Losing Bodies

Susie Orbach

Social Research: An International Quarterly, Volume 78, Number 2, Summer

2011, pp. 387-394 (Article)

Published by Johns Hopkins University Press

For additional information about this article

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/528132/summary

[ Access provided at 5 Sep 2021 13:00 GMT from Nazarbayev University ]

Susie Orbach
Losing Bodies

IT COULD BE SAID THAT MEDIA HAS A GREAT DEAL TO ANSWER FOR

w h e n it com es to how w e u n d e rsta n d o u r bodies today. Inform ation,
disin fo rm atio n , com m ercial practices, a n d crazes arrive th ro u g h th e
m edia. It is th e m ed iu m th a t stim ulates public conversation and trends.
It is th e m eans by w hich th e individual finds o u t things an d is im pacted
by th em . Even th ose o f us w ho feel ourselves to be outside o f o r perhaps
critical o f th e im p act o f m edia are rarely unaffected.
T h in k o f th e food w e e a t n ow a n d how it is p re p a re d a n d
p resen ted com pared to 25 years ago. How did th a t u p d ate occur? T hink
o f th e fu rn itu re in o u r hom es an d th e ways in w hich w e have w an ted
to re fresh or ren o v ate th e lo o k o f o u r abodes. T hink o f going in to a
re sta u ra n t and th e re b eing a n A -list m ovie star a t th e n e x t table. She o r
h e becom es com pelling n o t because o f his or h e r art p er se b u t because
visual cu ltu re an d th e publicity m ach in e creates th e n o tio n o f a star,
w h ich th e n w orks o n us.
Som ething outside o f u s—film , p rin t, photo, m agazine, new spa­
per, TV—m agnifies th e object. It is h ard to escape. It enters us, and th e n
o u r in tere st in th a t object becom es p a rt o f w ho we are, en tw in ed w ith
o u r sense o f self an d com m unity, an aspect o f o u r id en tity as crucial as
ch u rch iconography was several centuries ago.
We d o n ’t like to th in k o f ourselves as beguiled by th is beast called
th e m edia. We like to th in k o f ourselves as agents w ith th e force to act
an d m ake an im pact. And o f course we do. W e can see th is energy very
clearly th ro u g h social m edia, w h ich has quasi-dem ocratized th e possi­
b ility o f having a voice. But th e re is no straig h tfo rw ard re la tio n sh ip

© Susie Orbach 2011

social research Vol. 78 : No. 2 : Sum m er 2011 387

b etw e en “u s ” a n d th e m edia, no clear divide th a t has a n u n co n tam i­
n a te d “us.” The us th a t w e are is n o t created in isolation. The us th a t
we are and th e w ay w e perceive o f o u r bodies are th e outcom e o f th e
in tim ate relatio n ship th a t w e m ake w ith th e w orld around us.
W hen w e tiy to tease ap a rt th e outside and th e inside it becom es
quite difficult. The th o u g h ts and p ictures w e carry inside o f us express
this com plexity. Take for exam ple th e com pelling desire o f m an y young
W estern w om en to have labiaplasty. It d oesn’t h elp th e young w om an
to say: w h a t you see p ro jected in th e m edia as a labia is n o t the labia.
Your labia is m e a n t to look th e w ay it does. Or ra th e r it d o esn ’t h elp
m uch. She doesn’t feel th a t to be so. She feels asham ed o f th e w ay th e
folds o f sk in com e together. She’s b ee n having a B razilian w ax since
she first got pubic hair. For h e r th a t was a n entry p o in t into grow n-up
fem in in ity an d it pleased h e r and confirm ed h e r m em b ersh ip in th a t
identity. But n o t quite.
The Brazilian w ax has been a prelude to th e disgust an d p lan to
resh ap e h e r labia, h e r breasts, an d h e r buttocks. These are now th e
procedures she w ill undergo to find som e body peace.
We could ju s t call it body h atred . W e could call it fashion. We
could call it psychopathology. We could call it o p p o rtu n istic m edical
greed. If w e co m pare fem ale g en ital surgery (FGS) to a p ractice w e
find u n eth ical, fem ale g e n ita l m u tila tio n (FGM), a n d lin k th ese first
w o rld practices to th o se w e co n d em n elsew here, w e tak e pause. We
ask w h e th e r th e way in w h ich a neoliberal agenda has designated th e
fem ale body, e ith e r p u rp o sefu lly o r u n in ten tio n a lly , as th e site for
tran sfo rm atio n , control, an d profit is being delivered to us th ro u g h th e
m e d ia ’s ex h o rta tio n for us to resh ap e o u r bodies? W e ask h ow have
co n su m p tio n an d th e n o tio n o f choice, tw o exhortations o f late capital­
ism , com bined w ith th e im perative to reco n stru ct an d perfect th e body
th ro u g h visual m edia?
In 1995, a telev isio n c h a n n e l s ta rte d b ro a d castin g in Fiji. It
show ed im p o rted U.S. show s, such as Friends. By 1998, a m ere th re e
years later, 11.9 p ercen t o f Fijian adolescent girls w ere over th e toilet
bow l w ith bulim ia, w here previously none existed.

