Copyright, 1998, Jennifer J. Freyd, jjf@dynamic.uoregon.edu
LIMITED CIRCULATION PERMISSION: The author gives the following limited permission for circulating this essay. It may be circulated in electronic version so long as this copyright and use statement is included and the essay is not modified in any way. No circulation for profit is permitted. I retain all other rights (including non-electronic-medium rights of publication.)
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 14:25:43 -0800
Sender: Psychology of Women Resource List
<POWR-L@URIACC.URI.EDU>
From: Jennifer Freyd
<jjf@DYNAMIC.UOREGON.EDU>
Subject: eating disorders -- internal AND external
causes
To: POWR-L@URIACC.URI.EDU
The discussion about self esteem, eating disorders, and social forces reminds me again of how feminist psychology at its best embraces the importance of both internal psychological processes and external social forces, and especially it embraces how the two sorts of processes interact. Laura Brown's book Subversive Dialogues, that was mentioned in an earlier post today, is a great example of a theoretical perspective that firmly grapples with both internal psychological processes and the external forces of oppression and the interaction between the two sorts of processes. Subversive Dialogues shows persuasively how attend to both levels of our psychological-social reality can be a powerful tool in changing the world.
While some (maybe most?) psychologists and mental health specialists seem to focus exclusively on the internal processes that cause human distress and some feminist activitists seem to focus exclusively on the external forces of oppression that cause human distress, feminist psychology seems to offer the place and space to see the importance of both the internal and external. Thus in the context of eating disorders addressing both internal processes like self esteem and oppressive social forces are important, and I think especially important is understanding how we internalize the external and then externalize the internal. One terrific article recently published on the ways social forces impact internal functioning for women's feelings about their bodies and themselves is:
Fredrickson, B.L. & Roberts, T-A. (1997) Objectification Theory: Toward understanding women's lived experiences and mental health risks. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, 173-206.
I really like the idea of discussing and thinking about these complicated issues in this feminist psychological way.. Then the questions seem not to be "internal or external forces" but both internal AND external forces and especially how they interact. I also like the idea implicit in an earlier post on this topic of us doing things to change the world around us so that in the long run we see less distress of this nature.
Jennifer Freyd
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 15:05:22 -0800
Sender: Psychology of Women Resource List
<POWR-L@URIACC.URI.EDU>
From: Jennifer Freyd
<jjf@DYNAMIC.UOREGON.EDU>
Subject: PS to internal AND external...
To: POWR-L@URIACC.URI.EDU
PS. On the topic of how to change the world, informed by feminist psychology....I wonder about the relatively easy action of writing letters to the editors of periodicals about the depiction of girls and women in advertising and how that impacts people's internal and external functioning.
I tend to read relatively nerdy scientific or feminist periodicals (and I suspect that considering the content of the advertising in most popular magazines my nerdy reading habits are inadvertently good for my self esteem and healthy eating patterns.. ). The closest I come to a regular magazine -- that is one with fashion advertisements -- is the relatively small-circulation weekly magazine The New Yorker. So maybe that is why the advertisements in the latest issue grabbed my attetion -- maybe if I read more magazines with fashion ads I'd be so habituated to this stuff I wouldn't notice it. Anyway, I was bothered by the depiction of women in the ads and I wrote to the New Yorker to tell them so. The letter probably won't get published, but it might still make a dent especially if enough readers write to complain.
So I will post the letter I sent to the New Yorker here with the hopes that it is of interest to those on POWR-L, or might even serve as inspiration to others to write to this publication or other publications about advertising images that depict women in harmful ways.
---------------begin letter to the New Yorker--------------
As a long-time New Yorker reader I'm used to reading your (generally) enlightened editorials flanked by (generally) sexist advertisements from the fashion industry. But the 17 pages of advertisements from one company that you printed in the Feb 23-March 2 issue go beyond attention to women's body parts. They enter into the realm of selling products via hints of physical and sexual violence against women. The hints are both subtle and intense. Page after page of stunning photograph shows emaciated and pained looking women with black shadows around eyes and cheek bones. The women clutch their bodies or look so vulnerable and hurt and thin that they could be war prisoners who have been so violated that they are now defenseless. Look at page 54; if your goal was to find a publishable image that symbolized a rape victim, how could you do better? And interspersed between these stylized images of hurt and vulnerable women are images of confident and powerful men. With their dark glasses and large hands and ample clothing these men in the photos are clearly victors, not victims.
It's a shame that you would ever, for any amount of advertising revenue, provide space to images that end up glorifying violence against women as high fashion. To the extent these images are internalized they likely inflict damage on women readers. I will not claim such images themselves cause violence. However we also have sufficient evidence from behavioral research to suppose that the psychological effect of such images can contribute to the alarmingly high prevalence of violence against women.
If you don't buy the objectification or consequence arguments perhaps pride in good taste will matter: these images are an embarrassing reflection of our culture, and all the more so if they do successfully sell cologne to New Yorker readers.
Jennifer J. Freyd
Professor of Psychology
University of Oregon
---------------end letter to the New Yorker--------------
Copyright, 1998, Jennifer J. Freyd, jjf@dynamic.uoregon.edu
LIMITED CIRCULATION PERMISSION: The author gives the following limited permission for circulating this essay. It may be circulated in electronic version so long as this copyright and use statement is included and the essay is not modified in any way. No circulation for profit is permitted. I retain all other rights (including non-electronic-medium rights of publication.)
Last update 25 February 1998 jjf@dynamic.uoregon.edu