Self-image and well-being are linked<\/p>\n
By Terri Apter<\/p>\n
LONDON: The relation between a woman and her body is often
\nseen as problematic. She is aware of herself as a "physical
\nobject", someone seen, assessed and known as a body.<\/p>\n
This self-awareness begins at an early age. Diaries of girls
\nas young as eight show that they engage in what the author and
\nacademic Joan Jacobs Brumberg calls "the body project" - seeing
\nthemselves as something to change, mould, perfect. They form
\nresolutions to pare down through dieting and build up through
\nexercise. Being body beautiful becomes a moral mission.<\/p>\n
The female as object can be traced throughout the lifespan:
\nfrom puberty, when she becomes aware of her sexuality through
\nothers' responses, to midlife, when many women report becoming
\ninvisible socially, women note a link between being attractive
\nand being significant.<\/p>\n
Of course, men are not impervious to how they look. At the
\nlaunch of a book of his collected essays, a university professor
\nwas asked whether he had any regrets. Caught charmingly off-
\nguard, he blurted out, "I would have liked to be four inches
\ntaller." A retrospective of a brilliant career was clouded by a
\nconstant sense that he was "too short".<\/p>\n
Men may objectify their bodies in other ways. They sometimes
\nemphasise the body's performance more than their pleasure. They
\nexperience pain as something to be contained rather than
\nexpressed. They try to look strong, rather than as they are. Such
\nobjectification may go some way to explaining the current debate
\nover the existence of the male menopause, dismissed by some
\nclinicians, which was raging in the British Medical Journal last
\nmonth.<\/p>\n
Critical awareness of our own bodies in terms of how they look
\nrather than in terms of how they work is an impediment to a good
\nlife. If we look in the mirror and despise ourselves because of
\nour breasts or cellulite, or if we flare with envy for another
\nwoman who looks the way we think we ought to, then we collude in
\na way of seeing that diminishes us.<\/p>\n
But recent research has highlighted another aspect of women's
\nspecial body awareness: they may also be more aware of the body
\nas subject. In other words, they are more attuned to what they
\nfeel, and have higher standards for feeling well.<\/p>\n
Men and women have different bodies and different body
\nchemistry. It should not be all that surprising that female and
\nmale pain follow different pathways to the brain. In all
\nprobability, the different pathways are a result of evolution.
\nMen had to learn how to endure the traumatic pain of sudden
\ninjury while hunting, and women had to endure the more visceral
\npain of childbirth.<\/p>\n
Some people find this argument compelling, and some find it
\ninfuriatingly speculative. But while the differences between the
\nsexes, in terms of pain, are really very small, we can still
\nlearn much from looking at the different ways different people
\nread their bodies.<\/p>\n
The menstrual cycle teaches women how their moods are affected
\nby their hormones. Few women need a pregnancy test to tell them
\nthey are pregnant: there are other, clear signs, such as the
\ntenderness of their breasts - and acute irritability. They key
\ninto the different physical messages of different days, and are
\nmuch quicker to know when something's wrong.<\/p>\n
Whether what we feel is seen as intelligent or fantastic is a
\nmatter of constant revision. Women have fought hard to revise on
\ntheir own terms. Menopausal symptoms now are widely recognised,
\nbut this wasn't always the case. Hot flushes may have been
\nrecognised as "real" (that is, as a symptom of lower estrogen
\nlevels), but other menopausal effects were until very recently
\nclassified as symptoms of mental disturbance.<\/p>\n
Dr Eleanor Birks, who now runs a menopause clinic in
\nCambridge, remembers being told by a patient that she felt "as
\nthough ants were crawling under my skin". Examining her, and
\nfinding nothing, Eleanor tranquillised her. Only years later,
\nwhen she experienced menopause herself, did she realise her
\nmistake: the itching, crawling sensations were, she now knew,
\nassociated with menopause. It was another lesson, she says, in
\nvaluing women's awareness.<\/p>\n
Women tend to be precise and thorough in their descriptions of
\npain. Ask a man when his back gives out, and you will be told he
\nwas digging in the garden or manoeuvring a lawn mower. Ask a
\nwoman, and she will explain that her back gives out when she is
\nunder stress. She will tell you what she was thinking about as
\nwell as what she was doing. The current medical focus on the
\nclose links between psychological and physical wellbeing comes as
\na surprise to men and a confirmation to women.<\/p>\n
Hence, men may be slow to link the midlife hormonal changes,
\nin which testosterone levels are lowered, with their mental
\nturmoil. Instead of addressing the body problem, sometimes called
\nthe "male menopause" or "menopause", they disrupt their families
\nand their careers. Ignorant of body messages, they buy fast cars
\nand pursue young women - or stick with what they have but lapse
\ninto depression. Certainly, they are slower to seek help and to
\nput the problem in context.<\/p>\n
Women do not have to be ill to seek medical advice. Hence,
\nwell- women clinics are proliferating in GP surgeries and some
\nworkplaces, while men's health clinics are few and far between.
\nThis can viewed in two ways. One is that women's natural
\nconditions are somehow seen as abnormal, in need of medical
\nintervention. Another slant says that men are reluctant to seek
\nhelp. With an interpersonal perspective geared to hierarchy, they
\ndon't want to put themselves in a "one- down" position.<\/p>\n
But if body knowledge becomes valued by everyone, then this
\ncould change. It would, indeed, be an immense social change, for
\nthen macho endurance loses its point. This could mean the end of
\nany glorification of the soldier, but it would certainly mean
\nthat men would be quicker to seek medical treatment for all those
\nembarrassing conditions (such as prostate and colon cancer) that
\nwomen have never had an option to avoid.<\/p>\n
As the medical profession becomes more interested in what and
\nhow people feel, they will help both men and women gain power
\nover their lives and their bodies. After all, women may be quick
\nto locate their pain, but they need new education in locating
\ntheir pleasure. Between 1994 and 1997, 836 practices were
\ntracked. Areas of social deprivation had high rates of teenage
\npregnancy. But these rates could be cut by a staggering 25% where
\nthe practice had a female doctor under the age of 36.<\/p>\n
-- Guardian News Service<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/self-image-and-well-being-are-linked-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }