Women Find Comfort In Their Bodies - Essay Example

9 December Assignment Women appear very ‘at home’ in their bodies and their sexuality – this ment is up for analysis and debate because of the various schools of thought that might believe otherwise through conclusive proof. Many women are very comfortable about their bodies whereas others are not. Some have excellent bodily figures, which add to their level of confidence whereas other women may consider themselves to be ‘fat’. This sort of thinking anyway leads to a loss of self-esteem because it makes them believe that they are not good enough and not attractive enough to appeal to men. Women suffer from far more insecurities as compared to men because of the sole reason that they find it pressurizing to look appealing and ‘sexy’ all the time. For some women who might not have a ‘perfect’ body, they find it hard to adjust to their figures. I have explained this idea by talking about situations from the books Persepolis and Dogeaters. For a woman, to be comfortable in her body she might require the approval of a number of people before she wears something – by this I mean that many women have this habit of asking a couple of people how they look when they wear something before they can venture out with confidence. When a few other people tell them that they are looking good, they feel comfortable in their clothing and their bodies. Many women might not have the perfect body – they might have extra fat on several parts of their bodies making them bulge out and feel unattractive or they may not like the way their hair or their face looks on a certain day. All these aspects are very secondary to comfort. When a woman feels perfect with respect to all these aspects of her body, she feels very confident. In Persepolis, Marjane feels very at ease with her self when she is a young girl as opposed to her growing up years. Her grandmother is so comfortable with her sexuality that she openly talks about placing jasmine flowers in her bra cups to make her breasts soft and smell good, something not many people would be comfortable of speaking about. On the other hand, there are a number of women that do not need someone else’s approval in order to tell themselves that they look good and thus feel comfortable with themselves. Such women have an inherent idea about how they look despite what others might tell them, thus suggesting that they have found a comfort zone within their body and are very happy with who they are. We thus come to another important question – is this comfort with one’s body to do with an approval from others in society judging by how one sees another? For example, a woman might be comfortable with her own body and sexuality until someone tells her that she is too ‘fat’ to be wearing a certain type of clothing. This lowers her sense of confidence considerably and makes her feel unappealing to others. She then begins to take recourse to lose weight so that she can wear clothing that reveals her body and helps her feel sexual from the point of view of others. Then when a man tells her that she is looking good, she immediately gains back her confidence. In the film Persepolis, Marjane struggles through her teenage years as she asks her grandmother advice about her body and sexuality. Her grandmother appears to be very comfortable with regard to the same however Marjane takes some time adjusting to her body. Nonetheless, she feels good after gaining the approval of her grandmother and understanding that she looks good no matter what she wears. To explain this even better, I would like to talk about belly dancing and pole dancing classes that have become very common these days. Earlier, these activities were undertaken by only women who were thought to be seductive and had jobs in strip clubs or bars. Today however, these classes are advertised stating that women of all ages, shapes and sizes may take these classes because it helps in exercising the muscles and is very good for helping them feel comfortable with themselves. After taking these classes, it has been found that women love taking off small pieces of clothing from their body even though they might be ‘fat’ or heavy weighted. Moreover, these classes help to teach women a very important lesson – that no matter what their body looks like, it is great just the way that it is. (Wagner, Kyle) In Dogeaters Hagedorn wonderfully portrays the meaning of sexuality for women as she talks about the world of glamour as Rio and many other young girls like her believed it to be and the drug and sexually exploited world that they entered into in order to feel better about their bodies. Who is to say that women like these are actually at home with their bodies even though they appear to be? It should be understood that in such situations, women are more likely to be insecure because of this high need to expose herself to someone. This is the exact opposite of the insecurity that Marjane felt in Persepolis when she found out that the man she was in love within in France was cheating on her. She clammed up immediately and felt used. She wanted no one to touch her at the time and avoided the idea of relationships altogether. This tells us that women are dependent on others, specifically their male counterparts, for approval regarding how they look, in order to make them comfortable and at home about their bodies. Many women walk into clothing stores and prefer to buy lose garments or jeans that would ‘hide’ their big thighs and butts. This shows a sign of discomfort with one’s body. According to Gyasi Atkins, an associate at Fifth Avenue in the department of sales, women can be convinced that their bodies are perfect as they are and that they need not find clothing to hide their parts, instead they should wear clothing that would flatter the silhouette of their bodies. Baggy clothing makes the body look very distorted and might make a woman hate her body even more because it does not give her a feminine touch. Moreover, Atkins also stated that she hates it when someone enters her office and talks about ‘getting fat or feeling fat’. (Solomon, Akiba) She discourages the use of such negativity in the professional environment because it obviously hinders the workload of an individual. If women do not feel good or comfortable in their bodies then it is very difficult for them to concentrate on their work and interact with other customers. For such women, just by standing in front of a mirror and complimenting oneself, it can help a great deal. On the other hand, there are some women that may be fat and have a lot of body weight, but still would not mind wearing clothing that may reveal their body parts. They are extremely comfortable in their own skin and feel sexy no matter how big they are on the outside. Women like these appear very at home in their bodies and are so too, in the true sense of the word. It does not matter to them what others think of them. Moreover, when a woman appears extremely comfortable with her own body and sexuality she acts as an inspiration as well as an influence for the rest of the society. She sets the bar for a comfort zone and lets other women understand that one does not have to be skinny fitted in order to adorn a bikini or a cropped top. Due to the high level of confidence that such a woman might have, others get influenced by her idea of sexuality and attractiveness and give in to believing that the new sexy is her. This means that people around such a woman start understanding a different concept of being sexy or looking great in one’s skin, which does not have anything to do with being skinny. Therefore, appearing at home in one’s body and according to one’s sexuality is not enough and one must truly feel comfortable in order to exude such comfort and feeling of casualty. There have been a number of contemporary films explaining this idea as well; in the book Persepolis one can witness Marjane Satrapi grow from a young girl into a woman in the backdrop of Teheran and France and how she struggles to accept her identity. As a young girl she was comfortable with her body and sexuality till she grew up a little and realized how society made fun of the same. However, later into her life, she gets comfortable again and begins wearing makeup and fitting clothing to make her own self feel sexy. In Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn, this idea of body and sexuality has also been dealt with well. In this story, Rio Gonzaga, a young girl narrates her life through various circumstances as she grows up into a woman. She talks about her fantasies and does not fail to reveal the comfort that she has with her body and sexuality. Moreover, Rio’s cousin Pucha also narrates her life through the ups and down that she has gone through with regard to being with men and then marrying a wealthy man because of the high insecurities that she felt about her body. She talks about how she gave in to marrying him because of the sexual acceptance that she felt despite the fact that her marriage did not last. In conclusion, many women might appear very at home in their bodies might not be feeling so from the inside because of the discomfort that they feel with their body types. Moreover, they have a different perception of what me be regarded as sexy and wonderful which distorts their image in their own eyes and makes them desire to be like models on magazines – a feat that might not be achievable by them. However, women need to understand that feeling comfortable in one’s own skin has nothing to do with body weight but has everything to do with one’s idea of comfort and what appeals to oneself rather than what the rest of society is saying. Therefore, feeling comfortable and at home in one’s body, sexuality and self is all connected to the manner in which an individual, in this case a woman, views herself in the eyes of society rather than waiting for an opinion from someone else. Everything in this perspective thus has to do with one’s perception. Works Cited Solomon, Akiba. “What Everyone But You Sees About Your Body.” Glamour. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Dec 2012. . Wagner, Kyle. “Women Find Comfort In Their Bodies at Belly Dancing/Female Bonding Classes”. The Denver Post. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Dec 2012. Read More