I am having a hard time reconciling my belief that we (all people, but women especially) can choose our own external images with freedom and independence(better adj to come later) with the mounting evidence that perhaps our desire to do so is subconciously motivated by the white/male/super/power structure as a means to keep us subjugated.
For example, does wanting to straighten my hair mean I have a desire to be white? Or that I can only be beautiful if I more closely resemble a white woman? And what about my friend who wants a nose job? She is already stunning to look at and has her own business and is a writer besides--does this financially exorbitant and unnecessary choice reflect an effort to show the world (or her jealous boyfriend) that she is not as successful as she really is? I mean, after all, she has a big nose!
I have been reading Naomi Wolf, for about a year now....slow anger reading, I think. And this is some food for thought!
2 comments:
It is concerns like this that petrify me. What of what i want is my own and what is a construction of hegemonic programing? Am i entriely constructed or is there some essential part of me that remains untouched an reliable? Is that part of me, if it exists, even vaguely accessible or is it buried under so many layers of socialization that i shall never encounter it? What is the form of me that will most contribute to the spiritual adavancement of society? How do i know that in the identificaition of that self, i am not actually reinforcing destructive constructs? i am intellecutally paranoid.
abi
I did a self-inflicted study on myself in an attempt to distinguish my self-self from my socialized self. I chopped all my hair off senior year of college and took the plunge, going all natural. I felt that if I could somehow still feel beautiful with hair au naturelle, then I could justify straigtening it out again at a later date with the comforting knowledge that it would not be some subconcious attempt to be more "white" by doing so. What of our decisions and self worth assesments are based on socialization? Take away the socialized condition and see what happens. By the way, I been au naturelle ever since....
-L
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