A woman’s body has always been a center of controversy. Over the centuries, views and opinions of the female body has changed and evolved based on culture, society and religion. In some cultures a woman’s body is worshiped as a symbol of birth and fertility, while in others it has become a symbol of sin and shame. Despite where they are in the world, most women feel that they are prisoners in their own body. As seen by Frank Cordell’s “The Century Project” and the film Persepolis, the stress of keeping up with societal and religious standards can drive any woman crazy.
In Frank Cordell’s “The Century Project,” he goes through photographing women naked who have struggled with their looks for most of their life. Whether it is due to weight, scars, or just the way their body looks, many women have been tortured for years because of the “cookie cutter” view of a woman’s body in the United States. At an early age women are exposed to what the ideal woman’s body should look like through magazines and Barbie dolls. Most girls grow up with this false perspective in their heads and wonder why their bodies don’t grow into that same shape. With this ideal brainwashed into them, most girls start to feel self-conscious about their body and grow to have low self esteem. Frank Cordell and the women in his project, however, are trying to break this mold by exposing the real female body. Although a naked woman’s body would be against the religion in Persepolis, the women in The Century Project feel liberated by showing off their normal, beautiful bodies.
The naked photographs of the Century Project caused so much controversy because the United Stat’s view of a female’s body has become so distorted. A woman’s nude body seems to have lost its beauty and has automatically become a vessel that insinuates some sexual, pornographic intent. It is left to wonder if the Century Project was made up of male nude photographs if the reaction would still be the same.
Like in the Century Project, Marjane in the film Persepolis struggles to be her own person through the cage of her female body. Just like the women in the Century Project, Marjane struggles both against her society and her religion. In Marjane’s religion, the female body is seen as a symbol of sin and lust. Women are blamed for tempting men into sin and are forced to cover their hair and bodies because of this. In one scene of the film, Marjane is in an art class where she is supposed to be drawing the figure of a woman in front of her. Ironically, the woman is so covered up by her garments that only her face could be seen. In another scene Marjane is running to catch a bus and some police officers stop her because her “butt was shaking too much while she ran.” Using these ironic and funny scenes, Persepolis does a great job of illustrating how ridiculous and stupid rules are about the female body. Marjane spends the entire length of the film and her life struggling to find out who she really is through the constraints of society and religion.
Although the women in the Century Project and the film Persepolis are separated by hundreds of thousands of miles, they still struggle against a common enemy. Whether by society, religion, or both, the women feel that they are cages in their own bodies. Whether nude or covered up, many women feel that they are held back in the world because of their looks. It is a shame that so many have to work so hard for others to see past their gender and just see their personalities.
Crosscurrents (Essay 2)
