Friday, September 26, 2014

Why (most) Men Don't Have to Hear "You're Enough"

So I just recently saw the video of the interactive mirror promoted by the band The Mrs.  here's the link . I cried, of course, and was very touched because I, like most women, have not felt like I was enough in the past because of something about my physical experience. Then I got to thinking, why are there not links all over the internet where men describe themselves to a portrait artist and then a total stranger describes them, showing their true beauty, or where they go to an interactive mirror and get a little boost of empowerment? And then I realized, most men don't need that. Men aren't told their whole lives that they are worth less than the next guy if their waist band is bigger or their face not perfectly symmetrical or anything else from the laundry list of physical attributes women are graded on in society. Men are judged by career and life successes first, physicality being an afterthought. Of course men have body issues of their own and society has stigmas and expectations for men as well, but they just are not as damaging as those forced onto women. Men's self worth rarely comes from how their hair looked that day or how many compliments they received on their new top. But I know girls who come home after a successful day at work or school and are bummed out because they had a prominent pimple or a stain on their shirt, I've been that girl. To use Marilyn Frye's bird cage metaphor, this devaluation of women solely based on their outward appearance is simply one bar in the cage of the oppression of women, but it is also intertwined in almost every other bar of the cage. Career and life accomplishments are belittled based on appearance; if a woman is attractive, she slept her way to the top and it not fully respected, if a woman is ugly, that is more of a focus when people discuss her than her actual accomplishments. Outward appearance also plays a role in another bar in the cage. Violence, and particularly sexual violence, towards women is defined and dismissed by her looks; if she's attractive, she was asking for it, if not, she should feel flattered that someone would actually want to have sex with her. I could go on and on about how physical appearance is used to define women in all different aspects of life, giving countless examples from the media to my personal life, but then this post would turn into a book. The point is, few men would relate to a video telling them "you're enough", while almost all women watching that video would feel some sort of connection and familiarity with the feelings those women are experiencing. Until women are judged on who they are more than on how they look on a grand, societal scale, these videos will still be necessary.

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