Colonized bodies
As for the ads on the roads of Guatemala, we seem to be in the United States. The people that appear in these ads are high, thin and blondes, including the Golden Retriever dog. The models that advertising uses to sell its products reflect the bodies that society considers attractive. In the case of Central America, this shows the weight of symbolic racism. Although the majority of the population is indigenous or mestizo, the face of success is white.
As a white, left-wing and anti-racist Basque, it is easy to reach Central America and feel pity for this racism that society has internalized. I saw the high heels that women wear, or the tendency of most to straighten the curly hair, I thought: “Unfortunately, their bodies are still colonized.” But then I wondered: “And is my body colonized?”
In Central America, I have had an unpleasant and unconfessable feeling. Although I hate to accept it, I have felt that I like to be tall and lean compared to most people here. Not always, because in this heteropatriarchal capitalist system, women are never fully conformed to our body. Sometimes, the sensuality of the skin, hair and body of Latina women have made me feel envious. I know that is a racist stereotype, but it is difficult to avoid the influence of stereotypes. Similarly, if I were in Sweden, I would feel too low and too round. It is not by chance that the model of beauty in the rich countries is the one that is also imposed in the impoverished countries. Political and economic colonialism must be added to the symbolic. Having a specific political discourse does not automatically remove the traces of racism, sexism and colonialism in our relationships with bodies.
But something else has also happened: As in Central America most women are lower and fatter than I am (used to describe this type of body), I have also had the opportunity to desire those bodies that are far from the strict pattern of slenderness.
Think: in addition to our body and our self-esteem, we also have our desire colonized. The media tells us that attractive bodies are thin, tall and young. The skin doesn't have wrinkles or grooves, or hairs. We feminists claim the possibility of not waking, but I recognize that I find it hard to want a very hairy female body. And like me (when I don't get depilated) I'm hairy, I don't like furry women, it's a sign that I despise my body as it is.
We might think that rationalizing the functioning of desire is absurd, but I think it is important to observe the influence of this hegemonic model of aesthetics and, overcoming stereotypes, investigate the erotic force of multiple bodies.
In feminist circles, there is an increasing amount of talk about “gordophobia”; not about waxing, about the sexuality of people with disabilities as well as of older women. I think it is necessary to defend politically the diversity of bodily practices, desires and sex, but have we really managed to call into question the strict requirements of beauty and to open the limits of eroticism? As the feminist Txokorro says (you can see the video on Youtube), in summer the great challenge is to send the bikini operation to the freak and decolonize the bodies and desires.
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