36 Body in Popular Culture (Case Study)

Dr. Neeraja Sundaram

Section 1: Body and Identity

The body is understood within cultural studies as a site of meaning. This implies that the body is recognized as being significant for the expression of culture and cultural identity. Within cultural studies thus, the body is understood not merely as a fact of nature but is seen instead as a site where identity is expressed, articulated or performed. For instance, tattooing and piercing the body can be seen as individual, autonomous acts of conforming to or resisting cultural expectations/understanding of one’s body as ‘limited’ or ‘unchanging’. Members of particular subcultures (punk, skinhead) where tattooing and body piercing is seen as ‘normal’ and is necessary for ‘acceptance’ and ‘recognition’ within this group are thus ‘conforming’ to a particular cultural meaning/value marked visibly on the body. Insiders view the tattooed and pierced body as ‘normal’ while outsiders see it as ‘deviant’. The ‘identity’ of a ‘punk’ thus draws from being recognized as both ‘familiar’ (by cultural insiders, members of the subculture) and ‘unfamiliar’ (by outsiders who view such practices of adorning the body as repulsive/unhygienic). Tattooing is here a performance facilitated by the body and forms the basis for understanding one’s location/status/acceptance within a particular social milieu.

Social constraint and construction are important aspects of analyzing the body within cultural studies. For instance, sociologists and historians of medicine argue that the body is a subject of various kinds of disciplining practices. What this means is that the ‘body’ is understood within medical science as requiring constant monitoring and care on account of being an important site of social/cultural norms. So a person can be seen as ‘unhealthy’ not only because he/she is infected with a particular disease but also because he/she has the potential to become infected. When we are shown the animated versions of otherwise invisible germs and microorganisms that inhabit our utensils, bathroom tiles and teeth in advertisements for toothpaste and household cleaning agents, we are made aware of how the borders of our bodies can very easily be breached. Our bodies are seen as requiring ‘fortification’, much like a vulnerable physical location one inhabits like the home, which requires up-to-date security systems and constant maintenance to ensure that it withstands the passing of time. It is our responsibility (advertisements selling toothpaste and bathroom cleaning agents often situate the responsibility of care and maintenance of the body as well as the ‘home’ on the individual) to ensure that the vulnerable borders of the body are strengthened by inculcating the discipline of washing hands, keeping our surroundings clean and monitoring the health of our families (through the use of particular heart-healthy, fat-free products). The body is thus also seen as being ‘embedded’ within a socio-cultural milieu and is understood within medical science as being both vulnerable to and as a source of threat.

Another key aspect of the body being understood as a product of ‘social construction’ within cultural studies is that it is seen as determined by discourse. This implies that our notions of what constitutes ‘healthy’, ‘beautiful’, ‘normal’ and ‘undesirable’ or ‘ugly’ bodies is the result of a production and organization of meaning by various social practices and institutions like education, medicine, law and religion. Each of these institutions organize our experience of the social world in language and thus produce forms of knowledge that ‘recognize’ or privilege some ways of ‘knowing’ as opposed to others. Discourse is thus linked to power and particular ‘authority figures’ that interpret and organize our ‘bodily’ experiences. For instance, in toothpaste advertisements that visualize tooth decay and a lack of oral hygiene for viewers a particular image of ‘healthy’ human teeth are being constructed. What we seen on screen are often animated representations that attempt to approximate human anatomy. However, we associate not only the illustration of teeth on screen (what is normally visible to us and hence familiar in terms of structure) but also the underlying root that is not visible to us as being a part of all of our bodies. The advertisement achieves this through the operation of a discourse of health where the authority figure of the dentist (often visualized with a white coat and an institutional affiliation) interprets the representation of teeth on screen as being an anatomically correct model. Using this model as a medical proof of how all teeth are, the dentist demonstrates the presence of bacteria, plaque, decay and recommends immediate professional intervention in the form of an oral hygiene product. Bacteria and decay are thus seen as signs of weakening defenses and the viewer is reminded that his/her body needs to be made ‘secure’ again through the removing of unwanted ‘intruders’. The toothpaste advertisement thus demonstrates how we are made to imagine dimensions of our body that are not otherwise visible in order to ‘organize our experience’ of bodily functions in language. We ‘recognize’ the dentist as an authority figure invested with the power to designate teeth as ‘healthy’ or ‘unhealthy’ while simultaneously ‘learning’ to associate white and unblemished teeth as beautiful. The toothpaste advertisement makes a smooth transition from the ‘animated’ model set of teeth to actors/actresses displaying a perfect row of unblemished teeth (shown to be a result of using a particular product) thus ‘teaching’ viewers to make associations between white, unblemished teeth and ‘health’ or the ‘absence of decay’. Consider for instance, AV 1 where Sonam Kapoor is seen endorsing the Colgate Visible White toothpaste. The ‘perfect’ set of teeth and the ‘beautiful’ smile are thus constructed through discourse and performed in the language or visual grammar of the advertisement.

