Anne Fausto-Sterling: "Hormonal Hurricanes"
In this chapter, Anne Fausto-Sterling discusses in increasing levels of 'moodiness' in the female population. This more medical and science-driven approach is used to offer insight on the changing bodies of women as they age. She begins by referencing early notions of female maturation by the surgeon general and other preeminent figures. This shows her readers just how much stigma women faced. Because the scientific community did not understand the intricacies of hormonal balance and the like, women were often times describes as hysterical and irrational. She also touches on the issues surrounding PMS, which even today women struggle with. There is still a poor understanding and a stigma attached to women who are suffering from PMS, PMDD, and later, menopause.
Fausto-Sterling also brings up the idea that science has articulated the idea of an "abnormal female." This notion is traced back to when prehistoric women were at all times either pregnant or lactating and would die out before menopause would begin. He concludes from this the reasoning that "civilization has given women a physiological abnormal status which may have important implications for the interpretation of psychological responses to periodic fluctuations in the secretion of ovarian hormones." This created a whole slew of issues for women. If they were determined to be inherently abnormal, their medical care, and role in society, would be altered. The treatments for PMS ranged in variety, but due to a lack of inherent understanding, women were left suffering.
Luckily, studies continued and a greater understanding was reached within the medical community. Progress was often slow and limited, but with it brought greater rights and more appropriate responses to PMS. Researches such as Mary Brown Parlee in 1973 promoted a better understanding by using correlational studies and retrospective questionnaires. Such studies not only helped the medical fields, but also provided insight and encouragement to the everyday women who struggles with issues regarding PMS and menstruation.
Critical analysis of menstruation and its effects has been growing since the 1900s. One thing which I found of particular interest was that the early, less insightful and helpful, studies were mostly performed by men. I understand that this is because such professions werent open to women, but it was interesting to see that as women became strong researchers and advocates, studies became more helpful to the average women and also were less judgmental and were more objective in their views.
Fausto-Sterling concludes her chapter by switching gears from PMS to the "horrors" of menopause. Again, she cites the evolution in descriptions and treatments over time. People began to recognize that menopause was a time of serious hormonal imbalance which had a strong influence on the attitudes and emotions of women. By gaining an understanding for both the chemical responses to changing estrogen levels and also gaining an understanding of their physical manifestations (i.e. hot flashes, mood swings), much has been learned about menopause, to the advantage of women. However, as Fausto-Sterling states, there is still much to be discovered, which may further women and men's understanding and acceptance of menopause and its effects.
Susan Douglas: "Lean and Mean"
In this chapter of Enlightened Sexism, Susan Douglas links the desire of women to be thin and in accordance with society's notion of beautiful with the growing irritability and strife within the female population. The ideal image of a woman by contemporary media outlets it that of a gorgeous, blonde haired, big busted size zero. The important side note to this woman is that she supposedly has it all. She is beautiful, successful, and happy. She proposed the idea of "enlightened sexism's ideal form." Conforming to the idea that women gain empowerment by making men helplessly in lust of them and the ideal body of the "barbie" Victoria's Secret model have led women down a path which one may describe as masochistic and unattainable. Douglas asserts that young girls are becoming ever more dissatisfied with their bodies because they do not fit the "ideal mold" of "an impossible melding [of Marilyn Monroe's breasts and Twiggy's skinny physique], in which the ideal body type is, well, the body of a lanky twelve-year old boy with Pamela Anderson's breasts attached." Douglas also sites that this clearly unhealthy extreme has become the ideal form of health and activity. As the Vogue editor said when describing their skinny models, "to be slim and fit is healthier that to be seriously overweight and 'out of shape.'" The idea that these models are healthy is a farce and is seriously promoting a very skewed image of reality and health.
It is thus no surprise to Douglas that the growing dissatisfaction is leading women in stronger numbers than ever to surgically 'enhance' their form or engage in eating disorders. She sites studies in which young girls linked being skinny to being successful and that the "number one wish for girls between the ages of eleven and seventeen is to lose weight." Douglas also links these images of busty stick figures to the inherent idea of femininity. She touches on the media's "Extreme Makeover" and "The Swan" to further her claim that the media is promulgating and profiting from women who are nearly killing themselves to conform to this mold, and how it has lead to an increase in women flocking to their nearest Plastic Surgeon. This is a dangerous course of action as it promotes an unhealthy obsession with conforming to this semi-emaciated mold.
As Douglas describes, this "exasperation" was picked up by the media and it was then turned around by portraying the new theme of girls taking out their frustrations in mean and caddy ways against one another. It seems that the majority of teen-targeted media featured girl-fights, bitchiness, and power-tripping 'queen bees.' This resulted in an increase in teen bullying (including the new and petrifying aspects of online bullying). Douglas states, "Girls have learned to be 'enforcers of their own oppression,' calling each other sluts and whores, imposing even more ridiculous rules on themselves than the beauty-industrial complex does and mocking girls whose clothes, hair, figures, or social status aren't just right." Even though Douglas, and many viewers, acknowledge that the caddy girls featured in The Real World, The OC, and Gossip Girl are caricatures, they still now doubt have influence on the lives of the young women who watch them. The culture of attaining the "perfect" body has seemingly percolated through nearly every area of life. Will women one day find a way to escape it?
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