Girl Power?

For most of us, we understand that men and women are now pretty much equal. Sure, there are still some who resist the notion, but for the most part the fairer sex is no longer second class. However, there are a large number of things that women have suffered through over the years and in some countries they still do. One thing that caught my attention lately was body modification. We are living in a society where cosmetic surgery is not only accepted, but actively encouraged. Female beauty has always been judged on an unattainable scale. Only a tiny percentage of women can hope to meet the ideal and even so, most will do so only with surgical help!

I feel almost as though women are being forced into body modification. Is this an alternative way of keeping us in line now that it is no longer socially acceptable to chain us to the kitchen sink? Sure it can be argued that women are the ones choosing to have cosmetic surgery to alter their bodies, but are they really? Are they in fact subconsciously driven to it by the constant pressure to look perfect? Who makes these decisions. The majority of designers in the fashion industry are male. Thy make clothes for tiny women and urge us mortals to starve ourselves into them. Has anything really changed? Or did we just swap one form of oppression for another?

Think about it. It all begins with the Victorian corset. These were used to create an extreme body shape and over time they actually physically altered women's bodies by rearranging internal organs and squeezing the body into shape. Is this so far removed from a breast augmentation? What about Chinese foot binding? Most shocking of all is perhaps the clitorodectomy - a body modification still practised in many developing countries where young woman's clitoris is removed.

It's definitely food for thought.