Identity and Body Experience
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In Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood, by Bell Hooks (1996), we are treated to the childhood experiences of a southern black girl through her own eyes. In Autobiography of a Face, by Lucy Grealy (1994), we are treated to one young girlÆs struggles to overcome the debilitating facial disfigurement of surviving cancer of the jaw. In both of these stories, the authors provide us with an account of the horrors of living in a society where the mainstream norms of physical beauty are used to define identity. However, we are also treated to stories of hope in the way that each author deals with the deleterious impact of norms and attitudes about the body and identity. In Bone Black, the narrator is not miserable only because she is a black girl in a white world. In Autobiography, Lucy is not miserable only because part of her face is disfigured. In both stories, the narrators suffer from shame and feelings of low self-esteem because of how their respective ôphysical differencesö make them appear as less desirable to others. In American society, the female body is often manipulated by patriarchal attitudes and valuations. Men often objectify the female body, relegating it to images that are designed solely for the pleasure of males. In such imagery, little identity or character is posited in females whose perfect and sexually alluring bodies help satisfy male fantasy and desire. In this sense, the female body is often portrayed
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express her voice and define her identity and heritage, despite the social muting of these aspects of being based on norms that exclude certain body types, in this case Black bodies. Saru helps the narrator understand that through her stories and heritage she can maintain and perpetuate an identity and voice that no mainstream norms, values or prejudices can undermine. As we are told by the narrator, ôShe tells me that I should know the storyteller, that I and she are one, that they are my sisters, family. She says that a part of me is making the story, making the words, making the fire, that is my burning heart in the center of the flamesö (Hooks 1996, p. 3).
In this manner, the narrator in Bone Black learns to overcome the deleterious impact of living in a culture where her body differences often devalue identity and expression. She learns that the body and physicality are superficial concerns that can never take the place of the feelings and emotions in her heart and soul that are the true definers of identity and expression. In a similar manner, the narrator in Autobiography of a Face, Lucy, learns how her being and identity are valuable even if her external appearance and physicality are considered undesirable contras
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1497
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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