Bodies by Susie Orbach
Profile Books
Pp. 145
Susie
Orbach is a psychoanalyst, psychotherapist and social critic as well as an
author, so when she turns her attention to a subject, she is going to do more
than just skim the surface, even in a slim volume such as this. Here she is
concerned between the disparity between the reality and the projection of our
bodies. She would like to see us reclaim the body as a place in which we live
and not as a thing which must be permanently altered to fit a shifting social acceptance.
Bodies
used to make things; to build and farm; to clean and create. They were fit and
active because they had to be. With Western robotics and mechanics this is no
longer the case, and physical labour has been largely replaced. “Now those who
work with their bodies many hours a day are a class apart. Millions of us work
only with our fingers on keyboards. We admire the sportsperson or team for
their physical skills; we may garden, walk, dance and swim for pleasure and
health, but we are exceptional if we do not have to make an effort to ‘use’ our
bodies.”
Our
bodies are naturally formed in infancy and immediately shaped to fit the social
and individual customs of the families into which they are born. Gestures,
decoration and appearances all reflect the specific period, geography, sexual,
religious and cultural aspects of the place in which they live. These differences
were once obvious, but Orbach worries that globalism is challenging personal
identity, even to the way people walk, speak and dress. She sees this clearly
in Bhutan which received television only in 1999 so was protected from intense
outside influences until quite recently.
This need
to conform to a narrow body image is significant because it affects mental
health and becomes a public health issue through self-harm, obesity and
anorexia. People generate a sort of continuity and “aliveness” by creating and
then surviving emergencies, which in effect provide proof of their existence.
Orbach cites many cases in which clients traumatise their own bodies, to the
extent of removing perfect working limbs to stand out.
Physical
attraction and sexuality have become the new standard in relationships in which
the visual predominates and the body is judged merely as a sexual surface. For
women, even comfy clothing must convey sexy stylishness; women must always be
on display and they must always appear to be sexually attractive, available and
willing.
Conversely, as sexuality is increasingly visible, many women are
choosing to bypass sexual intercourse as a means of having children. Sexuality
is, therefore, seen as a commodity we are encouraged to produce, but one which
is separate from its biological purpose. As we sit in front of computers for many
hours a day, we create on-line bodies that have nothing to do with our bodies
as they actually are, and then try to make our ‘real’ bodies resemble these artificially
designed avatars.
Orbach makes a heartfelt plea, based on her professional experience of people
struggling to accept their physical form, for us to try to understand our
bodies for what they are, rather than trying to make them fit a social norm. She
argues that we should be able to take our bodies for granted, and just enjoy
them, rather than trying to change them. It’s great advice, but, although easy
to take to heart, it may be harder to put into practice; the indoctrination is too powerful.