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 T hese y o u n g w o m e n h a d id e n tifie d m o d e rn ity w ith th e
W esternized body shape o f th e last few decades and th e y h ad em braced
it. In th e ir a tte m p t to find a place in global culture, th e y u n d ersto o d
th a t th e re sh ap in g o f th e ir body was crucial. The idea—resh ap e th e
body—was an outside one b u t it in sinuated itself into th e ir ow n long­
ings a n d desires. They d id n ’t experience them selves as having b ee n
done over by th e m edia an d —th is is a n im p o rta n t p o in t—th ey d id n ’t
feel them selves th e passive recipients o f a rapacious a n d controlling
m edia. They felt them selves ra th e r, to be in dialogue w ith w h a t was
b eing p resen ted (Becker 1995). Like w om en in so m any locations in th e
w orld, th e y felt excited a n d in terested . They perceived th e w ay th ey
w ere to be radically o u t o f date and in n eed o f upgrade. The site of moder­
nity for them became the reconstruction of their bodies.
In Shanghai, a fashionable o p eratio n is to b re a k th e th ig h and
ex ten d th e leg by 10 cen tim eters. In Singapore, th e latest craze is for
th e W estern nose. In E astern Europe, th in has becom e a requisite for
th e young w ishing to e n te r global culture. In South Korea, 50 percen t
o f teenage girls have th e double eyelid slit operation to W esternize th e
look o f th e eyelid. Cosmetic surgery, w h e th e r on visible body parts or
th e m o re in tim a te g en ital area, has becom e a serious g ro w th in d u s­
try.1 The Singapore gov ern m en t has funded a cen ter to a ttra c t cosm etic
su rg ery tou rism . In A rgentina, those w ith h e a lth in su ran ce have th e
rig h t to a cosm etic p ro ced u re an n u ally o r biannually. Those w ith o u t
h e a lth care coverage can buy th e ir n ew breasts and have th e m inserted
in th e public hospital. So deep an d so pervasive is th e sense th a t o u r
bodies are n o t okay as th ey are th a t private organizations see profitable
o p p o rtu n itie s w hile state o rganizations see obligations to w ard th e ir
citizenry. This is show n m o st dram atically in th e W est as governm ent
bodies regulate an d m easure children an d adults on th e basis o f a spuri­
ous statistical w him , th e Body Mass Index (BMI) (Oliver 2005). Those o f
us over 40 did n o t grow u p w ith this m easure b u t w ith w eight charts
divided in to small-, m edium -, and large-fram ed. Today, h ea lth econom ­
ics has b een captivated and cap tu red by a m easure o f w eight and h eig h t
th at, despite b eing contested by th e N ational Institutes o f H ealth (Flegel

