Bells and whistles: The mass (re)production of female bodies for male consumption.

Abstract

In this work I examine the way female bodies are constructed by contemporary ethnic U.S. women writers in the clash of cultures, thus involving a process of negotiation between the dominant culture and ethnicity. Of special interest to my approach is how their construction of female bodies challenges the arbitrary limits, constraints and restrictions imposed by the Western androcentric view, and how social structures are embedded in the female body.

I also follow the way bodies and body images are produced and the role hierarchical differences, power relationships, and cultural expectations play in the process. I am interested in the way female bodies reflect the interconnectedness between standards of beauty and dis/empowerment, as well as the way guilt, shame and humiliation are produced by racial, ethnic and gender stereotypes. My broader concern is to investigate these issues within the context of the unstable opposition between the validation and normalization of cultural difference.