We will examine how society's attitudes towards the seven body parts have evolved over the centuries.
America's war for the breasts
On June 21, 1986, seven American women were arrested for being topless in a park in Rochester, New York. They were protesting a law that criminalized topless women but criminalized topless men. At court, Judge Walz ruled that the state was justified in demanding that the female breast should not be displayed in public, on the grounds that it regards the female breast as an intimate part of the human body. As community standards did not find the exposure of men's breasts offensive, the judge concluded that men were allowed to walk around without a shirt. In other words, women's breasts were aggressive; It wasn't that of men.
"Men who stripped off their nipple-covering swimsuits were called “gorillas”, fined and threatened with arrest"
This is not because women's breasts differ significantly from men's. Both boys and girls have the same breasts at birth. Adult women tend to have larger breasts than men, but many men have large breasts and most women have small breasts. Both male and female breasts consist of tissue, fat deposits, pectoral muscles and mammary glands. Both have a similar number of nerve endings and 'hardening capacity'. Male nipples are clearly erogenous. When the right hormones are given, men can breastfeed. It really does exist. Clearly, the rules regarding public immorality and bodily liberties are gendered.
When Severe Stomach Pain
You probably rarely notice your stomach. People pay attention to this much overlooked organ only when attacked by the physical pain of peptic ulcers or the social pain of obesity.
But in earlier centuries anatomists, doctors, and 'alienists' (now called psychiatrists) really took stomachs very seriously. Some even believed that mental illnesses originated in the "epigastric" region of the body. As the physician Philippe Pinel argued in the late 18th century, madness began in the stomach area before it "spread" throughout the body.
In 1836, it was a popular opinion in The Dublin Penny Journal that informed readers that people had two "internal monitors," one in the mind and the other in the stomach.
During this period, British doctors worried that stomach ailments such as indigestion or indigestion were very "British" ailments. According to The Dublin Penny Journal, these were exacerbated by the "typical" English breakfast of tea, sugar, milk, and bread "especially prone to spontaneous fermentation" in the stomach. Patients were given numbers such as "getting up from your bed, leaving the side of the fire, walking, driving, breathing in the sea breeze, going up to the mountains," to help them recover.
It's not surprising, then, that stomach ailments are becoming much more common. They've even crossed the 'nerves' as the cause of everyday troubles. This was because the stomachs were said to be extremely sensitive to modern life: the consumption of coffee, spicy food, and alcohol made the "tired organ" crave "more food than could be digested."
The problem was that little was known about the stomach. By what mechanism was food digested? Why did some people develop stomach ulcers while others seemed immune? An article published in The New Bon Ton Magazine in 1819 reported that the term "purebred" was a polite way of referring to "those who used to be bloated." However, the ailments that weaken the stomach were a big deal of business for the doctors, including the discredited 'quacks' who promoted weird and wonderful products designed to calm this irritating organ.
How did the clitoris suddenly appear ?
There is a common legend in the west that the clitoris was suppressed, rejected, and ridiculed. Female sexual pleasure ranks second after the male type.
However, things are not that simple. Scientists and doctors in the West were generally unaware of the anatomical features of the clitoris. For example, many believed that the clitoris was a female version of the male penis. These discussions revolved around the "penis-vagina" (Galenik) and "penis-clitoris" (Hippocrates) models.
In Galenic expression, the vagina is an inverted or "inside-out" penis. In contrast, Hippocrates narrative posited the clitoris as a female phallus. In both cases, women's genitals consisted of versions of men, but Hippocrates model allowed for female pleasure similar to that of men. The vagina in the Galen model was passive and sex was reproducing; However, in the Hippocrates model, a clitoral orgasm was required in order to conceive, similar to how a man needs to ejaculate in order for a woman to conceive. This had huge repercussions for women who were raped: If a woman who claimed to be raped became pregnant, it was evidence of orgasm. His "pleasure" showed his consent.
The clitoris controversy was linked to women's health issues. From the late 19th century until the 1950s, doctors were more concerned about women's frigidity than their orgasmic capacity. Instead of ignoring the clitoris, American doctors acknowledged the importance of this organ. In the 1830s, readers of marriage guidelines were told that the clitoris was the "place of venereal pleasure" and a doctor compared the clitoris to an "electric bell", claiming it was the "main seat of sexual excitement."
