The Body, Gender and Sexuality: What the Skin, Hair and body stature Say - Essay Example

? The Body, Gender and Sexuality: What the Skin, Hair and body stature Say The Body, Gender and Sexuality: What the Skin, Hair and body stature Say The attempts of reconstructing the relationship between gender issues, body and sexuality is well documented in literature. In some cases, such attempts have only created the allowance for the origination of the debates regarding the subject. The dominant approaches regarding the topics have revolved to the racial, social and even cultural politics. This paper explores the relationship between body, gender and sexuality based on the common theories regarding hair, skin and body stature. First, the appearances of black women hair is what has been awarded a political approach, and it is also considered to be an extension of the theorization of the experiences, discussions and narratives of the black women lives. In most pieces of literature, the hair of black women has been treated as a correlate of gender and racial issues that revolve around the black women’s faces. For example, by basing on the trending in the hair care advertisements, circumstances that compelled the African American to market their products to the African American population have been explored, yet all these have been largely shaped by the beauty culture (Carter 2003). The aspect of identity has also been brought in by the point that some girls or women resorting to embracing certain hairstyles because they want to look like others, but even these received cultural backlashes. In other cases, hairstyles have been considered as the indelible markers of the gender. It is concurred that even the concept of having a bad, undesirable hair feature was just as common amongst the white population as the black population. Indeed, it is not uncommon to witness this in practice. Many races are still treating hair with equal importance (Laver 1969). Nevertheless, the widely accepted approach to bad hair was that oriented towards the racial lines, implying that even hairstyles had a different meaning attached to them based on the racial. In the initial stages, what missed in the discussions was how the hair of black women would associate their hairs with mainstream cultural and social ideas. This was not only the point for women, but also for men. Hair is considered a symbol of the ideals that the wearer stands for, but it also represents the authority of affiliation (Entwistle 2000). For example, it is conventional to find prisoners wearing short hair, in the same way as one would find the military men. Black women happen to share a collective consciousness about their hair, which is believed to be brought out in various ways. Individual interviews that have been conducted on women regarding how the hair matters and women have been found to offer their excuses based on the gender and racial accounts (Barthes 1983). Yet there are also cases where some groups of women and men have insisted that hair does not matter so much. Even so, such accounts are rear, for even those who represent the view only seem to prefer a certain form of hairstyles, which further seem to represent what they stand and protect (Tortore 1998). There are cases where the hair and skin make-up has elicited sharp reaction as demeaning one race and uplifting the stature of another (Kobena 1994). For example, in the past, the beauty pageants received criticisms for wearing make-ups and hair that demeans the blackness spirit. The incident of Michael Jackson resorting to plastic surgery to become white also elicited similar controversy and questions were raised whether the Black population was any proud of the racial identity. There are other many areas, including hair-styling, where the Black race has been presented to be losing favor to the White race. The view even attracted the slogan by the Black die-hearts that ‘black is beauty’ (King 1963). What can be inferred from all these is the point that it is almost inappropriate to treat the subject away from the racial issues. Indeed, the medium of dressing the hair can be considered as the medium for the expression of the black people’s aspirations, which had been historically excluded from the capitalist society. It is the same spirit that has spearheaded the black people in the African Diaspora to developing a wide and unique range of cultural products, ranging from those suited to music, speech, dances cookery, dressing and songs (Baudot 1999). All these have been described as the political response to the dispossession and oppression responses that the black race has been exposed to. In this regard, the Black hair styling and facial style-up can be considered as a popular form of art that serves to respond to the a wide range of problem that are created by racism and some excluding ideologies (McCracken 1988). Indeed, this can be considered as a valid approach because such exclusions have been historically rampant. There are other theories that have seemed to find a lot of applicability. Tensions that are basically addressed by trend in European culture include status, sex, occasion, biometrics of the body as well as social regulation. The potential trend instabilities include youth against age; masculinity against feminist; androgyny against singularity; inclusiveness against exclusiveness; as well as work versus leisure (Blumer 1969). Trend systems generally identify mechanisms for self identity through attire, decoration as well as gesture that try to control such tensions, misunderstandings and shortcomings (Johnson 2003). The aspect of social change cannot also be overlooked. Social change refers to the succession of issues that eliminate existing societal styles with modern ones in a gradual manner. This procedure is pervasive in the sense that it can lead to modification of roles of sex, lifestyles, and structures of families as well as functions. Trend theorists suggest that trend is an illustration of societal, economical, political as well as cultural changes, but they also believe that trend expresses contemporary themes (Lehmann 2000). Fashion therefore, not only reflects but also expresses a particular time of the previous past. The youth against age tension has influenced attire in the 20th century. The pattern has been geared towards different fashionable designs for the youth and adult buyer, especially with surging population of babies that followed the Second World War. Trends for the youth have followed a unique life, especially the appearance of retro images of the past ten years of the 20th century that overwhelmingly borrow designs of recent years. Since fashionable attire require an understanding of trending in the types of attire within a person’s lifetime, the older buyer who has met that design previously may decide not to take part (Brannon 2000). How a person dresses for occupation and leisure has changed with time (Veblen 1899). A persistent pattern of the 20th century has tended to bend toward coveting play time and an increasing necessity to look luxuriant. Putting on casual attires and leisure attires picked momentum in 1950’s due to migration of families to the suburban areas coupled with engagement in various outdoor events and sports. Attires for fan sports has been on increase, as has attires for taking part in various sports, that include tennis, golf, athletics, cycling, skating as well as rock climbing. The huge number of ladies who adopted body suits enhanced the fashion to more formal dressing in 1970s. In the early 1990s, the place of work was dominated by casual