I think this is in part due to my parent’s support and encouragement. For example, I grew up playing with a lot of Barbies and Ken dolls, but I have a decent amount of self confidence and didn’t battle with intense body issues. Barbie’s impossibly “perfect” body can create unrealistic expectations or standards in a young person’s mind, but I think one’s ideals and self image depends on other influences in their life as well. Having Barbie botched and reduced to specific body parts, like her breasts and face, represents how real life women are thought of as just their body. The use of the spoon and the sucker combined with the pieces of Barbie’s body speaks volumes. I wonder if the toy is as popular today as it once was. I think most girls do grow up being spoon fed Barbie, but I’m not sure if this is the case with young girls today. I really like this art collection “CONTROL” by Yvonne Escalante. Men Are Naturally Attracted To Unnatural Women The Constricting Bodice: Empowerment and Imprisonment? (CONTROL series) This piece can be viewed at “CONTROL,” an exhibition of California women artists presented by The Women’s Caucus for Art at New York’s Ceres Gallery, February 1 – February 26th, 2011.įor more on Yvonne Escalante’s work go to ARTslant. Here, called “Sucker.”Īny wonder the exhibit’s theme is “CONTROL”? Frantic pursuit of the perfect body removes agitation for power of greater substance. Obsessed with diet and exercise, women can become distracted from the rest of life so much so that ( as Naomi Wolf can tell you) advances of the women’s movement can quickly wane. When women are told they must acquire surreal measurements, and when obtaining them is the source of self-worth, the pursuit takes unending time and energy. For too many women and men, surface is all. At least that’s what happens when boobs define us, creating our worth. Which leads to unnecessary, and sometimes life-threatening, surgeries in pursuit of Barbie breasts. I’ve gone through phases of not eating like I should, hoping to look like what turn out to be phony photoshopped images that don’t even resemble the starving models who posed for the pics. Oddly, all this spoon feeding can lead to a dearth of feeding of any sort. The emblem of perfect womanhood, where body defines us. She was an emblem of all that mass media, friends and schoolmates, told me to be. Like most little girls, I grew up spoon fed on Barbie. Her work can be viewed this month at an exhibit titled, “CONTROL” at New York’s Ceres Gallery. Today, her work explores the conflict she feels, caught in the kaleidoscope of identity, gender roles, and societal norms. As a first generation American, Escalante’s father had stressed American identity over cultural ties.
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