Getting beyond weight issues, Dr. Joan Brumberg of Cornell University hits
all the high notes on girls and body issues; For a free printable
discussion guide to her book, The Body Project, go to
www.randomhouse.com/vintage/read and click Reading Group Guides, and
scroll down to Body Project. (Donna Hart also added 3 attachments that
through the EdEquity listserv do not translation to your individual e-mail
accounts, so if you would like to obtain copies please e-mail Donna
directly at <donnahart@covad.net> All the best the EdEquity Moderator)
Dr. Brumberg spoke to over 500 hundred Washington area parents on March 8,
2001 at Holton-Arms School. Historian and author Joan Jacobs Brumberg,
Ph.D. of Cornell University spoke to a packed auditorium on March 8th.
Brumberg relied on her comprehensive research to explain the underpinnings
of teenage girls' sexual awareness today. She is author of The Body
Project: An Intimate History of American Girls and Fasting Girls: The
history of Anorexia Nervosa. To trace the change in girls' attitudes and
their biological timetable, Brumberg focused on history, often detailed
through diaries. She pointed out that today a teenage girl's first sexual
encounter typically occurred at the same age that her
great-great-grandmother first menstruated. The term "petting" evidently
came into being in the 1920s. "The behaviors aren't new," she said, "but
talking about them to each other and in diaries is."
In Victorian diaries, the emphasis was on character, morals, and hard work
to define a person's attractiveness. In the 20th century, however, the body
became what Brumberg called "the primary project." "The body became the
ultimate expression of self and self-critiques centered largely on the
body." New self-denigrating terms such as "thunder thighs" and "butt
bummers" became popular.
Brumberg labels this behavior "self-objectification." "It's not just men
doing it. Girls seem to have a camera in their heads, watching themselves
at all times and the answer to who am I revolves around the body."According
to many pediatricians Brumberg has talked with, girls as young as 8 or
9-years-old are beginning to diet. Despite the cultural pressures and media
of today, Brumberg says this preoccupation with body cannot be solely
blamed on Calvin Klein and other clothes manufacturers, which run
provocative ads featuring slender-bodied models. Instead, the focus has
evolved over time.
Again, Brumberg looks to history to explain why. The advent of handheld
mirrors, Vanities, cosmetic compacts in the 1920s, and the modern domestic
bathroom after WWII all "created a mandate for self-scrutiny." (She also
pointed out that the break and miscommunication between mothers and
daughters probably accelerated with the "bob" hairstyle of the 1920s.
Before that, in Victorian days, women-mothers, sisters, daughters-spent a
great deal of time in "mutual grooming," helping one another wash, comb,
and arrange long hair and tie corsets. All activity which allowed for
greater intimacy and longer conversations.)
Fashion also fueled concern about appearance. In the 1890s, a small waist
was everything, says Brumberg. In WWI and the 1920s, slender legs, flat
chests, and hairless underarms were best displayed in chemise flapper
dresses. In the 1950s, hairless legs and large breasts pushed into points
by constricting bras were the desired look. Forget penis-envy, she said,
now we have "Venus-envy."
"The entire body became our message board," says Brumberg. And if the body
was not attractive in the way society defined it, the message was not good.
"Bad body fever has set up our girls for low self-esteem, depression, and
eating disorders."
How can parents fight what our culture has built over many years? Brumberg
advised the following:
1.. Even as toddlers, girls need to hear what their bodies can do instead
of how their bodies look.
2.. Don't evaluate other women's appearances or criticize your own.
3.. Talk with girls about the difficulty of growing up in the female body
today. And do so continuously. Studies show that teenage girls want more,
frank discussions with their mothers about sexual issues, not one BIG talk.
Look for teachable moments, such as the Clinton indiscretion, or TV ads.
4.. Share your values.
"Anxiety about appearance is normal," Brumberg says, but adds, "the cost
can be high. Girls have sex at a young age to express anger or boredom or
to improve their self esteem." Girls least likely to have early sex are
those who are academically inclined, self-confident, and who have strong
interests outside the dating culture.
Brumberg continued: "Bad body fever empowers men, not women. Girls want to
be wanted so badly they don't make good decisions. They don't recognize
coercion or abuse because they are so vulnerable to wanting to be
desirable."The seeming autonomy or today's teens is "illusory. Most do not
have the emotional and cognitive resources to withstand peer pressure and
desire for boyfriends."
Like it or not, Brumberg concluded, "sex is the currency of the world" and
"mothers and women professionals need to create a national dialogue about a
code of sexual ethics. What constitutes consent when there is so much
sexual activity. The goals should be safety, responsibility and reciprocity
in all their new intimacy. We need a new code for a post-virginal world."
Donna Hart
<donnahart@covad.net>
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