BerberElla, I hesitate to contradict you in some of your points but I think I must in order to 'alleviate' some misconceptions you might have.
Hey Kleine
don;t hesitate to contradict, this is how we learn and grow no? Plus, as the one who has BDD, I already know that I have many misconceptions, so I'm interested in hearing the other side.
Certainly the pre-Modern era art portrays what you speak of. However, since we're on the subject of printed/sculpted arts: take a lot at Van Gogh, Picasso, or any Modern or post-Modernist artist. They portray ugliness, dis-proportion, in some sense, a twisted truth. But there is also a sense of beauty in that that makes one see beyond the sexual idea of attractiveness.
Furthermore, even in 'old art', there are examples of brutality and the ugliness of humanity. For instance, since you brought it up, my avatar is that of Hector of Troy leaving his wife and child for the last time. Beauty is not about his looks, but about his ideal: the bravest man to defend his people and his family, even at the cost of his own life. You see BerberElla, there is a subtext to much of art, and mine is just an example. Sure Hector looks handsome and gallant, but he is truly scared for his own life and hesitates to leave his family, but he must. The fall of Troy is an old story and that painting is relatively new. The main subtext is that Andromache, Hector's wife, becomes a Grecian slave, and his son is thrown off the tall walls of Troy, hence him leaving them at that moment is the shattering of their entire family. It's a brutal painting, and I think it's heart-breaking when I think about it. But anyways, my point being that there is more to what you see.
No doubt each portrait tells a story, every work of art with its own subtext, but how does understanding that story really help someone who at the onset of puberty (which I have read is when BDD kids in) is already looking in horror at the mirror?
I am perfectly aware that the Mona Lisa is not a beautiful woman by today's standards, I already know that there were times in which the ideal of today was ugly. In morocco once there was a time in which being skinny wasn't a good thing at all. But then ideas of beauty were wide hips, plumper bodies, which means it was still about what society dictates an attractive woman should look like.
When I was introduced to art, picasso, van gogh et al, as a teenager, all it was was art. Was there beauty? yes of course, but did that make me let go on modern notions of beauty? sadly, no.
Perhaps if it was taught in such a way, rather than a bored teacher walking around an art museum telling you what is what, and was instead used as a way to present this view that you embrace, to a new generation, we could see if it would be successful as a means to an end, its just that not many are naturally drawn to the arts.
Let me give you an example in literature: Machiavelli's "The Prince" was not written as a guide, rather as a satire. Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" portrays honorable values, good judgment, and intellect as superior to physical beauty (and it very obviously does so). The same with Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre". Home and Virgil no doubt fail to shy away from the ugliness of humanity, physical beauty being but a mere tool at times.
Are not the Bronte sisters, and Austen examples of a woman ultimately embracing their value as women through love? and is it not this princess mission for love all tied in to this race for the beauty one needs to get it?
I think my point here is that art/literature all rely on personal interpretation, if I interpret the 2 mentioned (I've got virgil and homer for reading over the summer) as helping push that love mission and therefore that mission for beauty, then it doesn't help everybody.
Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series actually portrays a matriarchal society, led by women of all shapes, sizes, and physical attractiveness. Perhaps it's just the literature you've been reading (sorry!). The classics however are filled with notions of attractiveness that are not like the MTV portrayal of beauty, so try reading something from the Romantic or pre-Romantic era, I'm sure you'll be surprised.
I have read the wheel of time series (you couldn't even guess how many times
), and yeah, it's matriachal, and yes women come in all shapes and sizes but the main love stories consist of beautiful women, considered beautiful amongst their own cultures, and there are constant references to their awesome, eye popping good looks.
Again I refer back to my orginal point, interpretation of the text is sometimes more important than the text itself. I see nothing but love and beauty in those examples.
This one book, the ill made mute, is about an ugly girl who can not talk, but guess what? she wasn't ugly at all, it was all a spell, that as lifted when her faerie prince came for her.
Find love, need beauty, find love, be beautiful, find love, keep trying.
Quasimodo, beauty in the unattractive, great on paper, but when the world has an imbalance created by looks, ontop of class, gender, sexuality, religion, oh jesus do the ways in which we side line people ever stop?
I see your point, I just don't see it's power to create change, since you would need to insist that your interpretation was the right one, and that will always remain open to debate.
This is a statement of fact, and I agree with it.
Do I suggest any solutions to the problem of beauty? Yes. Understand beauty, understand humanity, and understand yourself. Then be your own master. "Society" no longer bounds us if we know it's facade for what it is so you can play along with it, or break free of it without feeling like an outcast.
Yes, agreed.
But rationalise that to kids this young:
At the extreme end of the spectrum, one six-year-old girl presented to a paediatrician with food avoidance, excessive exercising and fear of weight gain but had not been diagnosed with anorexia because she was not severely underweight.
The youngest child to be diagnosed with anorexia was eight years old.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6498345.stmThis is why i think its important to talk about this subject, I have a daughter and just a few months ago had to face the consequences of my actions because she started showing signs of food avoidance, and worrying about whether she is slim. She is 7, and slim, slimmer than I think is right for little girls her age.
This is my issues rubbing off on her. So although I was constantly told I wasn't attractive enough, white enough and slim enough to get a husband, even though I have never ever told my little girl anything other than she is beautiful, my own self hatred and my compliments to her are creating similar damage.
And I see this in others. My bitch sister making her 12yr old daughter diet, even though she is not fat, why if not because her mother desires her daughter to be attractive to men?.
What are we actually doing here?
I read a lot of literature as a young girl, but it did not save me from the things I thought of myself. It offered me a way to escape, but increased my need to be perfect or nothing.
So, for me I guess I have yet to grasp what you have out of the arts. You are lucky you have that POV.
Topic: Hijab, self esteem and the culture of beauty