Section 2: Body Image and Difference

So far we have considered how the body is understood as a site of meaning within cultural studies. It is seen to take on or form the locus of a set of cultural meanings. These meanings are produced and negotiated within a system of power relations – we make sense our bodies and bodily experiences through the language of various institutional discourses about the body. We can now consider the cultural implications of a social construction of and a constraint imposed on our understanding and experience of the body. Ideas about the ‘beautiful’ and ‘healthy’ body that circulate in popular media are responsible for influencing what is generally defined as a ‘body image’. Body image is a concept that refers to the attitudes and perceptions that one has towards their own body. While this sense of one’s ‘body image’ is not exclusively restricted to appearance, it is determined in large part by how we appear to others and are recognized by others in social interactions. Popular media creates a ‘body image’ through a combination of visible identity markers that are manifested through the body. For instance, advertisements focusing on the importance of dyeing one’s hair, whitening one’s teeth and switching to low-calorie foods are creating an ‘ideal’ body image based on exclusion. In AV1, Sonam Kapoor is seen confessing a greater degree of confidence with whiter teeth while the advertisement explains to the reader that whiter teeth means ‘looking your best’. Here, while the advertisement is simultaneously constructing and ‘teaching’ readers that beauty equals whiter, unblemished teeth, the visualizing of a celebrity endorser also equates success and confidence with beauty. The ‘body image’ that readers take away from this advertisement is not just that beauty draws from routine ‘work’ (using the product regularly for a week) and ‘maintenance’ but that without this ideal of ‘perfect’ beauty, one cannot hope to achieve success and confidence.

Similarly, in AV 2, the popular advertisement series for Clear anti-dandruff shampoo endorsed by Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma, the ‘body image’ constructed is one that exudes confidence subject to routine maintenance and inspection. Hair grooming advertisements, including other Clear shampoo campaigns are often constructed as a ‘challenge’ or ‘acid test’ that their celebrity endorsers take. Visually, this is represented through an animated close-up of the actor/actress’s scalp, seen to be free of any presence of dirt, signs of graying or dandruff. The tag line in AV 2 announces ‘nothing to hide’, echoing the confidence in the pose taken by both actors in the advertisement. The suggestion here is that an unkempt, shabby body should be ‘hidden’. While labor should be expended in the maintaining of the ‘beautiful’ and ‘ideal’ body (through the use of particular grooming products), no signs of this labor should be visibly marked on the body. These advertisements promote an ‘ideal’ body image and in the process naturalize the use and cultivation of labor to look a particular way. They render invisible and undesirable those aspects of the body that occur with the passage of time like the accumulation of dead skin cells, spots and blemishes, graying, wrinkles and hair fall among others.