"Feminists pointed out that the glands of the clitoris contain twice as many nerve fibres as the penis."
Many doctors in America, Britain, and continental Europe surgically modified the clitoris. Often motivated by the desire to increase female pleasure during intensive sex with husbands, these operations were procedures that allowed women to submit to a heterosexual, reproductive-oriented idea of what constitutes "good sex."
Medical texts continue to depict the clitoris as a shrinking penis. Second wave feminism from the 1970s challenged such views by pointing out that the glands of the clitoris contain 8,000 nerve fibers (twice the number in the penis). Unfortunately, even today teens know more about the penis than the clitoris.
The quest for the perfect foot
“There’s blood all over, and her foot’s too small… She’s not the bride you met at the ball.”
In the 1857 version of Cinderella, prepared by the Brothers Grimm, the malicious stepsisters' plans to marry the prince are reversed according to the size of their feet. The sisters' feet are too big for a golden slipper, as two doves perched on a nut tree reveal to the prince. When their mother reassures them that "once you become queen, you won't have to walk anymore," one sister cuts her heel and the other cuts her toe.
On the contrary, Cinderella, whose feet are perfect in size and shape, is evidence of her "natural" superiority and perfect "harmony" with the prince.
Grimms were far from the first to draw a line connecting the size and shape of the foot to the moral fabric of its owner; Indeed, commentators claim that they could identify the character from human feet for centuries.
Podoscopy, or physiognomy of the feet, was introduced by a writer who signed himself "Filopedes" (meaning "friend of the foot" in Greek). "If you can recognize a man by the protrusions on his skull, the wrinkles on his face, or by the characters of his handwriting, you can recognize him by the shape and outline of his FOOT," Philopedes said in 1825. He argued that anyone who looks at "talented, fully developed and well-formed FOOT" will see "the simplest signs of a strong and masculine understanding". "Good words on the strong tendon, on the thick nerve!" After yelling. "Can such a FOOT be given to a ladder?" he had asked.
Versions of Philopedes' foot physiognomy include podomancy (or solistry), a form of divination based on the analysis of lines on a person's sole. Foot reflexology likewise claimed that certain areas on the soles of the feet 'mirror' organs or body parts elsewhere. Diseases and other ailments can be treated by applying pressure to these areas of the feet.
How and why did the penis make men weep?
The penis can be a vague and irregular organ. In Britain and America in the 19th century, masculine anxieties were provoked by the spread of a new and aggressive (though imaginary) disease: spermatorrhea or excessive, involuntary ejaculation. Everything sexual was believed to be caused by indulgence as well as masturbation or self-pollution. It was also a disease of civilization that disproportionately plagued urban professionals. Although women served as seducers, spermatorrhea was basically the males' own fault.
As a vital fluid, even a refined form of blood, the exudate of semen was thought to be extremely debilitating. According to the memoirs of an unnamed Victorian gentleman who calls himself Walter, My Secret Life says, “You look sick… you're fooling yourself… I can see in your face, you're going to die in a madhouse or consumption. "Spermatozoa caused constipation," nerves, "laxity, and impotence. It made men tearful and weak just like women.
"Businessmen saw a way to make a ‘quick buck’ from penile performance anxieties and impotence."
Spermatozoa treatment was as sad as the disease itself. Doctors recommended everything from leeches and laxatives to the blistering of the penis, the enlargement of the anus and surrounding the penis in a urethral ring containing sharp "teeth". On the kinder side, they would suggest outdoor exercise, gymnastics, and cold baths.
At the same time, fear of insufficient flow and panic about excessive sperm ejaculation was experienced. Businessmen and medical practitioners eager to make 'quick money' have long seen a way to make money from penile performance concerns and impotence. They marketed products named "Aromatic Steel Pastilles" or "Elixir of Life". The association of Mormons with polygamy encouraged the labeling of aphrodisiacs called "Mormon Bishop Pills" and "Brigham Young Tablets." Ingenious devices that promise to strengthen or lengthen the penis have also been introduced.
