Bodies on line

For this article we are focusing on female bodies that are of female sex regardless of gender but we are aware that parallel and similar issues apply to bodies that are of male sex. 

When working with people who are struggling with their mental health, disordered eating or exercise issues, the subject of the body often comes up. We see this regardless of age, background or gender identity. 

What is the problem in how we are shown and how we see the body in our daily lives?

We see bodies displayed as objects everywhere: on adverts on the bus, on social media, in films & music videos, on dating apps, and in how we engage in dialogue around bodies. By “bodies as objects” we mean images where the body is put in front of the person as a whole. This is either practically, e.g. the camera lens focuses on the body (as opposed to the face or whole person), or in regard to the language around the person. The discussion of the person is body-focused, by e.g. praising a change in weight or complimenting a dress because “it is flattering”, as opposed to the dress being fun, interesting, compelling. The dialogue around the body may seemingly be a compliment: “she looks pretty” or “she looks hot” or “her body looks bigger/better/thinner”, or it may be criticism e.g. “she does not look good in that” or “what’s up with her, she looks like shit”.  Equally we might say that someone looks a certain way before we talk about how she is professionally, creatively, emotionally or practically. In doing so we create stories about someone’s health, well-being and significance in society without engaging in their actual self. We may assume someone is unwell or having a difficulty if they gain weight and we might praise them or notice their success in life if they lose weight. Women are also granted more paid work if they look younger, fitter and feminine (e.g. having had to diet, overexercise and use botox, as well as be physically well which is giving privilege to heath and non-disability) – modern-day female actors are particularly vulnerable to this ,with older women only being given roles (that are not the Granny) if they look younger than they are. 

We notice bodies displayed as objects even if the message is about body-positivity, whether that is weight-based body positivity or to do with skin care or anti-ageing, or even to do with gender expression. We praise and validate trans men for looking buff, chiselled or having had enough income to pay for surgery, instead of celebrating trans people in-and-of-themselves, regardless of their body shape and size and clothing choices. We praise mothers and busy women if they look a certain way while doing it and make assumptions if they look perhaps as they feel: undervalued, underpaid, overstretched. 

The question for us at Breaking The Rules is not how to put bodies in front of whole-people in a more ethical way but why we do it in the first place?

Why do we need to display the body in our language and images at all? Why are we interested in the body and not the mind; in what one ate rather than what one said; in what cosmetics and procedures one could afford and not what one feels inside emotionally, creatively and intellectually?

In the female fight for equal pay, health equality, equality and safety in the home and in the streets, the fight against violence and suppression and in the right and freedom to simply talk and be an individual – we can't ever achieve this by gazing at the body or handing over the body to be gazed at. People do not make whole complete sense nor are people free if the body is the focus. I believe that is why we do it. We do it because engaging in whole people – especially whole women – is difficult. It is deeply rewarding but it is difficult. Instead we gaslight by displaying the body but not engaging in the person (only pretending to engage by putting the display of the person in front of us). 

So we call out all displays of the body in all settings. We ask all clients to stop following any body-focused posts from body positivity to the Zoe app to personal trainers. We ask everyone to watch their “body language” and discuss female people as humans and not posters for consumption. We ask females how they are feeling and not about what they are doing to manage their body. We compliment a piece of clothing in-and-of-itself and not because it performs a role in the display of the body, including the display of femininity. We make adjustments for disability and ill-health without question. We give people space to express their identities without making assumptions based on the body. We do not equate health with aesthetics. We listen to hearts and minds.