How Did our Concept of the Body Develop Over Time?

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How did our concept of the body develop over time?
A human body is the most important part of one’s life and is always perceived in different ways. The way people perceived male body is not the same way they perceived female bodies. Philosophers and scientist differentiate the body and the mind by arguing that each has its unique function and referred this relation as the mind-body dualism. The mind wants to control the body the same way men control women. Therefore, the mind was considered masculine while the body that was being controlled was feminine. In many societies, women were and are still are the primary caregivers. They nurtured their babies to fully grown adults and also took care of the sick. For this reason the body was and still is perceived feminine. In the modern society, the concept of the body is used as a standard of beauty. This has been greatly perpetuated by the media that glorifies certain element of the feminine body. The advancement of technology particularly in the medical field has led to the introduction of cosmetic surgery. This has helped many women to transform their body appearance based on the society standard of beauty.
What is the beauty myth and how is it complicated?
The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf suggests that the belief in beauty is perceived as real and known by most people due to evolutionary and biological factors. Feminists opined that the beauty standards were put in place to perpetuate power imbalance. The beauty myth portrays women bodies as sexual objects and as a result, their skills are overlooked. Wolf argued that the cultural ideal of beauty was unrealistic and was created to maintain gender differences. She maintained that the beauty myth was meant to make the beauty standards seem normal and maintain male dominance. Ideal beauty can also not be universal since the world is populated with people of different races and equating one race as a standard is simply wrong. Women cannot perceive their body correctly and are extremely obsessed by their body image. In the olden days, black women bodies were perceived to be overly sexual by their rather huge behind and breasts. In today world, women are pursuing breast enlargement and also hip enhancement making the beauty myth complicated.
What are the issues surrounding Men’s body image?
A man’s body is rather subtly perceived because mainly they are the ones who set the standards of beauty. Female prefer tall men and masculine while those perceived as feminine or short are get little attention. A man body is also not naturally seen naked because this is a standard kept to women bodies and any attempt to show a naked body is regarded to as weakness even though historically it was the standard of beauty. The current construct of masculinity makes it difficult for men’s bodies to be objectified.
What issues of health involves issues of gender?
Masculinity is the core axis that men rotat...