Gender And Gender Analysis

Throughout history race and gender have been closely intertwined in the construction of both black and white women’s bodies alike. The female body being viewed as natural, the medicalizing of the female body, and advertising the ideal beauty are concepts that have been embedded in Western thinking for many years. These three theories show the interaction between gender and race in the construction of thoughts concerning, and the interpretation of, the woman’s body. The first concept that affects how we view the woman’s body deals with relating the woman to the body. This theory juxtaposes the body with the mind, and projects this juxtaposition upon the roles of men and women in society. It refers to women as the “body” of society, and men …show more content…
Women of color are seen as even more natural due to both their gender and their race. This is because darker skin color was often seen as “primitive” or “animalistic,” at least in Western societies (Mascia-Lees). Regardless of the attempts at justifying any differentiation among races, the interaction between race and gender places women of color in a much more challenging position, relative to white women. This, in addition to the view of women as being unsophisticated, creates a very hostile atmosphere for women of color in Western society. Remnants of imperialism and African slave trading hold roots in Western society that permeate a manner of thinking in which people of color are socially constructed as primitive, in need of being taught the “proper” way to live, and in need of being made “whiter”, which is demonstrated by attempts to sell skin bleaching “beauty” products to women of color. Women of color in particular are then seen as less capable of possessing the qualities of a “proper lady” and are treated as such. This view of women, black women especially, has shaped the way that the world perceives women’s bodies and adds to the stereotypes, negative perceptions and flat out inaccuracies that black women face, that white women may not be as exposed …show more content…
Western-thinking medical societies have created the idea of an “African” body, which basically separates blacks from the rest of the human race because they are not seen as the “normal” body. Their faces and bodies were measured, and were deemed as the body that came after apes but before man; so in other words they are too often not considered true human beings, and are somehow only a few steps above apes, despite this being largely