Life in the panopticon

“A woman is always accompanied, except when quite alone, and perhaps even then, by her own image of herself. While she is walking across a room or weeping at the death of her father, she cannot avoid envisioning herself walking or weeping. From earliest childhood she is taught and persuaded to sur vey herself continually. She has to survey everything she is and everything she does, because how she appears to others – and particularly how she appears to men – is of crucial importance for what is normally thought of as the success of her life.”John BergerNo woman escapes this scrutiny, this policing of her appearance. Have you ever heard a man ask “Do I look okay?” before leaving the house? Neither of my husbands nor my son has asked me that. In my book I wrote of what it is like to be fat, to live every day under the scrutiny of others.  No matter where I go or what I do, I am almost always surrounded by messages about the unacceptability of my body. The constant examination of the fat body by doctors, social workers and psychiatrists, teachers, lay people, comedians, journalists are in effect attempts to exert a societal discipli ne to make "docile bodies."  We fat people are meant to feel shame, to feel we are responsible for our weight. We internalize the judgements and endless indictments for our failure to have become slender, for being too lazy or hungry or weak to bring our wayward bodies under control. Every time I have hidden my eating from others, or ...
Source: Jung At Heart - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs