Normalizing Women

Philosopher Michel Foucault wrote of one of the major mechanisms in society—the categorization of people into “normal” and “abnormal.” Foucault's emphasis is particularly relevant in establishing notions of female sexuality in the media, and works to perpetuate misleading standards about women’s bodies

…Common Themes of Normalization Include:

 ▪ The body is pathological—it is diseased, sick, damaged, and in need of repair.

 ▪ The body is abnormal—certain bodies are considered in need of correction, such as overweight ones, non-white ones, and wrongly proportioned ones.

 ▪ Certain bodies are normal—proportions, size, placements, and the like are deemed by society to be the models that all should replicate, follow, and mimic.

 ▪ The body is your enemy—people are told that their bodies are out of control and in need of punishment; the body is something that is to be feared and worked on.

 ▪ Technologies of correction are available—society provides people the appropriate means to correct their bodies, including cosmetics, surgery, dieting technologies, makeup, fashion, etc.

 ▪ Before and after—people are told "success" stories of how a person went from a wrong body to right one; these stories are used to motivate people to act on their ‘abnormal’ bodies as the case with Heidi Montag.

…If women can join together to work against these deceptive and seemingly inherent notions, we can work together to deconstruct the misleading conceptions regarding the female body.