For instance, AV 3 and AV 4 attempt to minimize the ‘labor’ involved in stopping or slowing down processes that are made to seem ‘undesirable’. In AV 3, Kajol is seen to have erased ‘seven signs’ of skin ageing. The advertisement ‘defines’ ageing on the one hand exclusively in terms of external appearance – open pores, sagging skin, uneven skin tone among others while simultaneously defining these ‘signs’ as powerful intruders against which one must wage ‘battle’. Kajol’s appeal in the advertisement is to join her in the ‘battle’ against ageing thus defining the ‘ideal’ body as one that is ‘youthful’ but also requiring constant ‘battle’ against the ‘invading’ and ‘undesirable’ signs of ageing. Similarly, in AV 4, Shahid Kapoor is endorsing a ‘one-minute’ ritual to be carried out daily to ensure that one’s ‘ideal’ self is what is ‘seen’. The advertisement’s tagline reads ‘People see your face first, the spots get noticed soon after’ and ensures readers that our body image is a result of the first, externally determined impression we make on others. To be recognized as ‘desirable’ and ‘beautiful’, the advertisement recommends ensuring that we spend time cultivating a particular appearance. In addition, the advertisement naturalizes time spent on ‘perfecting’ one’s appearance and bodily maintenance by saying ‘isn’t it strange that while we spend hours on styling our hair, ironing our clothes or picking the right shirt, we hardly spend any time preparing our face?” Here, the ‘preparation’ of the body to enter into/exist in a social environment is seen to be normal as well as necessary – the ‘hours’ spent on preparing our ‘appearance’ is contrasted with the ‘minute’ required for our face. Thus, although the advertisement aims at minimizing labor required for caring for the face, it emphasizes and ‘normalizes’ the work required to make our bodies presentable and ‘acceptable’ for social interaction and recognition. Body Image is thus responsible for the creation of perceptions about an ‘ideal’ or ‘perfect’ body one can aspire for, while fostering attitudes about how ‘differences’ or ‘deviations’ from this ‘ideal’ are undesirable.

In AV 5, various children, presumably consumers of the popular health drink Horlicks, are visualized in two separate categories. The advertisement promotes ‘strength’ and ‘stamina’ is two important characteristics of a ‘healthy’ body for children. In addition however, three of the children in the advertisement are visualized in the garb of various professionals, thereby aligning health with success and prosperity. The ‘potential’ for a professional career path is seen to exist only within children who are ‘healthy’, understood within the advertisement as those who possess ‘strength’ and ‘stamina’. Success is again associated here with a particular ‘body image’, seen as something that can be ‘cultivated’ and emulated with some effort. In addition however, the ‘professional’ career path visualized for the young girl in the advertisement is ‘cooking’ while the young boys wear a doctor’s white coat and a lawyer’s black coat respectively. This a marking of ‘gender identity’ on the body where a repetition of a gendered body image results in the normalizing of particular roles for men and women, the subject of the next chapter.

Section 3: Body and Gender

The previous module discussed the importance of body image in fostering particular perceptions about and attitudes towards understanding our sense of ‘self’. This sense of ‘self’ is determined by how approximately our ‘body image’ or our perception of our external physical appearance corresponds to the ‘ideal’ or ‘perfect’ body represented in and circulated by popular media. We feel dissatisfied when we cannot ‘recognize’ the image of a flat tummy or a narrow waist as being like our own since this is a ‘normalized’ image of how the ‘ideal’ and ‘beautiful’ human form looks in popular media. This module will also consider gendered representations of this ‘body image’ where different ‘ideals’ are reproduced and circulated in the popular domain that designate men and women in particular ways. You will remember from the unit on Identity, particularly gender and identity, that gender is not an ‘essential’ property or quality that is inherent in an individual. It is instead ‘performed’ and naturalized through habitual repetition of certain roles and ‘normalized’ within institutions like the family. Gender is also ‘marked’ on the body in terms of lifestyle, clothing and physical attributes. This can be demonstrated clearly through AV 6 (a and b), AV 7(a) and AV 7 (b), all of which advertise two wheelers for a pre-determined target audience. While Scooty Pep is targeted at women customers, the Bajaj Avenger and the Bajaj XCD are intended for a male customer base. These advertisements however, also ‘construct’ the gendered bodies of the customers they target in specific ways. For instance, the Scooty Pep advertisement (AV 6 a) constructs the female body as requiring an ‘easy-to-navigate’ means of transport. The tagline in this advertisement is ‘Ride Easy’ which implies ‘zero-effort’ features like a ‘clear- turn’ navigation lamp and easy-to-operate center stand. The features emphasized here are ‘ease’ and ‘comfort’ rather than the ‘strength’ and ‘power’ emphasized by the Bajaj Avenger (AV 7 (a)) advertisement where the male customer is said to be able to ‘feel like God’. The male body in the Bajaj Avenger advertisement is thus constructed as being physical ‘strong’ and ‘powerful’, both features seen in the vehicle itself. The contrast between the all-powerful male body and the passive female is seen in AV 7 (b), where the man seated on the Bajaj XCD performs a ‘stunt’ that makes a spectacle of physical strength, while the woman is visualized merely as a passive ‘observer’. Her presence alone, without the expending of any physical energy or labor, makes her a ‘distraction’ for the man whose motorbike will stop for ‘almost nothing’. The Skore condom advertisement (AV 8) is also illustrative of designating no sexual agency to the female body, visualized in the advertisement merely to illustrate the glorious conquest of the ‘bad boy’. The ‘good news’ is for the ‘bad boys’ alone, who are further empowered by the product. The implication here is that it is the man who ‘brings’ the ‘thrill’ and ‘excitement’ into the bedroom, while the woman is a passive participant/a measure of the man’s ‘performance’. The female body is visualized here merely as an measure/scale of the male body’s capacity for performance and its potential for improvement.

