Our sad headless mannequin sister

Everywhere you look you see the feminine form which isn’t surprising however more and more often I find a female torso with absolutely no head. I have seen this on the covers of magazines, posters advertising really, anything, and of course our sad headless mannequin sisters. Are we so devalued as a sex and our objectification so complete that we no longer require a head with eyes to look in to?

Why are there entire industries that focus on exploiting women’s insecurities? I remember watching an ad for a woman’s face cream that featured an egg with brown spots on it which, I assume, was to illustrate how horribly that egg was marred by some spots. Then of course I started to worry about spots on my face that no one else would ever be able to see.

I worked in a building that had a CoolSculpting spa, an industry that coincidentally is created and disseminated around making perfectly wonderful women feel bad about themselves. There was a giant poster out front with a headless torso, as if everyone was complicit with the fact that anything anyone cares about is a woman’s torso. Including the women!!! In fact one day I walked by that poster in front of the CoolSculpting Spa – headless torso, then on my way back to the studio the covers of the magazines in the waiting room prominently featured – women’s torsos, then to cap it off on my way home I drove by a billboard with a – GIANT headless female torso. It was hysterically awful and I’ve been writing this blog in my head ever since. 

I teach Pilates to a lot of women my age (which is teetering on the edge of middle) and older. These women are truly amazing and so worthy of reverence. They are all greatly accomplished in their careers in the workforce and as caregivers. I have been amazed at their stories of tenacity and grit having to claw their way through workplaces dominated by men who were not interested in having women manage them, or really even work with them in general. I am in awe of the way they care for their familial obligations on top of everything else. They are strong because they have to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders. Yet these same women constantly berate themselves because they feel they don’t fit the industry standard of what we’ve been told women’s bodies should be. I feel it’s my job to prove to them that they are in wonderful shape and that their bodies are performing at a very high level – to wit I was teaching a reformer class where two of the students were some of my 40+ regulars. A younger woman, first time to reformer class, also attended. This woman was young and thin and blonde so of course my regulars made some side comments about how they were some how less than, compared to her. I told them to: a. knock it off, but also to b. pay attention. As we worked through the warm up sequences this new student had to go take a break. My regulars were working CIRCLES around her. Their physical fitness was at a much higher level than hers and I made sure they were aware of that! They made that all too common mistake of assuming that just because someone may be thinner or younger it must also mean they are strong and healthy. This is a very common misconception drilled into our heads by constant marketing.

I’ve had enough. In fact I’ve had MORE than enough! It’s time for us to value ourselves as entire people not just as midsections. We need to support each other, not continually look for the physical flaws in ourselves and others. Women already have enough pressure on us we certainly do not need to look for ways to add on to it. There will definitely be more on this from me in future blogs. However in my next blog I will explain what a Pilates teacher is and how to identify one.