Introductory Note
You can find complete publication information for the books mentioned here in the earlier article entitled Annotated Bibliography: http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/brea...In the previous article we looked at how America's current obsession with the female breast shapes women's perceptions of themselves. In this article we'll examine how that cultural obsession affects young women during their formative years of adolescence.
"Are you there God? It's me, Margaret. I just did an exercise to help me grow. Have you thought about it God? About my growing, I mean. I've got a bra now. It would be nice if I had something to put in it" (Judy Blume. Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret [N.Y.: Bradbury Press, 1970], p. 50).
In Judy Blume's well-known novel, we first meet Margaret Ann Simon, age almost 12, just after her family has moved from an apartment in New York City to a house in a New Jersey suburb. Margaret worries about fitting in with the other kids in her new neighborhood. Most of all she wants to be normal, to be like everyone else. For American girls like Margaret, being "like everyone else" usually means fitting the conventional media-projected image:
By age thirteen, 53 percent of American girls are unhappy with their bodies; by age seventeen, 78 percent are dissatisfied...talk about the body and learning how to improve it is a central motif in publications and media aimed at adolescent girls.
(Brumberg, p. xxiv)
It's the image of well-developed, womanly breasts that Margaret tries to fulfill when she gets her first bra:
When I got home I carried my package straight to my room. I took off my dress and put on the bra. I fastened it first around my waist, then wiggled it up to where it belonged. I threw my shoulders back and stood sideways. I didn't look any different. I took out a pair of socks and stuffed one sock into each side of the bra, to see if it really grew with me. It was too tight that way, but I liked the way it looked.
(Blume, p. 44)
"Clearly it is difficult to feel good about one's breasts if they do not correspond to the body ideal of one's time and place," writes Marilyn Yolom (p. 7). Adolescence is the time that young people begin to develop an individual identity. For girls, that individual identity is inextricably tied up with their developing bodies:
Love them or hate them, we construct our self-image in response to our breasts. And puberty is where it all begins...Not only are our bodies changing faster than we can come to terms with, this public change attracts more attention than we may be able to handle.
