Tag: Stephany Pineda Cardoso Final Portfolio

Stephany Pineda Cardoso Institutional Artifact

Women not always covered their breasts, and while we aren’t sure when women started covering this part of their body, western societies agree that a women’s breasts should be hidden. Because of this, brassieres (bras) have become an artifact of femininity and womanhood. Masculinity and femininity deal with gender expression and sex (female, male, or intersex), is the biological composition of a body (Killermann) however, bras have forced the correlation between these two concepts, creating the idea that if you are not feminine and a female you are not a woman. This is obviously challenging for people who are not cisgender, and the question of what it means to be a woman lingers, is it the challenges or history? What does this artifact exactly do for individuals?

The article “Reshaping the Body; Clothing and Cultural Practice” published by the University of Virginia, states that men also wore corsets, but by the mid 1800’s this custom had been ridiculed (by the choice of men). On the other hand, this was not a choice for women, wearing a corset was a way of disciplining women’s bodies. Caresse Crosby is attributed to have invented brassieres by separating the traditional corset into two pieces. Wearing a bra was not widely accepted, it became popularized when world war two started because women were asked to refrain from buying corsets to preserve metal for weapon production (Pandika). Based on this information we can infer that bras were adapted out of the custom of wearing a corset and not because of a want. You can also argue that this situation is an example of how a simple validation by men pushed women into a different social norm.

The current problem is not a debate of whether women should use a bra or not, rather, it is how bras are used to create detrimental societal norms and how these in turn result in the oppression of women. Advertisements from the 1500’s aimed to portray thin waists, not larger breasts. Breasts became hypersexualized soon after the invention of bras, in which movies, magazines, and other forms of media took a large part in promoting. Mass media has promoted the hypersexualization of a female’s body, and this hypersexualization results in objectification, “Objectification occurs when people are viewed as objects existing solely for the pleasure of the viewer, rather than as agents capable of action. The person being objectified often is reduced to body parts: breasts, genitalia, muscles, curves, buttocks, and hair” (Lynch 2012). Marilyn Monroe is an example of the effects of this system, she became a sex symbol because mass media objectified her body. These views can have damaging effects on women as is proven by her death. Women tend to internalize these views because of institutionalized ideals, this is called self-objectification. In result people engage in body surveillance which is critically looking and judging one’s body. This causes a drop of self-esteem. The lack of optimism and confidence can deprive women of higher success.

Wearing a bra has also become a shield against society. Due to this objectification and hypersexualization, women are forced or feel pressured to cover their breasts to prove modesty and feel safe. Not wearing a bra can be for comfort but it is usually perceived as vulgar or provocative. Wearing a bra might not be an ideal choice for some, but it is done to avoid being viewed as a sexual object. Wearing push up bras to feel validated and not be faced with bullying is also common. From this you can see that this artifact is used to please everyone but women.

As a child I personally felt embarrassed of my body’s changes, somehow, I immediately knew I needed to wear an extra layer of protection, interesting enough my breasts at that time were nowhere near an A cup. As a 9-year-old girl I perceived my growth signs as something that could be shameful. Sadly, this is the experience of many girls. Wearing a bra for the first time is a sign of change towards womanhood and this can be exciting. Since a bra can signify growth, it can also assume physical maturity, the bodies of young girls can in turn be sexualized, this is an additional problem that arises. Women’s breasts main purpose is to nurture and there is nothing sexual about this, and nevertheless should a child’s body be viewed this way.

Some may say push up bras (for example) are something that contributes to body empowerment, but true empowerment requires in depth understanding. Corporations have found themselves supporting this body empowerment movement through intimate wear, but marketing statements like these can reinforce gendered attractiveness. Gendered attractiveness happens when a normative physical appearance is seen as beautiful and sexually appealing. We can look at Victoria Secret’s brassiere marketing content in contrast to other brands like TomboyX or Girls will be Boys. Victoria Secret illustrates women who are skinny and have large breasts to attract their audience, they perpetuate the traditional idea of how women should look.