attire on Fridays. The unofficial-official form of attire illustrates how much significance is put on attire for work as well as leisure, but the ambiguity as well as tension involved (Lisa 2008). Even so, the most dominant subject has dominated to be aspect of identity. Attires play a significant role in the contemporary user’s feeling of identity. That criticizing a person’s attire and the way they appear is taken personally as well as intensely than criticizing a person’s car or crib suggests a huge correlation that exists between the way one appears and their identity. People may purchase a new item to imitate a certain group or solely to explain their personality. Wilson (1985)expressed this double tendency of obedience and egotism, suggesting that a person derived enjoyment when they dress to express themselves, but simultaneously acquired support imitating other people. Flugel (1930) explained the paradox by employing the idea of superiority as well as inferiority, that is, a person struggles to ape other people if they appear superior and at same time discard their fashion if they are inferior. In this manner trend can offer identity, as a symbol of hierarchy as well as substitute of appearance (Davis 1992). Fashion favors a critical look to the noticeable observer, or one who is aware as well as the designer who organizes the body for their own leisure and pleasure. Perceptions depicted by the observer as well as the wearer of trend are shaped basing upon the various potential variations as pertains to lines, shapes, composition and colors. For instance, attires of French influence and origin placed emphasis on contour as well as the cut of the attire. Changes in fashion happened in the design of the clothing, which will in turn focus attention to the silhouette as well as details, that include bias cutting as well as shaping (Delong 1998).In contrast, countries where native attire has been used, Korea, for instance, trend in native attire has borrowed a lot from styles, motifs, colors and patterns around the surfaces, but the outline of the clothing remains constant. A famous culture can termed as those features of leisure that run parallel, within and often oppose to the intellectual structure in the society. In the 17th century civilizing factors of a wealthy society entailed courtly pleasure, tournaments, drama festivals and opera. However, famous culture was subjected to overwhelming entrepreneurial limitation coupled with commodity modification, with a wide appeal to urban aristocracy (Lisa 2008). A modern concept of famous culture was significant to the ability of attire as an agent of communication in social distinction as well as belonging. This shift preceded and facilitated consumer and technological change that occurred in the 18th century (Lipovetsky 1994). Nowadays, famous culture is developed by the mass media influence, and the mode denoted the message, in various ways. It could be argued that fashion is a connective tissue in the organism of culture and is vital to mass communication, spectrum and modernity. Fashion is a phenomenon that has been ascribed various dimensions, including change, time context and novelty, as well as the place and wearer. Fashion has been described as the process that is capable of influencing the processes of collection selections by the wearers. In this case, the information that dictates the interests of the wearer is a derivative of the notions and preferences of the larger group, whose ideals are considered to be acceptable by the mainstream society (Breward 1995). The subject has been further advanced based on the how the fashion products are modeled, distributed and even consumed (Cole 2000). One of the approaches to fashion has been based on the fashion system models, where the ideas of the new fashion as visualized as being centrally placed and seem to radiate outwards, as they are adopted by the society. Another approach is the populist model, which is considered as an alternative to the fashion system model. This posits that the acceptance or rejection of the ideals regarding the relationship between gender, body and sexuality is a reflection of the differences in ideals in line with age, geographical location, and culture and socio-economic status, all of which may even work to create their own fashion products (Kidwell and Christman 1974). In part, these could explain the prevalent variation in what different groups of people, for instance, high school students and the aging groups of people stand for. There are various pieces of work regarding beauty and women hair that have been largely explored. What has been one element of the debate has been the issue of the hair as it pertains to women, as well as how intersects with the freedom, motherhood, law, beauty, appropriation, race and identity (Roche 1994). For instance, despite the fact that Afro hair style was largely associated with the civil rights movement activists, some groups of women who later adopted it discovered that it was appealing in the sense it left the hair particularly relaxed, as opposed to its notion of affirming blackness. However, it has also been observed that political, social and cultural perceptions produce a picture that is utilized in the assessment and interpretation of the body picture. Thus, it is possible to interpret the body, hair or facial expression based in the political, cultural and social marking schemes (Agins 1999). Moreover, fashion can act as an accessible as well as flexible means of explaining modernity. A fashionable entity has been linked to the city in terms of societal interaction as well as display. In the 19th century trend was linked to a feeling of doubt of ancient and modern. Modernity contributed partly to modern technologies and a feeling of the new arising out of modern ideas of art and consumption (Craik 1994). Tensions from an increasing commodity modification of fashionable patterns emphasized the luxuriant and metropolitan. In the 20th century modernity became identified through many but subtle mechanisms, from the form which the dress contours the body, to certain product branding. As a way of expressing modernism, Western trends have been acquired by societies that are located far away from Europe. In some countries where native trends of attire were common, the men quickly adopted Western official suits. Women were slower to embrace Western attire in lieu of native fashions that explain historical continuity (Polhemus 1994). In conclusion, in the examination of the hair, skin and body stature, as far as body, gender and sexuality is concerned, various factors seem interplay. In the end, it appears the relationship cannot be distanced from fashion, social, cultural and social issues. For instance, the medium of dressing the hair can be considered as the medium for the expression of the black people’s aspirations, which had been historically excluded from the capitalist society. It is the same spirit that has spearheaded the black people in the African Diaspora to developing a wide and unique range of cultural products, ranging from those suited to music, speech, dances cookery, dressing and songs. Another account of the relationship between Body, Gender and Sexuality is that oriented towards the social change. Social change refers to the succession of issues that eliminate existing societal styles with modern ones in a gradual manner. This procedure is pervasive in the sense that it can lead to modification of roles of sex, lifestyles, and structures of families as well as functions. 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