Doctoral student Cindy Huynh does not think her purple hair makes her any less qualified to teach.
Huynh, who teaches a hip-hop feminism course in the U’s Gender Studies Program, was one of five women to participate in a panel discussion Wednesday about the misrepresentation of the female body. Panelists discussed the expectations for women’s bodies, gender roles, hypersexualization and stereotypes.
The event was organized by Rudy Medina, the student services coordinator for the Office of Student Equity and Diversity.
“I think there’s a need for discussion,” Medina said. “We have lots of students come through our office, and [misrepresentation] is something that they keep referencing.”
Susie Porter, the director of the Gender Studies Program and the panel’s moderator, hoped the program would highlight a “private” problem for group response.
The panel attempted to define and quantify misrepresentation. Much of the discussion focused on the “ideal female body” as a thin, white and cisgender woman.
Brianne Blanchard, an employee at the LGBT Center and a transgender woman, discussed the politics behind “claiming the female body.” She said it is more difficult to publicly and politically identify as transgender.
“Women feel that they have to pass as someone else’s idea of female,” she said. “But this idea that ‘I have to do this and this and this, and then I can claim the female body’ is problematic.”
The panel also tried to identify the source of these misrepresentations. Belinda Saltiban, the director of Diversity and Inclusion for Undergraduate Studies, believes the problem is rooted in the idea of identity as inflexible.
Saltiban described her experience traveling back to her hometown in Hawaii. She said people call her out as “the girl that got pregnant” in high school. She responds to those individuals by telling them the incident has not defined her life goals.
“Identities and assumptions are imposed on us, and we become static, as if we don’t change and develop over time,” Saltiban said.
Panelists said these misconceptions are furthered through media influence — a topic Lexie and Lindsay Kite feel passionately about. The two sisters are identical twins and earned their Ph.D.s from the U last year. They have gone on to start a nonprofit organization called Beauty Redefined, which works to promote a positive body image among women.
“We live in a media-driven world where girls are taught that they are to be looked at above all else. Many girls and women are featured on TV, in movies, and magazines purely as props to be ogled,” Lexie Kite said. “No wonder women and girls face such immense pain and stunted progress today.”
Porter said these norms can cause severe harm to women and girls, and the ideal of thinness promotes eating disorders. She also said misrepresentation leads to higher rates of “staying closeted” among queer women and to increased sexual violence.
The event said the societal lies set women back in the professional world. Like Huynh with her purple hair, many women are penalized for not conforming to normative expectations.
“I know that when I apply for jobs I’m going to have to dye my hair, I’m going to have to cover my tattoos, I’m going to have to wear long pants,” Huynh said.
Attendee Kathy Leslie wants to employ what she learned in the discussion to her job in Career Services.
Panelists hope other audience members will follow Leslie’s lead. Porter said it is important to look at both the individual and collective actions in fighting misrepresentation and its consequences.
Anna Thorn, a senior in sociology, said she walked away from Wednesday’s event with an increased commitment to fighting misrepresentation.
“Everyone can participate,” Thorn said. “It’s just about synthesizing theories and making them work for your reality.”
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