Ideal Female Body Structur

A detailed Summary of Ideal Female Body Structur

Symbolism, the common ground on which both Bordo and Warner chose to base their arguments, is at the center of the question of where do the image of the ideal female body figure comes from. Bordo believes it is from society's pressures of indulgence and control, but does that really create an image? There is definitely an image that we see every day of slender women in commercials and magazines, but how did this come to be the ideal form? This is the question Marina Warner answers in the essay Nuda Veritas. Warner answers this question by discussing art from both Christian and classical culture. She discusses and critiques the idea of 'the opposition between culture and nature, clothes and nakedness, order and disorder'. From these oppositions we derive our idea of beauty versus ugliness.

In Christian paintings we are shown pictures of the naked female in many ways. The first, nuditas criminalis, is the vision of lust and evil. It is the naked body portrayed in a lustful or distasteful way. We also see visions of age. In these paintings age is a punishment for sin. We are shown images of the body rotting and being consumed by worms or snakes devouring the subjects g

The second vision we are shown is nuditas naturalis, this is the image of returning to the original human state. This state is without sin; it is pure but at the same time can be bad. For example Mary Magdalene after her life of sin returned to the original human state by shedding her clothes and wandering the dessert. This wouldn't be to bad if she didn't grow any hair but in order to protect her body she grew hair creating an ugly image. At the same time though we can associate positive images with nuditas naturalis. Jonah after escaping the whales belly 'is naked, because his faith has purified him of carnal taint so he can reveal himself in the state of Eden before the fall. The whale has swallowed his clothes, but he has also been reborn innocent.'

These three images bring us to the formation of the ideal human body. With these images and ideas being conveyed through this art it is impossible for people not to get caught up with what it makes them feel. People will identify beauty with what gives them the feeling of purity, innocence and wholeness. Thus people strive to look like the figures the see painted and a standard is set.

Bordo and Warner ideas parallel in the idea that the ideal human body comes from images we see, however they differ in the fact that the images are t

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 873
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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