Wednesday, January 22, 2014


Before I began reading the article “My Bodies of the Year,” I thought it would be a piece criticizing the rich and famous for what they put their bodies through. I was surprised when Wesley Morris began telling a story of ill health and pain. He continued his path of unexpected thoughts when he didn’t detail the whole story, but rather used it as an anecdote to prove a point. Morris wasn’t bitter about the life that these people had, while his mother lay so sick. He simply noted the differences in our bodies and how our culture responds to them. This was confusing to me at first. I couldn’t tell if he was passively writing off the “Hollywood body,” or praising its beauty. It seemed it was the drastic change that our bodies can handle was what Morris thought was the true beauty.
I felt differently about the extremes that Matthew McConaughey put his body through. The human body is not designed to handle such variations; while his role (and ultimately his body) gave him the conviction to be his character, I don’t find beauty in what he did. McConaughey’s confidence is commendable, however his actions are not. From a very young age the media shapes what we should see as beautiful, placing shiny magazines with bright colors all around (not to mention the stick thin models.) The same can be said for females in the industry, however exposed skin I think has a different meaning. There is vulnerability to it. Katy Perry speaks of the increase nudity and “everyone’s so naked,” but I don’t just see the physical parts of the body, rather why they are dressed that way. Granted, there are some who just want the shock factor, but I think there is something very genuine in the style now, especially when it comes to bare skin. This isn’t to say that only wearing heels in a music video is what I’m describing, but then again that’s not what you see when you walk down the street.
Whether we like it or not, the body is vital to our culture. From the curves it possesses to the posture we hold, every detail speaks about us as an individual. Morris is captivated by the changes our bodies go through, and how those little differences affected us as a person and how we are interpreted. Our ability to survive near starvation, to cancer, to even obesity, illustrates the great variance our body can withstand. All in all, how we carry ourselves, to how fit we are creates a roadmap of our passions, morals, and abilities all because of our bodies.  

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