The power of a hair cut
Revealed in June 2015 for lying about her African-American heritage, Rachel Dolezal's way of styling her hair with long dreadlocks, braids, and box braids was so important for her to "go through" because it was black. Even one of his critics had to admit that "he definitely nailed the hair, I'll give it to him."
In May 2019, Anna Sorokin (alias Anna Delvey) was imprisoned to rise to the top of New York high society by pretending to be a German heiress with a fortune of £ 60 million. Alexander Wang may have his clothes, but the split ends "ugly" betrayed him. In the words of one reviewer: "No real heir, no real heir without any styled hair."
These two situations show very well the importance of hair in the staging of the self. Hair can be cut, dyed, curled, braided, knotted, curled, twisted, straightened, combed back, teased, moisturized, oiled, gelled, sprayed, shaved and wrapped. People wear wigs, braids, hairpieces, and extensions; they cover their hair with a scarf and a headscarf, a skullcap and a halftone.
Hair, a highly visible cultural artifact, is personal. In Victorian society, hair was considered to carry social and emotional messages. It's hard to find a Victorian novel that doesn't get caught in the hair of its characters. A lock of hair encased in a medallion or ring was a powerful remnant that formed binding connections between lovers.
Aesthetic judgments about hair are fundamentally political. Slaves, prisoners of war, and female collaborators are routinely shaved as a form of dehumanization. In the first decade of the 20th century, Madame CJ Walker became one of the first African American female millionaires in the United States by marketing hair conditioners to African American women; Decades later, the "Black Is Beautiful" movement rejected such products. During the 1968 protests against the Miss America pageant, feminists not only threw bras and belts at the Freedom Trash, but also threw wigs, curlers, and false eyelashes.
Schools nowadays routinely follow the rules that stamp black hairstyles. As recently as July 2019, California became the first US state to ban discrimination on natural hairstyles. Hair is still perceived as a power system.
How eyes reflect the world ?
From antiquity to today's popular self-help books, eyes have been seen as 'windows to the soul'. They are highly mythological, figurative and historical. Egyptians have divine eyes; Greek amulet; The Hindu God of Destruction Shiva is Shiva with a terrifying third eye on his forehead "whose gaze turns the earth to ashes".
There are enormous cultural differences in the eyes. In the West, honesty is portrayed as "looking in the eye", an act considered rude in Japan and among the First Nations of Australia and Canada. Indeed, judgment about eyes has been incredibly harmful to indigenous peoples: for example, the invaders viewed the failure of Aboriginal peoples to make eye contact as evidence of their slipperyness.
In Britain, the eyes played a dominant role in the judgments of Victorians who saw the body as the place of human essence. One of the most important advocates was Sir Charles Bell. In his book The Anatomy and Philosophy of the Expression as Connected as the Fine Arts (1806), he argued that human eyes were conceived as "manifestations of sublime and sacred feelings" that "separate man from bullies." Thus, when people "clung to feelings of devotion," their eyes were instinctively looking towards the heavens. Bell admitted that the "savage" may not always believe in God, but even they "raised their eyes to the" shadow of the sky "as they" pray for rice and potatoes. " This was "an act that was not taught and not won". Anatomy bore a sacred stamp.
"Invaders regarded Aboriginal peoples’ failure to make eye contact as proof of their shiftiness."
Bell's reflections were quite influential - most notably in the development of physiognomy in Victorian Britain (the practice of evaluating a person's character from his appearance, especially his face). Rapid urbanization and industrialization meant that people had to find a way to quickly assess the character of many strangers. This was the promise of physiognomy. As one physiognomist put it: "When our stock of expressions is exhausted, we are freed from the chains of grammatical rules, we silently appeal to the beauty of the eyes that express with a single glance, countless and complex sentences can fail to open." In this reading the eyes would never deceive.
What if the eyes lied? From the late 19th century, the eyes - their outline, symmetry, back, wrinkles and wrinkles - can be changed. Cosmetic surgery was based on the assumption that the external representation of the self was distorted: it required work to achieve an accurate match between a person's exterior and interior. As one cosmetic surgeon put it, facial surgery can “turn an eyesore into an eye. It can turn one's gaze into a glance. "Eyes do not only see the world, they reflect it.