The denial of wanting to look a specific way to please society only supports the ideals we live in. Some do not notice that their behavior reflects norms placed by society. Traditional behavior is enforced many times by other women, and not necessarily with bad intention. Mothers for example want to protect their young girls, so girls might be taught a behavior associated with being a “good” woman. On the other hand, some are trying to reclaim the power of bras by wearing lingerie as shirts or going braless, unfortunately, neither is the option for specifically working-class people because of the extreme retaliation and additional obstacles presented by for example job institutions.

Reclaiming our power through this simple piece of clothing is so complex. Many use it to express their femininity or amplify their gender identity. We can see how this is a double edge sword, any way of approach calls for challenges. The problem intensifies when a bra is no longer an item to support breasts or comfort, but rather a tool that fulfills perverse thoughts and reinforces harmful traditional ideals. Cultural norms and societal views on a female’s body greatly makes up how women dress. I am not saying lingerie and bras should be abolished, I am saying women should have the power to dictate how their body is viewed and how they choose to use this artifact. Why is it that people who have sexualized this artifact and body part do not get retaliation? Instead they are applauded for reinforcing their thoughts, women are then persecuted for not conforming.

Outside sources

Darren Curnoe Chief Investigator and Co-Leader of Education and Engagement Program ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage. “Where Were All the Women in the Stone Age?” The Conversation, 21 Oct. 2019, theconversation.com/where-were-all-the-women-in-the-stone-age-73374.

“Men’s Corsets.” Reshaping the Body: Clothing & Cultural Practice, exhibits.hsl.virginia.edu/clothes/mens_corset/#:~:text=Some%20men%20wore%20corsets,create%20the%20required%20smooth%20silhouette.

Pandika, Melissa. “Bra History: How A War Shortage Reshaped Modern Shapewear.” NPR, NPR, 5 Aug. 2014, www.npr.org/2014/08/05/337860700/bra-history-how-a-war-shortage-reshaped-modern-shapewear.

Gender Identity Project Stephany Pineda Cardoso

I looked up and around, women all so efficiently coordinated to get the job done. Living in a small apartment in Puebla, my four aunts worked, did chores, and took care of their children, all single mothers, except one, who never left her room. I saw women walking in and out, one side led to the kitchen and the other led to a comal bigger than my 6 year old self, where flames blazed as if it’s purpose was to eat the hands that flipped the freshly made tortillas. What a bravery I thought, as I slowly bit into a tortilla watching in amazement. 

I looked around; we were traveling in a van full of men for what seemed to be days. My mother’s legs carried a bump that occupied my pillow space. I became angry, but my mother looked into my eyes and hugged me, reassuring me that her love for me would never end. Finally, we arrived in a house full of tough, tall, big belly men. And as we settled in a room a young woman entered. Her tears endlessly fell, my mother hugged her as if she were me, and my 7-year-old self watched them as I slowly faded into sleep. Our field trip came to an end, or so I thought. We arrived at my aunt’s house, but we were soon told we needed to move out. I looked up worried, but my mom described a beautiful place to look forward to, which made me forget that when I looked around, we were sleeping on someone’s kitchen floor.

I looked up, we were smiling, chatting, and laughing. I held her hand, strolling in our new neighborhood where we finally had a room to call ours. I looked around and then back, suddenly I was several feet away from my mom, my eyes locked onto her figure. He was hurting her. I entered a state of shock. I wanted to tell him to stop, to scream, to punch him and kick him, but my body and voice felt as if it had been tied and threatened by fear. All I could hear was my mother’s yelling, asking for help. Her gray handbag refused to let go of her arm, and her hand refused to let go of the stroller. I clicked back into reality when he started running away. I ran towards my mom in need of a hug, I was scared and confused but she reassured me like always.

The time came where I no longer looked up, but instead I looked at myself and then around. “Critical theories emphasize the role broad cultural institutions and norms play in the construction and maintenance of gender” (DeFrancisco, Victoria and Catherine), these played a big part in who I thought I was supposed to be and who I wanted to be seen as. I was trying to understand who I was through society’s norms. In relation to my gender this happened when I became a girlfriend, I saw other traditional examples of what women did towards their loved one, and I tried to imitate. I was not aware of my gender experiences until now, and not because my grandfather recently pointed at my “inadequate” decision as a woman to cut my hair, but because I now understand my past experiences.

