The Psychology of Eating: From Healthy to Disordered Behavior

Dieting 119

of the necessary means to become desirable. It indicated a recognition of
the objectification of women and the central role that physical attractiveness
played in determining their identity. Of course, men also may use equivalent
beauty aids, but men in corsets, built-up shoes, or toupees are laughed at.
As Brownmiller (1984) said in her book Femininity, such men “have been
grist for the jokester’s mill, under the masculine theory that real men do
not trick themselves out to be pleasing. ( They have better ways to prove
their worth.) A woman on the other hand is expected to depend on tricks
and suffering to prove her feminine nature” ( p. 19). The corset represented
women’s need to be a desirable object to the men who could provide the
necessary social acceptability.

Breast-binding

Breasts have always been another problem area. Whether they should be
large, small, droopy, or firm has been left to the ever-changing whims of
the fashion world and the male appreciators. It is unlikely that any other
part of the body has received so much attention, so much criticism, and so
much obsessive fixation as the female breast (Greer, 1970). The symbolism
of the breast is obvious. It denotes sexuality, fertility, and motherhood. It
is also a constant reminder that women are animals and possess “udders”
in the same way as cows and all other mammals. Yet the association between
breasts and their biological function is constantly denied. Large breasts are
hoisted up, pointed out, or flattened down, while flat-chested women pad
their breasts out. But women fear the biological destiny of their breasts.
As Brownmiller (1984) said, “we have seen too many pictures in National
Geographicof wizened old females with sagging, shrivelled teats or with
udder-like breasts that hang forlornly to the waist. No not sexy. Not pretty
and attractive. Entirely too remindful of the she-animal function” ( p. 28).
Similarly Greer (1970) argued that “breasts are only to be admired for as
long as they show no signs of their function: once darkened, stretched or
withered they are signs of revulsion” ( p. 34).
Women have detached their breasts from their biological function and
hoisted them into the realms of a fashion accessory, and fashion dictates
their acceptability. For example, in the 1920s women bound their breasts
tightly to create the flat-chested, boyish flapper look, but in the 1950s Marilyn
Monroe and Jane Russell rendered the flat-chested look unattractive and
women wore padded, underwired, push-up bras to make the most of what
they had. In contrast, the 1970s meant that bras were out, but only small