Similarly, the functionality of the Scooty Pep intended for young women in AV 6 b constructs the female body as requiring great maintenance and adornment and necessitates ‘storage’ for this reason alone. ‘Come Prepped Up’ is the tagline in this advertisement which posits ‘preparation’ as an imperative for the female body and the extra ‘under-seat storage’ space visualized in the advertisement is filled almost entirely with cosmetics and other personal grooming items. The Scooty Pep itself is visualized here as constituent ‘parts’ while the female body seen alongside is pictured in its entirety, making clear the link between the ‘utility’ of specific features built into the two wheeler model and the physical appearance of the woman. The ‘prepped up’ woman is equated with the ‘extra storage’ offered by the Scooty Pep, thus defining the female body as necessitating ‘extra’ attention to appearance. ‘Feminine’ ideals like the Scooty Pep advertisement find echoes in several lifestyle and cosmetic products that produce and circulate gendered body images that form the basis for perceptions and attitudes towards the body. Deodorants and other bath products for instance, in addition to making sweat and dirt undesirable elements in a ‘perfect’ body image, also routinely designate the masculine body as ‘muscular’ and the feminine body as curvaceous. The semi-nude actors/actresses that promote body products (personal hygiene and maintenance products like shaving cream, body spray, moisturizer, shampoo) produce a gendered ‘aesthetics’ within which the naked body is interpreted. Masculine ideals of a ‘beautiful’ or ‘perfect’ body comprise a muscled, toned and hairless body just as how a narrow waist and curvaceous hips are essential to the ‘ideal’ female form. The female body is also rendered ‘ideal’ in its fulfilling of certain socially sanctioned roles – here, the female body is visualized only in terms of its ‘functionality’ and all individual markers are erased. For instance the advertisement for LifeCell, (AV 9) the first cord blood stem cell bank in India, features a female body only to establish a ‘universal’ social role for women. Here, the pregnant female form is devoid of any individual attributes (distinguishing features of a particular model/actress or even the entire body) and is visualized only to draw attention to the ‘life’ harbored inside the womb. While the foetus cannot be seen here, it is implied in the visualizing of a pregnant belly, removed from the context of an individual woman. Here the ‘pregnancy’ is what becomes symbolic of the female body. The female body is here visualized in its absence and only in the fulfillment of a particular social role of ‘motherhood’. To be ‘recognizable’ as a female body in this advertisement, it is important to be ‘marked’ by the experience of motherhood – seen not only as the ‘carrying’ of a child in one’s womb but in ‘caring’ for his/her well being by planning for fortification against future illnesses. Here the mother’s body is made invisible and passive to define the rights and the life of future generations.