Losing Bodies 389

2005), has com e to hold sway am ong h e a lth professionals. They decree
w h a t is a n acceptable body a n d th e y th e n provide co n tracts to d iet
co m p an ies to re g u la te th e u n accep tab le. The d iet industry, already
highly successful th ro u g h a com bination o f factors aro u n d size accept­
ability, fear o f food, societal panic about "obesity,” an d th e in d u stry 's
h ig h recidivism an d su b seq u e n t re p e a t custom ers (Orbach 1978), is
n o w being b lo ated by g o v ern m en t funds.
The populace is in stru cted on h ow to m anage m edia-generated
cues on eatin g th a t are pro p ag ated by a food d istrib u tio n in d u stry in
search o f g re ater n u m b ers o f products w ith longer sh e lf life th a t can
lu re custom ers by a n o th e r section o f th e food industry: th e d iet com pa­
nies. An u n v irtu o u s circle p erta in s. H einz ow ns W eight W atchers,
U nilever ow ns Slimfast, N estlé owns Lean Cuisine. Q uestions th a t relate
to in tern a l body prom pts such as h u n g e r an d satiety are virtually invis­
ible. Those cues do n o t g en e rate excess profits. They m ay even create
co n ten ted bodies. But this la tte r experience is rapidly becom ing foreign
as th e paren ts o f 6- and 7-year-olds are w arned ab o u t th e im plications
o f th e ir ch ild ’s BMI.
W h at k in d o f conception do w e have o f th e body? Can w e speak
in any sense o f a n o rm al body or is it m o re accurate to say th a t w h a t
is a t stake today, especially fo r th e young—young w om en a n d young
m e n —is th e ac q u isitio n o f a body “n o rm alize d ” by visual dictate: a
body w hose dim ensions, w hose look, is n o t sim ply stylized b u t hom oge­
nized: a body created by th e style industries (the beauty, cosm etic, fash­
ion, m edia, celebrity industries) th a t is th e n reshaped by th e cosm etic
surgeons, th e gym instructors, and diet industries.
You m ay p ro te st bodies w ere alw ays sh ap ed , n o rm a liz e d by
cu ltu ral forces. There is no such th in g as a body n o t m arked o r shaped
by culture. To be unm arked, as in uncircum cised, for exam ple, is to be
u n claim ed a n d u nclaim able. The body is m ark ed by gender, by class,
by n ationality, ethnicity, by custom . The body as n atu ra l, as u n m ed i­
ated, is a bucolic, naïve R ousseauian fiction. R om antic notions efface
th e im p act o f co n tem porary culture w ith o u t being able to erase culture
at all, for th is is a n im possibility.

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 We look at th e history o f th e w orld as w e un d erstan d it th ro u g h
th e costum es, clothing, a n d physical stance o f its people—from th e
ancient Babylonian togas to th e Masai w arrior m arkings to th e Victorian
crinolines. Even th e W ild Child o f Aveiyon grew in a context—it w asn’t
a h u m an context—so his body was form ed in proxim ity to th e anim als
and h e developed th e sensibilities suitable for his environm ent. His body
tem p eratu re self-regulated to cope w ith snow o r sunshine w ith o u t the
clothing w e find so necessary. He m oved in ways sim ilar to th e anim als he
grew up with. A nd so on. Every body requires a context. There is no such
th in g as “a body.” There is only a body as an outcom e o f relationship. And
th a t relationship is always culturally situated (Orbach 1986, 2009).
O ur bodies are given to us by o u r m o th ers (Orbach 1978). They
do th is in tw o ways: by th e bodies th ey them selves in h ab it and re p re­
sen t to us, and also th ro u g h how they perceive our ow n bodies’ capaci­
ties; introduce us to o u r bodies’ w onders; constrict, enable o r shape our
bodies in ways relev an t to th e cultural context, w ith n ary a conscious
th o u g h t for doing so. A Jew ish o r M uslim boy is circum cised; a girl, too,
in certain M uslim traditions. Deep in th e A m azonian forest in Brazil,
th e Kaiapo In d ian children absorb th e ir w ay o f kissing w hich, to o u r
w ay o f in terp re tin g physical gesture, is a bite. The behaviors are enacted
as p a rt o f th e o rdinary social m atrix o f relating. T here is som e specific
in stru ctio n , such as w h en I w as a girl, w hich related to sitting w ith m y
legs to g e th e r o r bein g told n o t to w histle because it w a sn ’t ladylike,
b u t th e re was n o th in g particularly forced ab o u t such instructions; they
w ere th e m ed iu m in w hich fem in in ity in th e U nited K ingdom from m y
class background was form ed. T here was a specificity to th a t body th a t
m e a n t th a t w h e n a n o th er en c o u n tered it, it could be read as th e body o f
a girl from or aspiring to a p articu lar m ilieu.
W h at is m arkedly different today is th a t m o th ers’ bodies are u n d er
assault. There is no stable body for a w om an. There is no m ilieu th a t has
constancy. The body is being reshaped by visual culture in literally th o u ­
sands o f presentations w eekly we receive th ro u g h television, m agazines,
new spapers, digital m edia, an d advertising. No one can count the images
accurately. The advertising agencies, w hose incom e dep en d ed u p o n

