Bordo, Susan

Susan Bordo (1947–) is a professor of philosophy at the University of Kentucky and a noted feminist author focusing on culture and the body. Bordo is [Page 27]best known for her 1993 book Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body. She has published several other books, including The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private (1999) and Twilight Zones: The Hidden Life of Cultural Images From Plato to O.J. (1997). While most readers would agree that Bordo represents a feminist perspective, placing her work neatly into a “wave” of feminism is difficult. Her work has been highly influential in gender studies related to body and body image. Currently teaching English and women's studies at the University of Kentucky, Susan Bordo holds the Otis A. Singletary Chair in the Humanities. She received her Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1982, completing a feminist reading of René Descartes' Meditations for her dissertation.

In her best-known work, Unbearable Weight, Bordo makes an argument regarding the way in which expectations of female bodies in Western culture have contributed to body/eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, appearance practices such as plastic surgery and constant dieting, and a general feeling of inadequacy and self-hatred among women. While Bordo's work addresses how culture and social standards impact perceptions of the self and the body, she does not position the individual as helpless or victimized in the process. Rather, she argues that women are active participants in a patriarchal culture that promotes such views of the female body. While women are a part of the perpetuation of these physical expectations, they also participate in resistance to the system that objectifies the female body. In fact, it is partly in the effort to resist appearance expectations that “diseases” like anorexia and bulimia arise. The text is a best seller for the University of California Press and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Although Bordo is connected primarily with work regarding the female body, she has not limited her explorations of culture and physical standards to women. A 1999 book, The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private, and a number of articles have addressed the connections between popular culture and men's understandings of their physical selves. In these works, Bordo argues that representations of the male body in media utilize stereotypes of men (both heterosexual and homosexual) and the male body to create anxieties and insecurities that promote consumption of products and result in bifurcated standards of masculinity that are impossible to meet.

In the collection of essays titled Twilight Zones: The Hidden Life of Cultural Images From Plato to O.J., Bordo considers how cultural images impact (and even become) our realities—including those related to gender. She discusses the ways in which our understandings of perfection, race, gender, age, and even our historical and philosophical beliefs are built through our interactions with media. While noting the entertainment and relaxation value of media forms, Bordo argues that we need to cultivate our ability to engage in cultural critique so that we might more actively and thoughtfully participate in the creation of culture.

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