Section 4: The Body as Project

This module will deal with how the body is understood within popular culture in contemporary societies as ‘project’. The idea of a ‘project’ invests the body with a certain ‘fluidity’ and designates it as ‘unfinished’ and requiring constant work and maintenance. You will remember from the module on identity that the idea of the ‘self’ as a ‘project’ draws from certain characteristics of our contemporary era that have naturalized a ‘fluid’ notion of the ‘self’. The hybrid, global urban spaces we inhabit simultaneously as consumers and the many ‘selves’ we prepare and present online in addition to the many medical and scientific advancements that allow us to ‘modify’ and alter our bodies contribute to a sense of the ‘project’ that is our body. The ‘one minute’ routine and the ‘hours’ spent on ‘preparing’ the body for social interaction/acceptability is familiar on account of this sense of the body-as- project. The sale of products that promote routine, habitual labor towards the maintenance of a particular kind of ‘appearance’ thus also feed into the construction of a body that is as yet incomplete. The use of anti-ageing products, skin and teeth-whitening products for instance, advocate the idea that the body can be rendered ‘complete’ through consistent ‘maintenance’ work. Any lapse in monitoring the body for signs of ageing, infection and decay is a lapse in the ‘targeted’ completion of bodily perfection. The body is thus seen as something that can be constantly ‘edited’ for flaws, possessing very fluid boundaries that are consequently also difficult to protect.

Consider for instance, this VLCC advertisement (AV 10) where the customer is seen to have ‘maintained’ the regimen that allowed her to lose weight as part of the VLCC slimming treatment. The emphasis in the advertisement is on how Sheetal ‘maintains’ her weight and looks ‘months’ later. The ‘treatment’ offered by VLCC is not sufficient on its own, but requires consistent efforts on the part of the consumer to ‘maintain’ the ‘normal’ standards that are achieved. Permanent changes to the body are thus seen to be ‘ineffective’ without constant effort/intervention, thus illustrating the ‘fluidity’ of the body’s contours. Moreover, the body is seen here as illustrative of the level of ‘discipline’ one brings into one’s life. While the onus is usually on excessive consumption within popular media, the individual is also constructed as ‘responsible’ for the maintenance of ‘permissible’ levels of consumption. The obese body is thus seen as a moral compass that is indicative of ‘lack of control’ or ‘excessive indulgence’. The VLCC advertisement also appeals to this idea of the body as an ‘indicator’ of cultivating personal standards of care.

Audio Visual Quadrant

1. AV1: Colgate Visible White toothpaste where the idea of “normal” teeth is constructed while linking notions of beauty to “whiteness”

2. AV 2: Clear shampoo advertisement emphasizing the aspects of the body that need to be ‘hidden’

3. AV 3: Olay advertisement featuring Kajol where the ‘building’ of a particular appearance is seen as a “battle” against signs of “ageing” coded here as undesirable

4. AV 4: Vaseline face cream for men advertisement describing the ‘one minute’ ritual that simultaneously naturalizes the ‘hours’ spent on preparing our body for social interaction.

5. AV 5: Horlicks advertisement naturalizing the link between ‘health’ and professional ‘success’

6. AV 6 (a): Scooty Pep advertisement constructing a female body through an emphasis on “ease of navigation” and promoting minimal physical exertion. The female body is seen here as “weak” and requiring minimum effort to use the vehicle.

7. AV 6 (b): Scooty Pep advertisement emphasizing ‘utility’ required for the woman and illustrating the use of “extra” storage space with cosmetics. Here the “prepping” of the body is marked as something “feminine”

8. AV 7 (a): The Bajaj Avenger advertisement featuring the “powerful” male body

9. AV 7 (b): Bajaj XCD advertisement contrasting the spectacle of “male” strength with feminine passivity/coquettishness.

10. AV 8: Skore condom advertisement constructing a lack of sexual agency for the female body

11. AV 9: LifeCell advertisement featuring a universal maternal body shorn of all individual characteristics. Here the maternal body is constructed is thus constructed as being essentially female.

12. AV 10: VLCC advertisement emphasizing the importance of ‘consistent’ labour to ‘maintain’ a healthy and slim body

Reference

• Shilling, Chris. The Body in Culture, Technology and Society. Sage, 2005.
• Richardson, Niall and Adam Locks. Body Studies: The Basics. Routledge, 2014.
• Bordo, Susan. Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture and the Body. University of California Press, 1993.
• http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=359 – The Voice of the Shuttle page on theories of the body and corporeality in addition to resources on ‘Body Modification’.
• Thapan, Meenakshi. Living the Body: Embodiment, Womanhood and Identity in Contemporary India. Sage, 2009.