Losing Bodies 391

know ing such things, said 5,000 a w eek, b u t th a t was before th e Internet
a n d social m ed ia to o k o ff a n d im ages w ere p ro p ag ated o n screens
continually.
W h at is rem arkable is th e hom ogeneity o f th e images broadcast
internationally. At the Hayward Gallery six years ago, a photographer
took pictures o f individual m odels and m elded th em one to another. The
m orphed im age could have been anyone o f them . They were—they are—
all super-slim and tall w ith features th a t can be painted out so th a t new
ones can be p ain ted on. As m odels and celebrity culture infuse public
space, indeed becom e a form o f discourse, so th e im ages o f fem ininity
(and it is happening w ith masculinity, too) become ever m ore reduced and
uniform .
Pascal Dangin, th e artistic retoucher, routinely rem akes pictures.
In th e M arch 2008 issue o f U.S. Vogue, for exam ple, h e changed 144
im ag es (Collins 2008). M eanw hile, som e o b ste tric ia n s have b e e n
p re p are d to allow w o m en to follow th e exam ple o f m ovie stars an d
celeb rities w h o p ro c la im th e v irtu e o f caesarean sections a t eig h t
m o n th s for th e spurious cosm etic p u rp o se reg ain in g th e ir pre-preg-
n ancy bodies by six w eeks po stp artu m . The notio n o f a full-term preg­
nancy, w ith w o m en learning th e ir baby’s rh y th m an d th a t o f th e ir own,
is b eco m in g en d an g ered , w ith grave consequences for th e ir bodily
sense o f self an d th e ir in tern al, body-based know ledge o f appetite and
satisfaction. One day th e y w ill have a chance to be th e m aids o f h o n o r
w ho are offered cosm etic surgery a year before th e w edding to com ple­
m e n t th e b rid e th e y are serving. Body in secu rity w ill have in su red a
lack o f corporeal confidence, and th e im perative to shape up, to recon­
stru ct—n o t only to aspire to b u t to physically en act bodily alteratio n —
w ill speak to th em .
W h at does all this m ean?
One th in g it m eans is th a t th e body o f th e m o th e r as experienced
by th e baby m ay w ell be one m arked by anxiety (Orbach 1995). A nother
th in g it m ean s is th a t th e an x iety th e baby absorbs p rep ares h e r or
h im for a sense th a t a body does n o t exist as a place to live from b u t
as so m eth in g one needs to be ever w atchful o f an d ten d in g to. As a

