Personal Is Political
by Breaking Walls Santiago artist Angela Castro Freire
When people ask me about memories related to food, I cannot help but remember all the times that my mom did not let me eat too much because of her fear of me gaining weight. The stereotype in her mind could not imagine me being overweight and pretty at the same time. Growing up in such an environment made me feel very insecure about the way I look and continue to haunt me until this day. However, I have noticed that I am not alone, many girls feel the same. It seems that accepting your own body has become a significant challenge. According to the charity Girlguiding, 51% of girls from ages 14 to 16 are unhappy with their appearance. But what makes women, starting at such a young age, lack confidence in their appearance? These questions are not new; many women, through the last decades, have been wondering and studying what the cause of this insecurity is.
Patriarchy has been the answer that many feminists’ writers have given to the problem. It is the system that we live in where the cultural and political power is in the hands of men. One of the pioneers in this analysis was the feminist philosopher Kate Millet. Kate theorized that patriarchy’s greatest psychological weapon is its universality and longevity. This ideology works on everyone, oppressing women and making men privileged; and, beauty standard is one of its many forms of oppression towards women. Never did my mom consider this when she deliberately made comments about my body, which is understandable. It may be hard for her to realize what she said was wrong, especially if you also grew up thinking that such behavior is normal and acceptable. Thanks to its longevity, patriarchy has been influencing the way people think over a very long time and across many cultures.
It was Simon de Beauvoir, who established that the representation that the world is created by men; that they can describe and craft it from their point of view. It is my belief that Simon is right. TV, social media, educational practices, advertisements, among others, succeed in creating a stereotype of women; an image that embodies what we should aspire to be. This social construct deems weight, body hair, breast size, buttock’s size, dark and brown skin color as characteristics almost “unnatural” for women. Consequently, companies offer the key to “change” our innate diversity, earning money from the insecurities created by the system. Young women, all women will hardly ever feel confident and happy with their appearance when they see and are constantly told that their diversity is not accepted as beautiful inside our society. Instead, we as women waste our time trying to fit a stereotype created by men to pander to men.
As women, we need to acknowledge this problem and fight back in order to embrace our appearance, love ourselves, and support each other.
It is still hard for me to love myself after growing up in a society where our bodies are under constant judgment. Nevertheless, with my girlfriends on my side, everything will have a positive outcome — a new world born out of love where we can accept ourselves without changes. A future where we can wake up every day feeling beautiful and empowered because personal is political and the future is feminist.
References
Kate Millet. (1970). The Theory of Sexual Politics. Sexual Politics (393). US: Doubleday and Co.
Girlguiding. (2013). Equality for girls. Girlguiding, Girls’ Attitude Survey 2013, 28.
Christina Winterburn. (2017). A Reminder from Simone de Beauvoir: Women are Not the Second Sex. 2019, de Worlds of Women Sitio web: https://wordsofwomen.com/a-reminder-from-simone-de-beauvoir-women-are-not-the-second-sex/