Gender roles assign an expectative to a specific gender or sex (Sonja K. Foss). All my aunts defied traditional gender roles. One of them never left her room because she silently grieved her boyfriend’s death. The bravery of my aunts to dip their hands in fire and rescue a tortilla is nothing more than a womanly role to many. The young woman my mom consoled, was crying because she had just experienced a man being stabbed. My long field trip wasn’t just another vacation, but it was when I crossed the border. I can now see the resilience and power of my mother, to withstand the heat in the car, and my complaints of this bump, that ended up being my sister. I learned that we needed to move soon after arriving in the U.S because my uncle had physically abused my aunt. My mother’s strength to confront someone significantly taller in front of her children, and still not break down just to give me reassurance is unbelievable.

All my life I saw women as a representation of strength and power. My ideas of what it means to be a woman were psychologically built, “psychoanalytic theories call attention to how unconscious thoughts and memories influence a person’s identity, actions and beliefs” (DeFrancisco, Victoria and Catherine). My gendered experience was additionally intersectional, my culture, social class and immigration status had to do with my gendered experience. My current beliefs were triggered by early childhood experience. I have learned that if I indeed viewed women and men as equal, I would not mind letting go of this gender binary system. A gender binary system is made of two socially constructed categories, (one who is always more powerful). The history and challenges women face carry a heavy weight, getting rid of this binary system in my mind means invalidating the power and strength of a woman. I have recognized, upheld, and feel proud of women’s success because of their unique and difficult challenges, but because I have not experienced an identity formation of a man or know of their unique challenges, I devalue them unconsciously. As I spoke with communication professor Whitney, she stated that gender is not meant to be completely abolished but rather other definitions are supposed to be implemented so that we eliminate this binary system. But because of the social learning theory, which is the idea that gender is a learned behavior constructed by the analyzing of others (DeFrancisco, Victoria and Catherine), and that gender is a performance as stated by Judith Butler, I believe that the behavior associated with each gender will always be problematic. Remembering gender by history and unique challenges in effort to eliminate it might be more successful, but of course I will have to educate myself further to make such claims. I know that as humans our experiences are both powerful and meaningful. I cannot highlight the power of a woman (despite their everyday discrimination and challenges) without recognizing the depression and silence men go through because society’s norms (critical/cultural structure). If I think of people as humans with complex experiences, I can better understand the foundation of identity formation.

 

Stephany Pineda Cardoso Discussion 3

My smile – Psychological and Critical

Although I’ve had bad comments about how my smile looks aesthetically, I still love it. My teeth are straight, so this helps my confidence, regardless, I believe it represents me and who I am as a person. My personal philosophy is to always smile, be kind, hardworking and have discipline. I have developed this through my personal experiences. Moving to a new country heightened my self-awareness of my difference in culture. I was not only facing school, culture, language, and personal identity development challenges but I did not have a safe place to go home to. My family and I were unwelcomed by some family members that lived here. Being torn away from my family in Mexico was difficult, and although I had my mom, I also had my new outside world to face. Knowing that the people you love can be torn away so quickly is the reason why I love people in general, I believe I need to cherish every moment. Smiling was my way of coping. Every time I see a picture of myself, I am smiling, and most of the time with my teeth showing, it’s funny but it reminds me of how happy I am with the people around me. I have pictures of all my friends and family hanging up on my wall and we are all cheesing. My smile is a reminder that I can overcome anything. People know me as always being happy, bubbly, and full of energy in any situation. Through my analysis I see that my experiences influence the way I view my smile, and this is a psychological and critical perspective.

