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Okay.
I'm doing a lecture for FEM1100 at the beginning of February. One of the topics covered is: "Women's bodies as texts". This translates into:
"What Assumptions do We Make about Women, Based on their Body Shape?".
About tall women, they seem to make the following assumptions:
- Can't possibly be desirable by a male of the species and/or refuse to date short men. (Thence all the comments about "it must be hard to find a boyfriend" or "I bet you wouldn't date a short guy")
- Are actually men.
- Are ashamed of their own bodies (The statement "You should be proud of your height" assumes that I'm not).
- Do not actually exist at all (ask the clothing industrie. Or the shoe-making industrie. We're either not there at all, or we're there, but as a cash-cow for the few companies that deign to provide us with ugly, inferior quality, polyester clothing and/or clunky, low-quality, men's-style-derived shoes) -- Also, the Body Shop's "Ruby" campaign that featured the slogan "There are three billion women who don't look like super-models and six that do" --> Personally, every time I saw those signs I wanted to kick in the windows for negating my existence (as a tall, thin, woman) again.
- Are agressive. (What, do I inadvertently loom?)
So. Informal survey.
Those women who are (or have been):
Tall,
Thin,
Fat,
Short,
Strong,
Large/small breasted (or hipped, or assed, as the case may be)
Or anything else...
What sorts of assumptions did/do people make about you in terms of:
- Morality
- Sexual orientation
- Intelligence
- Levels of action/passivity
- Income
- Leadership skills
- Friendliness
- Psychological stability
- Romantic life
- anything else
Based on your appearance alone.
I want lots of comments on this one. Please help. :-)
Thanks very much. :-)
- Nam'ara,
- Amazon. :-)
I'm doing a lecture for FEM1100 at the beginning of February. One of the topics covered is: "Women's bodies as texts". This translates into:
"What Assumptions do We Make about Women, Based on their Body Shape?".
About tall women, they seem to make the following assumptions:
- Can't possibly be desirable by a male of the species and/or refuse to date short men. (Thence all the comments about "it must be hard to find a boyfriend" or "I bet you wouldn't date a short guy")
- Are actually men.
- Are ashamed of their own bodies (The statement "You should be proud of your height" assumes that I'm not).
- Do not actually exist at all (ask the clothing industrie. Or the shoe-making industrie. We're either not there at all, or we're there, but as a cash-cow for the few companies that deign to provide us with ugly, inferior quality, polyester clothing and/or clunky, low-quality, men's-style-derived shoes) -- Also, the Body Shop's "Ruby" campaign that featured the slogan "There are three billion women who don't look like super-models and six that do" --> Personally, every time I saw those signs I wanted to kick in the windows for negating my existence (as a tall, thin, woman) again.
- Are agressive. (What, do I inadvertently loom?)
So. Informal survey.
Those women who are (or have been):
Tall,
Thin,
Fat,
Short,
Strong,
Large/small breasted (or hipped, or assed, as the case may be)
Or anything else...
What sorts of assumptions did/do people make about you in terms of:
- Morality
- Sexual orientation
- Intelligence
- Levels of action/passivity
- Income
- Leadership skills
- Friendliness
- Psychological stability
- Romantic life
- anything else
Based on your appearance alone.
I want lots of comments on this one. Please help. :-)
Thanks very much. :-)
- Nam'ara,
- Amazon. :-)
