"Normalizing" in American Culture

Normal is cultural concept
Push to normalize in different cultures
- in ideas
- in appearances
- in acceptable standards
In American culture, focus on body image, especially in women
Concept of what it is to be beautiful
Can force change due to new medical procedures – mutilation?
Often portrayed in media

- American standard of beauty = culture of thinness (Tyranny of the Normal) (diet obsession) (portrayal of actresses) (Mean Girls) (Saved!)
- American standard of beauty = related to presentation, make-up, products, clothes link it to industry (Those Unnerving Ads Using Real Women) industry benefiting (Welcome to Cancerland) tight clothes and style industry (Aliens in America) (media – best/worst dressed)
- Can force change to “normalize” with medical procedures – similar to mutilation? (Bones) (advertising for laser surgery, liposuction, even tanning)
- Can normalize with clothes, diets, etc
- Not only media, even every day life (grocery stores, gymnasiums, infomercials for pilates)
- Push to target women specifically (Unnerving Ads Using Real Women – cure of realness) (gyms like Curves – target a woman’s body)
- American concept completely different from other concepts (example – Kayan neck rings, similar to mutilation found in cosmetic surgery)
- Culture of thinness – where do we draw the line? (Cultural Fixations of the Freak Body – fat lady and skeletor = freaks)
- Refreshing push to fight “normalizing” (Bones, Love Actually, America’s Next Top Model – “ugly beautiful” girls, media picking out anorexia as negative thing in actresses)