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Created: April 26, 2003
Latest Update: April 26, 2003
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Dominant Discourse on Appearance

Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, April 2003.
"Fair use" encouraged.

On Sunday, December 1, 2002, Denise Vokoun wrote:

Subject: oppression

Dear Jeannie,

Today I was driving in the car with a friend of mine, and I a was wearing a skirt. He noticed that I haven't shaved my legs and said to me "it looks like you've got a jungle growing growing down there." I thought about what he said and came up with this conclusion: Women are still being oppressed in some sense. For example, if you don't shave your legs, or if you are fat, people tend to look and stare, make judgmental comments, or sometimes even avoid associating with you, if you don't conform to their liking. Someone like me, who came here from another country where something may be acceptable there, has to discover through these judgmental comments that the same practice may not be acceptable here. In order to be acepted in today's society, one must alter one's identity in order to be acepted by the society at large, which is known as the public sphere, in order to not be ridiculed.

On Saturday, April 26, 2003, jeanne responded:

Sorry I'm so late in responding, Denise. But you've hit upon a very important point about dominant discourse. Recall that dominant discourse is simply "les idees dans l'air," the ideas that are simply floating out there, the opinions to which most people seem to ascribe. In each culture those dominant ideas are a little different. Shaving your legs is a good example. In many parts of the world such fashion styles never caught on. A young woman who comes to the US is bound to encounter the same insensitive kinds of comments you describe here.

In this country, shaving your legs is considered good grooming. So is shaving hair from under the armpits. If you're a woman, that is. Good grooming, and what's in fashion is so changeable that we shoud be aware of such different expectations in the new global society. The problem is that when you're not used to diversity, and all the girls you know shave their legs, you come to think that that's natural, or the way God meant it to be. It never occurs to you that that's learned behavior, very specific to this culture. And there's the problem with dominant discourse in the public sphere.

As you get older, you'll discover that women are supposed to remove the hair from their upper lip, and pluck their eyebrows. I never did either one. I simply grab an old razor and shave off my upper lip and my chin. That horrifies Pat, who believes that cosmetic wax or some other such treatment would be better. That takes time; and pulling off the wax hurts. But I'm violating the dominant discourse expectation by shaving. I guess I'm old enough not to care about that expectation. But note that I DO shave the hair off. Why don't I just not bother, and let it grow? Because I'd be called a bearded lady and laughed at. Dominant discourse. Normative expectations. And cultural limitations.

What do we do about this pointed lack of illocutionary understanding? I tend to point out that some of our normative expectations are hooey and ignore them. And when my friends comment on my lack of conformity, I remind them that illocutionary discourse might serve them better. Like "Gee, you didn't shave your legs. Is that just coincidence or is it choice?" To which you might have answered that in your country of origin one does not necessarily shave one's legs. But if your friend is so crude as to comment negatively, then you might just point out to him how much he is a victim of culture-bound thinking, and suggest the learning of more cosmopolitan ways. Now, of course, if you were planning to date him, you might want to be a little softer with that retort. He might one day grow up to be a decent global citizen.

love and peace, jeanne

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