Arms – Biological, Psychological and Critical

I have viewed my arms through the norms of society. I have disliked their thinness and hairiness because it has led me to believe that I am physically weak and unattractive. I have learned to feel indifferent about them, but I cannot help but feel annoyed sometimes. Everyone has body hair, but it is expected that women shave. The problem is not about shaving the problem is that women are expected to do this in order to be exemplary, more like “an acceptable woman”. Otherwise women get called disgusting, or even manly. I was constantly “jokingly” called out for being hairy. This brought down myself esteem, I looked at myself and wanted to get rid of everything that made me look different. The only thing that kept a razor off my arms was my mom telling me that if I shaved my hair will grow back thicker and ugly. My first time shaving was for my firth grade graduation, I think I was too young to do so but I was influenced because my best friend’s mom had allowed her to shave and so she made a side comment about me doing it. Through middle school I had close friends who had arms just like mine, and I would make pinky promises with other girls to promise each other never to shave our arms and support each other. Sadly, they always shaved, and society won. I now feel more confident, I am glad I didn’t shave, and I don’t mind my arms being thin. What still annoys me is that when my arms are visible people just stare, as if I suddenly transformed into an alien. This is annoying and hurtful at times, but I let them have their view and process of thought, there is really nothing else I could do.

Speech – Psychological and Critical

I am insecure of how I speak; I am scared to look like a fool, and I feel frustrated when I cannot get my ideas across. I started learning English while barely knowing Spanish. My cultural differences have led me to fear being perceived as uneducated. While taking linguistics I was able to reflect and understand that I have idolized “white English”. I associated “white English” with great articulation and perfect pronunciation. My view on my speech has come from a psychological and critical perspective. 

I think that my embodied communication complies with “what it means to be a girl”, this could be anything from my behavior to how I talk. Based on the information in this article I believe I use many stereotypical behaviors to fit my needs and my environment. I have always done “boy like activities” to show that I have courage and to break the stereotype of a typical girl. It is common for a girl to be perceived as strong when she does a daring activity (known to be for boys), but once that girl starts picking up “boy behavior”, such as a specific way of sitting, talking or eating, she risks receiving retaliation. I see myself in this situation, this is a norm I follow and submit myself to, they construct my behavior today. Psychological theories describe these experiences, children grow up within ideals that make it harder to break this gender binary system. Mothers want the best for their child but there is the fear that teaching their children something other than these norms might completely challenge their experiences.

Journal 3

Theories of Gender and Sex introduces the theories by which gender and sex is studied. There are three main theories that are introduced; Biological, Psychological, and Critical/Cultural theories. Biological theories are an objective perspective (also known as scientific), while cultural theories are viewed through an interpretive perspective, and psychological theories are in the middle of both.

Biological theories typify sex, meaning they use hormones, brain structure and other common aspects of a specific sex to understand or explain behavior. This has undoubtedly been helpful, but these types of studies indicate that women are more likely to for example, be more nurturing because of their biological nature to give birth, additionally, new studies have shown that this is not true. This further indicates that men are more likely or have aggressive behavior due to their high levels of testosterone. It essentially says that our biological sex determines gender differences. This is a problem because new research suggests that there are more factors that go into determining what is gender, how is constructed and how it is adopted.

Psychological theories focus on the internal development triggered by early childhood experience. This approach focuses on how our unconscious thoughts and memories influence our identity and beliefs. Within this approach there are two very interesting ideas, social learning, and cognitive development. Social learning tells us that gender is learned behavior while cognitive development is identity in stages. This approach uses scientific research along with other resources to understand the complexity of humans. Humans are only so predictable therefore we can only understand so much through this approach. Research that goes into developing these ideas might have a larger margin of error results because of our unpredictability.

Lastly, Critical/Cultural theories introduce us to study the power within society and gender norms. It invites us to look at how gender is viewed in different cultures. All societies have at least a slightly different perspective and therefore experiences of individuals vary. For example, women in the U.S have a different experience than women in Muslim countries or Latin countries because of religion, history, tradition, race, etc., this is called intersectionality.

Gendered/Sexed Bodies gives us a further understanding of all the concepts above and how they are played into reality. I was specifically intrigued by how many ideas are internalized. This was discussed in the explanation of Objectification. This term refers to the view of bodies as sexualized and as an object, but self-objectification goes on further than trying to comply with society’s norms. Self-objectification internalizes those beliefs; that your body is an object.