Patriarchal Attitudes Control Female Bodies

Patriarchal Attitudes Control Female Bodies

Yogesh Snehi
The Tribune, Sunday, September 1, 2002
Chandigarh, India

ONE thing which a woman can perhaps claim to be her own is her body. But sadly , patriarchal attitudes exercise control even overthis from an early age, manifesting themselves in the case of a girl child. To simplify my point, I will raise a question. Have you ever wondered why a male child has an unquestionable right to be naked and why is it that a girl child has no such right?

This is exactly how the 'female bodies' are controlled by the chauvinistic ideas of men. By this 'cover-up operation', a social foundation of its own sort is created. First the body of a girl is to be hidden and later to be sought after when she becomes a woman, in a kind of game of hide and seek. Here, the advertisement of Liril bathing soap strikes my mind. It shows a female bathing below a fountain that portrays a urinating male child. This speaks volumes about male attitudes.

This is an embodiment of the power play for subordination of women. Young men always tend to be highly preferential in their choice of life partner: slim and slender, with curvaceous figure, soft and tender. This reflects the psychological aspects of patriarchy. Men's dislike for strong women shows their contempt for powerful women, who deflect their 'line of control'. Men like women in a supporting role wherein they flaunt their slim and delicate bodies.

Little girls are 'sugar and spice and everything nice'. Too much knowledge defeminises them, endangers their beauty, makes them boyish. Beauty is fragile. It requires protection much like museum art. Beautiful women are priceless treasures, enhancing the power of those who control them, but powerless themselves. Little girls who play boys' games are in danger of letting their physical and intellectual strength develop, while their beauty and sexuality evaporate. Delicate clothes and gentle activities help to protect female fragility and define little girls' gentler hold on society".

There is also a moral linkage, which supersedes the bodily arguments. Women are told that they are more moral, more understanding and humane than men. This tends to suggest that women should be tolerant of any abuse by men, both sexually and mentally. These attributes seem to assert an almost complete control of men over females.

Feminists contend that standards of beauty are socially constructed. One such example comes from anthropological and sociological research that suggests the preference for a certain kind of body shape among women is not random, but is linked to economic factors. When women have access to economic independence, a thin standard is preferred. Where women are denied access to economic power, marriage is favoured and the emphasis is on more curvaceous body form. Thus, it appears that when women are less likely to be controlled by traditional institutions such as marriage, another form of social control is introduced, in this case the expectation of extreme thinness.

These bodily preferences have serious implications in India. Our patriarchal norms are very strictly underlined and adhered to. No matter how much educated a women may become, she finally has to follow patriarchal formulations. For example, a guy, Akash, had conflicting expectations of his life partner. He did not object to his wife wearing jeans when she accompanied him to a public place, but minded if she wore the same in front of his parents. While she becomes a sex and status symbol for men in a public place', tradition subordinates her in the family.

Her treatment as a beauty object is epitomised in the media portrayal of women. It may either be a car or soap, a washing machine or cosmetics, everywhere it is a woman who sells—sells for her subordination.