Body Masking In The Twilight Zone
One of the most memorable episodes of “The Twilight Zone” television series begins as a woman chats with a doctor in a hospital room with her head covered with gauze. This woman has undergone a procedure to make her look normal and she is anxiously waiting to see her face without the bandages. "I never really wanted to be beautiful”, she tells the doctor. “I just wanted people not to scream when they looked at me”… “I want to belong; I want to be like everybody else”. However, the doctor warns her that because she has undergone so many procedures, it will not be possible to try again. If the procedure proves unsuccessful, she will be sent to a special area where people of her kind have been exiled. The doctor removes the bandages from the final
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They reshape and sculpt their bodies and adorn them with paint, cosmetics, clothing, and jewelry. These customs, however, are diverse and particular to a culture at a specific time. The diversity of body costumes has led anthropologists (e.g., Douglas 1970; Strathern 1996) to conclude that a body is both a physical and a symbolic artifact, forged by nature and by culture at a particular moment in history (Sullivan, 2000).Social institutions, ideology, values, beliefs, and technology transform a physical body into a social body. Bodies, therefore, provide important clues to the mechanics of society …show more content…
Fat has been seen as a statement of well-being and has been frequently produced artificially through fattening processes (Roybal,2002) In a rite of passage, some Nigerian girls spend months gaining weight in what is known as “the fattening room”. In this culture, a woman’s rotundity is a sign of good health, prosperity and charm. “Beauty is in the weight”, says a defender of the practice, “To be called a slim princess is an abuse” (Angeloni, 2001)
In modern Western society "thin is in" and sometimes artificial means such as liposuction are used to lessen the appearance of hips, buttocks, and fat in general (Sullivan, 2002). In the United States, most people hold negative attitudes toward body fat. According to surveys, people attribute increased body weight to being poor or having poor health. Obese women, more than men, are rated negatively by peers (Levy and Shiraev,
They reshape and sculpt their bodies and adorn them with paint, cosmetics, clothing, and jewelry. These customs, however, are diverse and particular to a culture at a specific time. The diversity of body costumes has led anthropologists (e.g., Douglas 1970; Strathern 1996) to conclude that a body is both a physical and a symbolic artifact, forged by nature and by culture at a particular moment in history (Sullivan, 2000).Social institutions, ideology, values, beliefs, and technology transform a physical body into a social body. Bodies, therefore, provide important clues to the mechanics of society …show more content…
Fat has been seen as a statement of well-being and has been frequently produced artificially through fattening processes (Roybal,2002) In a rite of passage, some Nigerian girls spend months gaining weight in what is known as “the fattening room”. In this culture, a woman’s rotundity is a sign of good health, prosperity and charm. “Beauty is in the weight”, says a defender of the practice, “To be called a slim princess is an abuse” (Angeloni, 2001)
In modern Western society "thin is in" and sometimes artificial means such as liposuction are used to lessen the appearance of hips, buttocks, and fat in general (Sullivan, 2002). In the United States, most people hold negative attitudes toward body fat. According to surveys, people attribute increased body weight to being poor or having poor health. Obese women, more than men, are rated negatively by peers (Levy and Shiraev,