Female Body Women around the world and throughout time have modified their bodies, willingly or under coercion, in order to achieve a culturally desirable aesthetic. With her body as central to her role, status, and identity, females manipulate their bodies or their bodies are manipulated for them. In some cases, the body modification is an overt sign of patriarchy, because it enables greater control over the woman's life. This is especially true with Chinese foot binding, which was outlawed in 1911. With her feet bound, the woman could not walk properly and was therefore literally bound to be docile and subservient to the husband (Crossley). In other cases, gender and aesthetic norms are what dictates the body modification practice. Usually the body modification in these cases also feeds into a patriarchal culture in which the female's value on the marriage market is ascertained by her appearance. Modern forms of body modification like plastic surgeries provide the illusion of female empowerment, but surgeries perpetuate the same social functions of the subordination of women via control over their bodies. These practices present the female body as signifying the worth or status of the individual. Moreover, females do not have control over the prevailing cultural aesthetic, and thus engage in dangerous body modification practices. All over the world, in Eastern and Western societies, the female body is a political issue.

When a girl in the Pa Dong Karen tribe turns five or six years old, she is given the first of many rings to wear around her neck. Successive rings are added at about the rate of one per year for almost twenty years. Although hauntingly beautiful and impressive,, these rings are not ordinary necklaces. They are heavy binders that break the young girls' collar bones, pushing down as far as the girl's ribcage, to provide the illusion of a longer neck. The practice goes back hundreds of years, as does the wearing of corsets and the binding of feet. Like Chinese foot binding or the wearing of corsets in Victorian England, the neck rings represent a cultural practice symbolizing excessive control over the female body. Neck stretching, foot binding, corsets, and plastic surgery are all methods of modifying the female body in accordance with aesthetic norms and gender roles. When the illogic of ethical and cultural relativism is set aside, it is clear that practices like these can be dangerous if not outright exploitative.

The more extreme forms of body modification like neck rings and foot binding are overt means of controlling the female population and ensuring their subordination and dependence on men. With neck rings, "the neck muscles will have been severely weakened by years of not supporting the neck, a woman must spend the rest of her life lying down" if the rings were taken off completely (The Peoples of the World Foundation). Likewise, foot binding breaks foot bones and disables the women from walking. "Match-makers or mother-in-law required their son's betrothed to have bound feet as a sign that she would be a good wife (she would be subservient and without complaint)," (Crossley). In both of these cases, the notion of aesthetics is not only secondary, but it is an excuse to cover up the deeper meaning of the practices. It has been presumed that "an extra-long neck is considered a sign of great beauty and wealth and that it will attract a better husband," but in actuality, the neck rings attract a better husband because the woman's subservience is all but guaranteed (The Peoples of the World Foundation). The small feet resulting from foot binding was thought to be an attractive feature, but this "painful" process served two distinct sociological functions: to display the woman's social status, and to highlight her dependence on the patriarchal social order (Crossley).

Some practices of female body modification present clear health hazards to the woman and could even be considered masochistic. With foot binding, hazards last well into the woman's later years even after the bindings have been removed. "Since they could not balance securely, older women who had bound feet were less able to rise from a sitting position and were more likely to fall and break their hips and other bones," (Crossley). The process of foot binding breaks bones in the feet repeatedly over the course of childhood and adolescence. Women who had their feet bound become permanently disabled (Crossley). In the case of neck rings, a broken collar bone means the woman is also permanently disabled and unable to hold up her own neck without the rings. The penalty for adultery is removal of the neck rings; thus proving that the practice of neck...

If she remains subservient and obedient, then with the rings on, she can perform most of her daily duties. If she disobeys, the rings are removed and she is scarred physically as well as socially.
Neck rings and foot binding are Asian forms of control over the female body, but Western cultures have also developed extreme types of body modifications for women. The most extreme form of female body modification in European society is probably the corset, a five hundred year old practice. The corset, like neck rings, is still in style. Corsets can present a number of health hazards for women, including causing the internal organs to move out of position, causing indigestion, shallow breathing, skin problems, constipation, and fractured ribs (Tasheen). However, the idealized female form in European society has been an hourglass shape. Corsets create the illusion of an hourglass shape, or enhance a preexisting one. Like foot binding in China, the corset was "the mark of aristocratic women," because with their restricted movements they signaled their not having to work (Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia). Thus, corsets have been called "real and symbolic imprisonment of women," (Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia).

Men, in a real and actual display of patriarchal power, have largely controlled women's bodies and their idealized forms. For example, in the early twentieth century, an artist named Charles Gibson sketched female figures that became the standard ideal for a white woman's appearance. As Blakemore points out, the Gibson's Girl phenomenon arose as a backlash against the first wave of feminism and the trend towards female independence, empowerment and liberation. The Gibson's Girls were "kinder, gentler," and also "beautiful and anonymous," (Blakemore). They all have the same face, as if to suggest women do not have individuality. Because they are Gibson's "Girls" and not "Women," the figures also draw attention to the low status of women in American society and their perception of being children. With the Gibson's Girls, women were given an ideal prototype for their appearance, which corresponds roughly to the hourglass shape and did incidentally include the use of a corset. Gibson's Girls are also white, making the Northern European "look" the cultural ideal in American society. Women from Asian, Latin, Middle Eastern, or African backgrounds are excluded from the idealized American look in the Gibson's Girls framework.

Modern technologies have replaced old fashioned modes of body modification. The most commonly used technology of female body modification is plastic surgery. Plastic surgery has been directly recommended as a safer and more permanent alternative to corsets. One doctor states, "If you really want to achieve that look permanently then you're best bet would be to do it surgically…The corset won't allow you to breathe properly and will only deteriorate your health instead of helping it," (Harrison). The specific surgeries that provide the same hourglass shape as a corset would be abdominoplasty (tummy tuck surgery), laser surgery or liposuction (Harrison). To accentuate the idealized female form even more, women can opt for breast augmentation or buttocks augmentation, both of which enhance the hourglass curves. An idealized female form with large breast, small waist, and billowy buttocks is attainable to anyone with the right amount of money. However, there are dangerous consequences with cosmetic surgery. The potential complications with plastic surgeries include pneumonia, scarring, blood clots, fluid buildup, nerve damage, and death (Mayo Clinic Staff). To save money, many women have their cosmetic surgeries done by unlicensed doctors or doctors in countries in which the system is unregulated. The result could be disastrous. In spite of the risks, cosmetic surgery is becoming more common by the minute with a 12% increase in all cosmetic surgery procedures in 2013 alone (ASAPS). The most common types of plastic surgeries include liposuction, breast augmentation, eyelid surgery, tummy tuck, and nose surgery (ASAPS). Each of these surgeries can provide the woman with a form that corresponds to the idealized one, similar to that which is espoused by the Gibson's Girls or Barbie dolls. According to Roxby, pressure to "look good" had "pushed up" cosmetic surgery rates by nearly 20% since 2008.

The media is often responsible for perpetuating the idealized female body image, showing that women are still not taking control of…