In English after the jump,
Vielleicht ist einigen von euch schon aufgefallen, dass hier im Gegensatz zu anderen Blogs aus der Boobosphere keinen Post zum Thema 'Große/Kleine/Mittlere Brüste sind schön' gibt. Nicht, weil wir Brüste nicht mögen oder schön finden, sondern weil wir versuchen wertende Beschreibungen zu vermeiden. Wir möchten mit unserem Blog Menschen primär helfen, sich in ihrem Körper wohl zu fühlen, egal wie dieser beschaffen ist.
Vielleicht habt ihr auf Social Media Seiten schon dieses Meme gesehen:
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| "Wann wurde das ... heißer als das?" (Quelle unbekannt) |
Es gab viele Blogger, die sich sehr kritisch mit dem oben genannten Meme auseinander gesetzt haben. Exemplarisch sei hier mal der Artikel bei der Mädchenmannschaft genannt (sicher gibt es noch mehr, aber ich bin schlecht mit bookmarken und auch nicht so 'drin' in der deutschen Blogosphere). Am Ende des Artikels findet sich ein Link zu diesem Bild:
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| "Wann wurde das ... heißer als das? Wurde es nicht. Sie sind alle wunderschön." Quelle: whirligigagogo.wordpress.com |
Jeder Mensch durchläuft nach seiner Geburt einen Prozess der Sozialisierung, bei dem bestimmten Werte und Normen in unsere Körper eingeschrieben werden und Teil des Rasters werden mit dem für uns die Welt begreifbar wird. Wenn wir immer wieder mit Bildern konfrontiert werden, die Frauen auf eine bestimmte Weise darstellen, werden diese normalisiert und zur Norm an der wir uns messen. Problematisch wird es wenn mensch dieser Norm nicht entspricht, was wenn mensch anders ist? Natürlich hinterfragen die meisten von uns diese medial simulierte Realität und den ungefilterten Effekt des Patriarchats und natürlich weiß jeder, auch ich, dass die wenigsten Frauen* diesem Ideal entsprechen können und das selbst bei vermeidlich perfekten Supermodels noch per Photoshop nachgeholfen wird. Aber manchmal hilft alles kognitive erkennen nichts gegen die kleine Stimme in meinem Unterbewusstsein, die anmerkt, wo meine 'Unzulänglichkeiten' liegen und die mich immer wieder mit anderen vergleicht.
Maybe some of you have noticed that in contrast to other blogs in the boobosphere there is no post about ‘Big/ Small / Medium boobs are beautiful’ on our blog. That’s not because we don’t like boobs or do not find them beautiful but because we try to avoid evaluative descriptions. The primary purpose of our blog is to help people to feel comfortable in their bodies, no matter what it looks like or can/ cannot do.
Maybe you have seen this meme flowing around social media websites and blogs:
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| Original source unknown |
On first glance, this picture seems to be a form of protest against the glorification of skinniness and slimming, in other words society’s tendency to present very skinny women* if not as the norm but as the ideal. When ever I see the image pop up somewhere, that’s not a feminist outlet, the comments are similar: “Whose into that kind of thing?”, “That’s unhealthy.” or “Creepy, you can see every bone.” What is problematic about comments along these lines is that one ideal is simply exchanged for another and the other side is ridiculed and bodyshamed. The consequences of being othered are then suffered by skinny women* while in main stream media or on the streets it's bigger women*. Again, there is judgment on which bodies are ‘good’ and which are ‘bad’, instead of accepting and celebrating diversity. Again, it seems to be okay and normal to judge women*’s bodies, respectively evaluating someone based on looks and thus to objectify them. How do we know that the women* in the first row suffer from eating disorders and aren’t naturally skinny? Maybe there body weight is lower because it allows them to get more covers, more roles, more attention and maybe there management is making them? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe it’s something else. How do we know that the women* in the lower column do not conform to the ideal of their times? Maybe they are looking the way they do, without that body looking the way they want?
There have been numerous bloggers who critically engaged with this meme (if you have a great link, please leave it in the comments). In one of the articles on feminist German blog ‘Maedchenmannschaft’ there is a link to the following meme that has been mentioned a couple of times elsewhere:
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| Source: whirligigagogo.wordpress.com |
This is much more inclusive then the first meme, as we see different body types being presented as equally beautiful. However, as some of the commentators on the article at Maedchenmannschaft have pointed out this doesn’t go far enough for me. Sure, there are now women* from the same era and there are Women of Color. Progress, no doubt. But all these women* are below 50 (?), none older, all seem healthy, not one of them seems to be disabled, none is fat, all wear make-up, all wear sexy clothes and approximately 100% do not look like that when the mail courier rings their doorbell at 8 AM after a night out. Maybe not even when you meet them at your local supermarket. Again they are presented in an idealized way.
Every person after birth undergoes a process of socialization, in which certain norms and values are inscribed in our bodies and which in turn form of lens though which we perceive and filter the world. If we are time and time again confronted with pictures that present women* are certain way, this way becomes normalized and thus the norm we measure ourselves again. But what happens if you don’t conform to the norm, if you are different? Of course we all most of us challenge this media simulated reality and the unfiltered effect of patriarchy and of course, everybody knows that only very few women* conform to this ideal and that even supposedly perfect supermodels are ‘enhanced’ by Photoshop. But sometimes this conscious knowledge looses the fight against that nagging little voice in the back of my head, that compares me to others and criticizes the features of my body relentlessly.
