Body Matters and Myths Today

While reading Segal’s piece, Body Matters, I found that the easiest way for me to understand the main points was by thinking of contemporary, concrete examples and illustrations of the myths Segal disputes. In my thinking, I discovered that not only are there contemporary versions of those myths, but that they are the same exact ones that existed when Segal wrote this piece. They haven’t been dispelled with the empirical that exists, and what’s more shocking is that they are perpetrated through almost every media outlet.

The first outlet I considered, much like Ms. Bailey, was advertising, specifically in regard to the myth of the penis and sperm. Our society views the male genitalia as sexual machinery, literally pulsating with readiness. This view is the same one Segal refutes in her piece in her citation of erectile dysfunction and the true behavior of sperm. While Segal views these as signs of weakness, our society views it as blip in the powerful male machinery that has a quick fix: Viagra. The machinery is so ready that when it is having a problem, all it needs is a pill. The ads for Viagra, Levitra, or other prescription or recreational sexual remedies make that clear either with dancing women or a football going straight through a hoop. I am not suggesting that we put forward advertisements detailing how a man can lose his stamina through the years as a sign of weakness. Instead, I want to know why, if the research concludes female biology as powerful as well, are there no representations of that physical power?

Segal’s example of the physical power is the egg, though much like the situation of the penis, the representation in the media only furthers the myth of the egg as weak. Movies and TV shows seem to enjoy creating scenarios in which couples cannot conceive due to a problem with a female partner’s reproduction system. In no Sex and the City episode is Trey’s sperm the problem in conception; Charlotte must solely feel the burden of infertility. This myth is perpetuated in other shows, movies, books, and seemingly never because of the males’ lost or aimless sperm, the same ones Segal claims are the problem while the egg works to be fertilized. Moreover, not only is the egg still represented as weak, but as shameful or embarrassing, mirroring the description of the vagina that Segal finds so misleading. Advertisements for medical products that deal with the egg or vagina in some way, be they Vagisil, birth control pills, Tampax, or Monistat, focus on this representation. There are no men dancing because their partners are over their periods or yeast infections, but rather only lone women who are worried about how to deal with their biological predicaments, even if those women, according to Segal, have a strong physiology of which they should be proud.