Weighing the Pro and Cons

¶ … Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s "In the Kitchen," Susan Brodo's "The Empire of Images," and Josie Appleton's "The Body Piercing Project," seem to have initially very little in common because of their different genres: non-fiction autobiography, sociological discussion of the impact of the media, and a news report on the changing perception of taboo. Yet, at the core, each work is essentially about what people go through in order to be accepted by their society.

"In the Kitchen" tells the tale of an African-American home and how their life centers on their kitchen. This scene of domesticity is one of tradition and all the happy memories of the narrator's childhood. One of the most palpable senses with regard to creating memory is the sense of smell. "The most important thing about our gas-equipped kitchen was that Mama used to do hair there…There was an intimate warmth in the women's tones as they talked with my mama while she did their hair" (Gates 122). Not only does the home then become the center of nurturing but also the center of the financial support for the children in the home. However, one of the things that the narrator remembers from his childhood was that when his mother would do other women's hair, she would straighten it to make it less curly, less "kinked" and ultimately less symbolic of the African-American heritage. By straightening their hair, the women in Mama's kitchen were removing some of their ethnicity and attempting to duplicate a component of the white majority population. The word 'kitchen' "now is the very kinky bit of hair at the back of the head, where our neck meets the shirt collar. If there ever was one part of our African past that resisted assimilation, it was the kitchen" (Gates 124). The narrator, understanding straightened hair to be equivalent with goodness and this goodness equally equivalent with whiteness, yet he spends his childhood desiring to possess the good hair.

In the article "The Empire of Images in our World of Bodies," author Susan Bordo illustrates the ways in which our lives are saturated by the visual iconography of our consumerist society. Specifically, Bordo is concerned with the ways in which perceptions of the human body tend to conform to the saturation of body types in the visual culture. Everything in society is valued by comparing it to some visual ideal which no one can achieve through natural means. "Aging beautifully' used to mean wearing one's years with style, confidence, and vitality. Today, it means not appearing to age at all. And -- like breasts that defy gravity -- it's becoming a new bodily norm" (Bordo 1). The modern sense of the word beauty is defined by massive amounts of plastic surgery which alter an otherwise naturally beautiful woman into a homogenous countenance where those considered beautiful all have to look like they came out of the same mold. Anything that ventures outside this modern normative, such as remaining a natural look are unnatural beings to the public mindset and thus undesirable. Bordo's thesis is that the celebrity iconography of the popular culture dictates the self-perception of the population. Although the authors point is a pertinent one, she seems to leave out the implications of choice and the culpability of the parents in the destruction of self-perception and understanding. Bordo derides psychologist Sheryl Lamb and her theories about young children. Lamb tells mothers to allow their little girls to wear "thick blue eye shadow, spaghetti straps and bra straps intertwined, long and leggy with short black dresses" because they are "silly and adorable, sexy and marvelous all at once" (Bordo 1). The author is disgusted by Lamb's writing and yet she makes no remark about the culpability of the parents in securing the self-esteem of their children, particularly their daughters. The purpose of a tattoo has thus modified through time from a form of rebellion to an accepted action of self-expression and self-labeling in a time of a questioning of identity.

Like Bardo, Josie Appleton's article deals with the altered perception of the modern day population in the times of changing moral and ethical positions. Whereas in the past piercings and tattoos were taboo and a symbol of the counter culture, in the present moment neither of these fashion statements is considered in the same harsh or unnatural light. Appleton, writing from the perceptive of the London fashion scene, discusses how in the present, one of the highest population percentages getting tattoos are middle-aged women who are over forty. However, with the growing acceptance of tattoos in the shapes of flowers and butterflies, comes a higher degree of scrutiny with regard to tattoos depicting racist, sexist, or religious prejudices. "The U.S. Navy has banned 'tattoos/body art/brands that are excessive, obscene, sexually explicit or advocate or symbolize sex, gender, racial, religious, ethnic or national origin discrimination" and "symbols denoting any gang affiliation, supremacist or extremist groups, or drug use" (Appleton 1). People are allowing themselves to be defined by icons and words which they themselves choose to permanently mark their bodies with. Each tattoo or piercing makes a statement about the person's personality, their likes, and their ambitions. In the modern moment, "Old turning points that marked adulthood -- job, marriage, house, kids -- have both stopped being compulsory and lost much of their significance. It is more difficult to see life in terms of a narrative, as a plot with key moments of transition and an overall aim. Piercings and tattoos are used to highlight formative experiences and link them together" (Appleton 1).