Courting an image.

A defining moment!   “JK Row donates £70000 to Scottish feminist …” By EMILY JANE DAVIES  PUBLISHED: 15:37 EST, 18 February 2024 Daily Mail

The group is now appealing the decision in a bid to obtain a ‘historic’ Supreme Court ruling stating that men can’t become women.

It is interesting that Rowling’s donated to a feminist group when one considers how feminism has brought them to this point in time when women need to appeal to the court to define who is a woman is and who is not.

The journey before the court case.

The women’s movement or feminist movement wants to define, how women are perceived in society by addressing the supposed historical discrimination, suppression and disadvantages women have had to endure under a patriarchal society; without defining what it means to be feminine.  

Shifting Sand

what Image?

What does self image mean to you and how do you see yourself?

 Self image can be a personal mental image either projected by others or created by you.  Both expressions are loaded statements from the positive to the negative and everything in between, which can result in healthy or harmful actions. 

Made in the image of God can  be defined or expressed  by incorporating language  which includes the expressions of , mind, body and  soul or spirit.

Even in secular circles the expression of mind body and spirit are used to convey a thought for a whole healthy person with a different emphases on soul and spirit.

For the purpose of simplicity, I’ll express self image as what is your perception of yourself as a person with mind, body and soul. How you look, feel and think about yourself and how you want others to see you. You were either created or you were a product produced by chance.

The sciences which attempt to define when a person is old enough to discover themselves and express what they think feel and act on, are not something I am familiar with to any great degree. It is my intent only to make one aware that they express themselves to others as well as having a self awareness that at times may direct how they see themselves and how they wish others to see them. Such expression may be an act but is never the less, an expression.

An article on the website DoSomething.org deals with teens and self-esteem. While I don’t personally agree with everything written in the article 11 facts about teens and self esteem, I do want to quote a number of them. “#3. Over 70% of girls ages 15 to 17 avoid normal daily activities, such as attending school  when they feel bad about their looks”. “#5. 75% of girls with low self-esteem reportedly engage in negative activities…” “#7. Teen girls that have a negative view of themselves are four times more likely to take part in activities with boys that they’ve ended up regretting later.” “#10. Seven in 10 girls believe they are not good enough or don’t measure up in some way including their looks, performance in school relationships with friends and family members.”  “#11. A girl’s self-esteem is more strongly related to how she views her own body shape and body weight, then how much she actually weighs.”

How is the image of women portrayed in history and today?

I will use a variety of images from many different sources and hope to show the change to society over time by them.

Just recently a 63 year old singer/actress decided to show her underwear on a talk show by straddling the desk then flipping up her skirt to reveal her cheeky butt when she got off the desk. She said she liked to disturb the peace. That was the image she wanted to project and did. The only thing that those who saw her actions could do, was to express their opinions.

Most people will never get invited on a talk show and I would venture to guess most would not act as the singer did. Yet in the Twenty first century the actions of the individual is accepted as self expression even if some find it offensive. Was this always so or did a certain group in society make such actions more acceptable, if it is done under the rubric of entertainment, art and freedom of expression.

The cancan, flipping up skirts showing ruffled underwear while at first shocked the Victorian era it soon became acceptable.  A hundred years plus, a number system is used to define a perfect woman; which usually meant having a perfect body. Women were rated on a scale of 1 to 10, was Bo Derek or Pamela Anderson running down the beach in her bathing suit a perfect 10. A more recent post by a girl who claimed to be a fit gym girl said people tell me that I go from a 5 to 10 in a bikini; she made the statement in a tabloid paper. All during the second world war, pinup girls in bathing suits were popular among the soldiers now a female soldier says people say she has a glow when she takes off her uniform to show her toned body another woman who does the same says she’s an electrician .The tabloids have women from all walks of life willingly displaying themselves, usually in their bathing suits or bikinis after having removed their working uniforms. There was a backlash against The Miss America contests of having women paraded in bathing suits.  Even the most recent Miss America in the Daily Mail is shown is a bikini.  Why the change in perception?  

Female Olympic divers or swimmers are now on the cover of magazines in their bathing suits for Sports Illustrated and gymnasts and cheerleaders join them in many tabloid articles. Again a backlash about how people photograph athletes and what athletes wear is happening, all because they think that they are being sexualized. Even those who for years have played in beach volleyball, while wearing bikini bathing suits are subject to criticism by both the athletes and others. Was this what Betty Freidan envisioned?

Sexual Images in sports just one of many perceptions

What do we mean by image? Generally when asking someone this question the answer comes from a subjective perspective and maybe met with a question about what type of an image are you talking about?  The answer will also be subject to the person’s gender, male or female. In sports there are many aspects to the word image, one is sexual.

A female sports person became suicidal and suffered mentally for many years and possibly still does from the release of sexual images of her when she was younger. She had at an earlier age allowed images of her to be stored. The images were stolen and posted which for her as a well-known athlete created great emotional trauma. The  2020 Olympics had talked about not sexualizing the athletes through photos.  Some Athletes in different sports changed their dress to be less sexual by revealing less skin. The body hugging outfits they wore left little to the imagination as they revealed the outline of their bodies. Even with the desire to remove the sexualisation of athletes, some writers chose to write about the strongest and sexiest athletes at the games.

Many female sports teams have produced nude calendars for a variety of reasons. Individual female athletes posed nude for Playboy and others signed on to websites for money and fame. The images discussed are about perception, real or imagined and what are the long-term effects of these perceptions on young girls and boys.

The following 5 paragraphs comes from a Cleveland Clinic  article (Last reviewed by a Cleveland Clinic medical professional on 11/24/2020. References)

What is self-image?