392 social research

toddler, th e little girl sees th is explicitly. She hears h e r m o th e r sigh
a t h e r ow n body in fro n t o f th e m irro r or hears h er b erate h erself for
“in d u lg in g ” in foods. The child m ay n o t know w h a t any o f this m eans
b u t it is th e m ed ium in w h ich h e r ow n relationship to h e r body devel­
ops. The m o th er m ay P hotoshop th e baby’s or to d d ler’s photos, in sert­
ing a dim ple o r a cute gap b etw een th e teeth , in a facsim ile o f w h a t a
baby, toddler, child is to look like. N either th e body o f th e m o th e r n o r
th e body o f th e child is deem ed good enough as th ey are. Panasonic’s
2011 cam era, th e Lum inex FX77, can w h iten teeth , m agnify eyes, and
add m akeup. The bodies and faces o f m others an d babies are b o th being
’’perfected.” The child is bein g unw ittingly prepared for th e com bined
b lan d ish m en ts o f th e beauty, style, food, an d d iet in d u stries, w hose
g reed know s n o bou n d s a n d in w hose w ake th e cu ltu ra l diversity o f
bodies all over th e w orld are ea te n up. The person grow s u p thinking/
believ in g th a t bodies are in ev itab ly u n stab le an d always in n eed o f
a tte n tio n and transform ation.
The individual body is th e outcom e o f th a t m ost in tim ate o f rela­
tio n sh ip s betw een th e m o th erin g person an d h e r child as she p erson­
ally en acts th e cu ltu ral dictates vis-à-vis th e body. At th is m o m e n t in
history, those personal en actm en ts include th e reshaping o f th e body,
w ith th e m ost u n fo rtu n a te consequence o f creating body distress and
body hatred.
Indeed, one o f th e W est’s hidden exports to th e developing w orld
is body resh ap in g an d its concom itant rejection o f th e local body. We
are losing bodies faster th a n w e are losing languages. W om en from all
over th e w orld shed th e ir local body as th ey e n te r m odernity, w h e th e r
from Nigeria, Ladak, or Kosovo. The form erly plum p trad itio n for beauty
queens in Nigeria has been superseded by a W esternized th in shape. The
first slim Miss Nigeria (chosen by eyes dom inated by W estern cultural
im agery) was initially assum ed to have HIV/AIDS, b u t rapidly h e r body
sp u rn ed a N igerian diet industry. The fem ale body, resh ap ed as th in
and preferably long, has becom e th e insignia o f belonging. It is n o t th e
clothes th a t bran d th e body b u t th e honed body as bran d itself; the sign
th a t one has shed o n e’s indigenous culture and tak en u p th e w orld body.

Losing Bodies 393

 We are losing bodies as w e are losing m o th e r tongues. C om m ercial
pressu res d issem in ated th ro u g h th e m ed ia are re stru c tu rin g bodies,
su p p lan tin g diversity w ith sam eness an d offering m em bership in global
cu lture th ro u g h having a body th a t fits. These bodies becom e th e call­
ing card o f id en tity an d belonging, w hile supplying g arg an tu an profits
to th e in d u stries th a t b re e d body h atre d . G lobalization as a m o d ern
fo rm o f im p erialism reshapes n o t ju s t th e arch itectu re, industry, and
ag ricu ltu re o f th e ex tern al w orld, b u t th e private, corporeal space we
endeavor to inhabit. C orporeal colonialism is a h id d en glue th a t links
in w ith colonial histories o f th e past.

N OTES
1. The seriousness o f th e situation has b een recognized by th e Vienna
city governm ent, w hich has produced guidelines on fem ale genital
surgery. See <w w w .frauengesundheit-w ein.at>.

R EFERENCES
Becker, Anne E. The Body, Self and Society: The View from Fiji. Philadelphia:
University o f Pennsylvania Press, 1995.
Collins, Lisa. “Pixel Perfect.” The New Yorker, May 12, 2008.
Oliver, J. E. Fat Politics: The Real Story Behind America’s Obesity Epidemic. New
York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Orbach, S. Fat is a Feminist Issue. London and New York: Paddington Press,
1978.
---------. Hunger Strike: A Metaphorfor Our Age. London: Faber, 1986.
---------. “C oun tertransference and th e False Body.” Winnicott Studies 10
(1995).
---------. Bodies. London: Profile Books, 2009.

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