Twilight Zones: The Hidden Life of Cultural Images from Plato to O.J.

by Susan Bordo

Considering everything from Nike ads, emaciated models, and surgically altered breasts to the culture wars and the O.J. Simpson trial, Susan Bordo deciphers the hidden life of cultural images and the impact they have on our lives. She builds on the provocative themes introduced in her acclaimed work Unbearable Weight ―which explores the social and political underpinnings of women's obsession with bodily image―to offer a singularly readable and perceptive interpretation of our image-saturated culture. As it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between appearance and reality, she argues, we need to rehabilitate the notion that not all versions of reality are equally trustworthy. Bordo writes with deep compassion, unnerving honesty, and bracing intelligence. Looking to the body and bodily practices as a concrete arena where cultural fantasies and anxieties are played out, she examines the mystique and the reality of empowerment through cosmetic surgery. Her brilliant discussion of sexual harassment reflects on the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill controversy as well as the film Disclosure . She suggests that sexuality, although one of the mediums of harassment, is not its essence, and she calls for the recasting of harassers as bullies rather than sex fiends. Bordo also challenges the continuing marginalization of feminist thought, in particular the failure to read feminist work as cultural criticism. Finally, in a powerful and moving essay called "Missing Kitchens"―written in collaboration with her two sisters―Bordo explores notions of bodies, place, and space through a recreation of the topographies of her childhood. Throughout these essays, Bordo avoids dogma and easy caricature. Consistently, and on many levels, she demonstrates the profound relationship between our lives and our theories, our feelings and our thoughts.

Genres: Feminism, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Sociology

290 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Susan Bordo is known for the clarity, accessibility, and contemporary relevance of her writing. Her first book, The Flight to Objectivity, has become a classic of feminist philosophy. In 1993, increasingly aware of our culture's preoccupation with weight and body image, she published Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body, a book that is still widely read and assigned in classes today. During speaking tours for that book, she encountered many young men who asked, "What about us?" The result was The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private (1999). Both books were highly praised by reviewers, with Unbearable Weight named a 1993 Notable Book by the New York Times and The Male Body featured in Mademoiselle, Elle, Vanity Fair, NPR, and MSNBC. Both books have been translated into many languages, and individual chapters, many of which are considered paradigms of lucid writing, are frequently re-printed in collections and writing textbooks. The Creation of Anne Boleyn: A New Look at England's Most Notorious Queen, was published to critical acclaim by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in April, 2013. The Destruction of Hillary Clinton followed in 2017. She lives in Lexington, Kentucky with her husband, daughter, three dogs, a cat, and a cockatiel.

Bordo received her Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1982. She recently retired from her position as Otis A. Singletary Chair in the Humanities and Professor of Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Kentucky.

Reviews

[Tucker · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is more useful for thinking about relativism than for understanding advertising and consumer culture.

Bordo presses us to try to understand what we should do with our diverse opinions and experiences. When we posit the existence of universal truths, which are obviously frustratingly inaccessible to any human being, "we only encourage more cynicism and nihilism among our children and students, who know quite well these are the worn (and often dangerous) fantasies of another time. Yet if all we give them is a more sophisticated version of 'You've got your truth and I've got mine,' how can we expect them to question the dangers of their own fantasies, their own time?" (pp. 16-17) In other words, simply teaching diversity is not an answer to ideology, conformity, and solipsism, because one might simply become aware of the existence of diverse people and ideas, acknowledging them uncritically without understanding anything about what this diversity means or how we might talk to each other and learn from each other. "[T:]he question remains as to what they are going to do with all this "difference" beyond celebrating it, tasting all the dishes on the smorgasbord table. The world is not a collection of discrete and disconnected items, each existing in its own self-contained and self-justifying universe of values, but an infinite set of relations. " (p. 81) Other philosophers such as Carol Gilligan have presented this relational understanding as typically female. (pp. 204-205)

"Without toppling into absolutist conceptions of truth, we need to rehabilitate the notion that not all versions of reality are equally trustworthy, equally deserving of our assent." (pp. 12-13) But "there are," as she puts it, "other choices than pining for Reality with a capital R or tripping on plurality(s) with a postmodern (s)." We might instead "encourage practices of truth-seeking, practices that aim not so much at gazing at Timeless Forms as at 'seeing through' our temporal forms, our cultural appearances, to expose the hype, the bad faith, the mystification." (p. 18) Perhaps what she is saying here is that, while there is no essential truth underlying everything (at least not any truth that can be accessible and meaningful to us), neither do our varied identities and experiences possess enduring truth, being surface illusions. If I understand her correctly here, to seek truth is really to see the emptiness behind the veil. She later quotes Maria Lugones: "Being stereotypically Latin and being simply Latin are different simultaneous constructions of person... * * * One does not experience any underlying 'I.'" (p. 201) Her endorsed sense of truth-seeking is to penetrate the untrue, but it is never to find any underlying truth. Rather than pretending to find truth, we should, in Richard Rorty's words, engage in a "search for stable and useful beliefs." (pp. 83-84)

Bordo's criticism of advertising is simple. We are tempted by the consumerist "illusion that we are 'in control,' just because some commercial (or ad for surgery) tells us so," and yet the same consumer culture "continually sends the contradictory message that we are defective, lacking, and inadequate." (pp. 50-51) The control falsely promised by consumerism is a way of avoiding our mortal frailties. (p. 61) Perhaps sharing some existential motivations with consumer culture, male-dominated philosophy has tried to provide a Cartesian "view from nowhere" or Derridean "dream of being everywhere" that purports to transcend the limitations of our physical bodies. (pp. 181-182, p. 210)

[daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

nothing groundbreaking here. bordo did the theoretical work elsewhere and uses this collection more to show how it can be applied to various cases. her analyses are clear and insightful without being dense and academic.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some truly marvelous essays about late-twentieth century culture.

[Gayle (OutsmartYourShelf) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Susan Bordo's work. It's insightful but it's always relatable and doesn't lose you in realms of jargon. This book deals with media images, taking in everything from Babe to OJ Simpson, and examines how they are used in society and what cultural meanings they have. Rating: 4 stars.