Questions and Assignments for Susan Bordo’s “Beauty (Re)Discovers The Male Body”

QUESTIONS FOR A SECOND READING

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ASSIGNMENTS FOR WRITING

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Bordo looks back to the history of advertising (the “cultural genealogy of the ads I’ve been discussing”), and she works directly with the ads that prompted and served this chapter in her book. These images are a key part of the writing.

Bordo also speaks directly to you and invites you into her project: “So the next time you see a Dockers or Haggar ad, think of it not only as an advertisement for khakis but also as an advertisement for a certain notion of what it means to be a man.” You don’t have to be limited to Dockers, Haggar, or khaki, but as you reread the essay and prepare for this writing assignment, keep your eye out for advertisements that come your way, advertisements that seem perfect for thinking along with Bordo (or advertisements that seem like interesting counter-examples). Clip these or copy them so that you can use them, as she does, as material for writing.

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The first two second-reading questions point attention to the length of the essay and to its organization. Here, in effect, is what they say:

“Beauty (Re)discovers the Male Body” is a long essay. The writing operates under a set of expectations that does not value efficiency. The writing says, “It is better to take time with this, better to take time rather than hurry, rather than rushing to say what must be said, rather than pushing to be done. Slow down, relax, take your time. This can be fun.” While there is attention to a “thesis,” the organizing principle of this essay is such that the real work and the real pleasure lie elsewhere. Work and pleasure. As you reread, pay particular attention to how Bordo controls the pace and direction of the essay, where she prolongs the discussion and where and when she shifts direction. Think of this as a way for her (and you) to get work done. And think about it as a way of organizing the pleasure of the text.

This is a long essay divided into subsections. The subsections mark stages in the presentation. The subsections allow you to think about form in relation to units larger than the paragraph but smaller than the essay. As you reread, pay attention to these sections. How are they organized internally? How are they arranged? How do they determine the pace or rhythm of your reading, the tonality or phrasing of the text? Which is the slowest, for example? Which is the loudest? And why? And where are they placed? What do they do to the argument?

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MAKING CONNECTIONS

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In “Beauty (Re)discovers the Male Body,” Bordo refers to John Berger and his work in Ways of Seeing, although she refers to a different chapter than the one included here. In general, however, both Berger and Bordo are concerned with how we see and read images; both are concerned to correct the ways images are used and read; both trace the ways images serve the interests of money and power; both texts are written to teach readers how and why they should pay a different kind of attention to the images around them.

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