Another year, another turkey leg at the annual Renaissance festival. These types of festivals have always been dear to me- it’s served as a great source of entertainment and escape. For those of you that don’t already know, Renaissance festivals are a unique gateway to another realm- a portal that transports its participants to a time period complete with medieval costumes, games, merchandise and food (lots of food). Customers are encouraged to be themselves and dress up according to the time period-it’s a day to shed whatever rules and regulations the outside world requires and to eat, drink and be merry in a safe atmosphere void of judgment. I know this world well, this is my thirteenth year attending. Continue reading
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Noises.
Most of the time when I hear discussions about body anxiety, it’s about how the body looks. My problem is with how mine sounds. Continue reading
Keep Your Cool?
Have you seen the new Axe commercial for their Cool Metal body wash? If not, pause your reading and take a watch…Axe Cool Metal, Keep Your Cool.
Makes you say WHAT?! Right? When I first saw this commercial all I could think was “quite a stereotype they’ve got there, huh?”
Hijab and Mr.President !
This Thursday I had to dress myself and body in a way that I don’t necessarily agree with. I am originally from Iran and this week I was invited to go to NYC to participate at a dinner party that was hosted for the president of Iran. Going there itself was a little controversial but I decided to go and explore my surroundings. In order to get in to the event or maybe I should say “fit in” I had to dresses within Islamic rules. Continue reading
Bodies born into verses bodies created.
Literate Bodies, Parsing a Skin
In a print based society, we’re trained from an early age to find meaning in marks. I’m going to look at some of the ways that we ‘read’ bodies today.
On Selfies
Not too long ago, it was really difficult to take a picture of yourself. It was time-consuming! You needed to find your camera, strategically hold your arm out, press the button a few times, and hope that your face ended up in the frame of at least a couple of the pictures you captured. Uploading them to your computer and choosing one to make your profile picture on MySpace was then an entirely separate event. It was an ordeal and the selfie was quite rare.
Today, ‘selfies’ are everywhere. We all take them and it’s nearly impossible to scroll through Facebook and Instagram feeds without passing one. Smart phones with front-facing cameras and constantly expanding social networks have revolutionized the way we’re able to share ourselves with others.
Body learning: anxiety edition
In my notes from one of the first days of class, I have written, “embodiment -> we know because of our body; ways of knowing that exceed rationality.” This simple concept – that our bodies are sources of knowledge – is something I’d never consciously thought about, but as this idea about embodied knowledge started to sink in, I realized that my head has been learning a lot from my body recently.
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I started the week with particularly active butterflies in my stomach, for no particular reason. I assumed that they would ebb and flow as usual. But they didn’t; they stayed.
The next couple of days, my body started experiencing anxiety in different ways. My heart would race. I wasn’t digesting my food. I would shake a bit. I cried more than usual. I always felt on edge, like I was just about to have a panic attack but without the relief that can come after one. Continue reading
Yearly Exam
I silently sign my name on the sheet telling the front desk staff sitting at the computer that I am here, and sit down in a generic, but expensive-looking chair.
Aiming for comfort.
Women are glued to their copies of Parenting or Marie Clare. A couple sitting cattycorner to each other look up at me, and then glance back at each other talking. An instrumental version of Memories from the musical Cats plays softly in the background. I don’t have a magazine, so I take up Candy Crush. After 10 minutes the woman at the front desk calls my name.
“Hi, Amelia! We just need to get a urine sample from you, so if you could just go down the hallway and to the second door on the left and leave that for us in the metal cabinet, then go to room number two, that’d be excellent!”
Online Gaming and Gendering Invisible Bodies
Anyone who frequents or even casually plays online games are likely to be familiar with the stereotypes and vitriol surrounding the “girl gamer.” If she exists at all, which very often she does not, she is in your games and responsible for your team’s loss. She’s probably just a “casual” gamer who should stay out of the “big leagues.” She probably isn’t a real gamer at all.
![tumblr_m4s3tvjXWd1qfq9sno1_500[1]](https://unruly-bodies.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/tumblr_m4s3tvjxwd1qfq9sno1_5001.jpg)
Am I doing it right?
Of course, on the internet, and in particular in the forum of a game where you have maybe an hour to construct your gender to a group of strangers who will likely never know your face or body or even name, being a “girl gamer” is less about bodies and more about gendered expectations. Bodies certainly are involved with those expectations, though.
TW for slurs, mentions of casual binarism, mentions of homophobia
Unruly Bodies 