a woman’s way of expression. If these practices were outlawed, a societies’ view of beauty within a woman would thoroughly expand and broaden across all borders. The theoretical aspects of these filmmakers and authors would have to be the same as any other being in a society, who views individual aspects of a women in order to define their beauty. I do not say it is their fault, it is just how society has conformed to the concept to being considered “beautiful”.

One thought on “Week 6 Blog Post

  1. Hello, I agree with your point that all of these practices are connected to how each society declares what and who is a beautiful woman. I also agree that some of these practices can be seen as limiting a women’s way of expressing themselves. In my activity post, I mentioned how these women are having such unrealistic body standards because they are threatening the patriarchal system, and in return, the people who support this system are creating problems within certain aspects of life that are making women turn to these procedures like foot binding or plastic surgery. However, I would like to agree with your point that removing these practices would make these women feel better about themselves. I believe that if this happened, these communities would be lost and the older regeneration would not know how to bond or communicate with the younger tradition. This being because in Lise See’s article when she mentioned how she only every felt love from her mother when it was connected to her foot binding. What other standards or traditions will develop after these current traditions are banished? Would they be even worse? One question I would like to ask you is how do you think other countries view our plastic surgery? or our male circumcision? Do they think we are crazy? Overall, you did a great job!

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