In Joan Brumberg’s book The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls, she examines the familial, cultural, and institutional forces that played a significant role in shaping women’s bodies and attitudes and uses historical evidence to illustrate them. In the nineteenth-century, one’s morality was the hub of adolescence. (Brumberg xx). Mothers took initiative into instructing their daughters on how to properly groom and dress themselves. Society also discouraged women from discussing bodily concerns with anybody, since that kind of behavior was considered indecent (Brumberg xix). This made adolescent girls keep their concerns personal - rather, they recorded their worries and/or accomplishments in their diaries. By the turn of the
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Brumberg argues that although women have more freedom over their bodies, historical changes have put them at risk due to biological, cultural, and societal changes of the female body throughout history (xviii-xv). Brumberg theorizes in her book that the “stunning freedoms” that modern women enjoyed in the beginning of the nineteenth-century came with a cultural demand that they learn to control their bodies, which only intensified and became more powerful by the end of the twentieth century.
Brumberg argues that familial forces caused women to agonize over their skin because cultural and societal norms that required women to have smooth skin was institutionalized since the nineteenth-century (1997, p. 61). Victorian society viewed the skin as a marker of one’s moral life - generally, adolescents who had acne were accused of being engaged in sexual behaviors like masturbation (Brumberg 1997, p. 63-4). In turn, this notion aroused suspicion within middle-class families. Acne was also connected to various skin diseases like smallpox and tuberculosis. Although Victorian physicians recalled those beliefs by the end of the
Brumberg argues that although women have more freedom over their bodies, historical changes have put them at risk due to biological, cultural, and societal changes of the female body throughout history (xviii-xv). Brumberg theorizes in her book that the “stunning freedoms” that modern women enjoyed in the beginning of the nineteenth-century came with a cultural demand that they learn to control their bodies, which only intensified and became more powerful by the end of the twentieth century.
Brumberg argues that familial forces caused women to agonize over their skin because cultural and societal norms that required women to have smooth skin was institutionalized since the nineteenth-century (1997, p. 61). Victorian society viewed the skin as a marker of one’s moral life - generally, adolescents who had acne were accused of being engaged in sexual behaviors like masturbation (Brumberg 1997, p. 63-4). In turn, this notion aroused suspicion within middle-class families. Acne was also connected to various skin diseases like smallpox and tuberculosis. Although Victorian physicians recalled those beliefs by the end of the