Self-image is the personal view, or mental picture, that we have of ourselves. Self-image is an “internal dictionary” that describes the characteristics of the self, including such things as intelligent, beautiful, ugly, talented, selfish, and kind. These characteristics form a collective representation of our assets (strengths) and liabilities (weaknesses) as we see them.

How is self-image developed?

Self-image is a product of learning. Early childhood influences, such as parents and caregivers, have a major influence on our self-image. They are mirrors reflecting back to us an image of ourselves. Our experiences with others such as teachers, friends, and family add to the image in the mirror. Relationships reinforce what we think and feel about ourselves.

The image we see in the mirror may be a real or distorted view of who we really are. Based on this view, we develop either a positive or a negative self-image. The strengths and weaknesses we have adopted affect how we act today. We continually take in information and evaluate ourselves in several areas, such as physical appearance (How do I look?), performance (How am I doing?), and relationships (How important am I?).

With a positive self-image, we recognize and own our assets and potentials while being realistic about our liabilities and limitations. With a negative self-image, we focus on our faults and weaknesses, distorting failure and imperfections.

Self-image is important because how we think about ourselves affects how we feel about ourselves and how we interact with others and the world around us. A positive self-image can boost our physical, mental, social, emotional, and spiritual well-being. On the other hand, a negative self-image can decrease our satisfaction and ability to function in these areas.

In the book Betty Friedan talks about depression, which comes from a variety of situations. One is how you perceive yourself.  In the book by Florence Liattauer the author of Personality Plus, she suggests you can understand others by understanding yourself. She offers guidance through a self help book, which includes a personality test. She asks what makes you special and suggests she can help you find out what makes you so special!  By suggesting you are made by God, gives people an opportunity to evaluate themselves differently from the world view.  Published by Fleming H. Revell  a division of Baker House  Grand Rapids Michigan copyright 1983, 1992 by Florence 26th printing February 1997 It’s hard to explain how various character traits written in a book can help to define you. There are many books that try to label various character traits. This one is found under psychology/Christian living.

In the sports world a lot of female athletes have huge followings on their internet posts.  Which include sexy images, but if we transfer to the common housewife we can find women who also develop a following with sexy images. 

When talking about images we usually think of pictures. Pictures of people and things are endless, but what we don’t think of is the possibly that the pictures are of your neighbour; displaying sexy images of herself online for those who wish to pay for them. When a woman’s neighbours got upset by the pictures a woman posted online they got angry. The woman who felt threatened made an appeal in a tabloid newspaper which also showed the sexy pictures of her posing on her bed. The article said the woman started posting raunchy snaps and quickly gained a following. Those paying for the privilege of seeing her have created a very substantial income for her and her children. The article did mention that she had a male partner.

The woman was barely getting by and found an easier way to make money. She, like I would say thousands of other young girls, college girls, and so many other women have turned to making sexual images of themselves available. The porno industry which makes billions of dollars a year, now have competition from numerous other Internet providers of images and sexual literature.

Some of the sites such as OnlyFans offer every supposed legal age groups, model and private entrepreneur who wishes to be paid for what she is providing to the viewer. It even offers free OnlyFans which can be found on various Internet sites that promote sexual posts.

One individual who posts, talked about seeing people on her naughty page and suggested she would become their strongest addiction through her photos and videos plus chatting. The word porno can be found in many of the sites that offer these individuals who are referred to as sexy, and more love to show off. Some of the people being viewed are models, sports women and film stars or reality show stars. The money that some of these people earn is over a million. Not all those wishing to make money showing their flesh make that kind of money or even close to it. Some of the people consider themselves full service workers, whatever that means in the sex industry. The sexual industry has numerous providers such as MyfreeCams which also has a share in OnlyFans, is considered a porn distributor. In Wikipedia MyfreeCams is considered one of the world’s largest adult WebCam communities. Some of the other networking services are. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, tiktok, Snapchat,YouTube and Pinterest all offer pictures and videos of girls and women once you pay or sign in to their site. A simple search on Google using “dancing in lingerie”  resulted in about 118,000,000 results.

The problem with the internet is not only the images of women but what is available to young girls and who provides them with information.

 A teen magazine allowed a number of teen girls to express how they started to masturbate and at what age, one teen had to Google what masturbation meant. While sexual writing doesn’t necessarily create an image it does draw attention to the sexualisation of the body of girls and boys. Some users wishing to hide their Identity use a VPN.

One woman who works the net has a workout routine which can be subscribed to. She is often pictured showing her body in skimpy outfits that highlight what she considers her perfect body. Have you heard the term body image or body shaming? I found this meaning on Google, “body image is a person’s perception of their physical self at the thoughts and feelings, positive, negative or both”. All body images are individual and how they look and are maintained, are also up to the individual. Not everyone can work out at a gym to attain a fit body. Those who spend their time working to obtain a body they wish to display online, is again a choice that they have made and have time for but not everyone else has that freedom. The choice that stars, models and athletes make by presenting their bodies in a variety of outfits with the world are their choice.  How they come by so many various outfits from bikinis to dresses with which they dress for income is unknow by me. Most of those mentioned do it for attention; dancing in a corset skimpy outfit to look sexy doesn’t share the health issues of those who wore them improperly a century ago. The Internet is filled with content from all over the world, most do not subscribe to the standards of Canada and the United States when it comes to teens displaying themselves or those viewing them. The billion dollar business comes with a cost, for those who view and those being viewed. The cost to young underage teens is not measured in money that they make today but of their future.  Millions of young girls are being attracted to a pornographic life style by those with no moral conscience, its a billion dollar business built on lust.

While I have more to say, I will say it as I blog with new and historical information in the coming months. Now to Women led to the Precipice where this article eally started from.