Marked by Body Image

Everyone seems to stand out in society, yet this might not always be a positive thing. In the article “Marked Women” by Debroah Tannen, “marked” is defined as women being judged upon their physical appearance, mainly because they have more choices in clothing. In this story, she borrows the concept of being “marked” from linguistics, which “refers to the way language alters the base meaning of a word by adding a linguistic particle that has no meaning on its own” (Tannen). Furthermore, this “marked” concept has been associated with the short essay “Whose Body Is This” by Katherine Haines, which “marks” women by their image and gender. Throughout my personal experiences, I feel that I relate the most to “Whose Body Is This” because of the female body issues described, which relate to my quandary of being too skinny in a society where expectations are too high.

Through “Whose Body Is This”, I learned numerous things about myself. According to the essay, high self-esteem is necessary in order to not succumb to society and to be more independent to make decisions. I have learned that it doesn’t matter how others perceive my body because it only matter what I think; because if I think positively about myself, others will too. I have also realized that because of confusing expectations from society and the media, women will never be able to gain their own self-confidence or make their own decisions. Therefore, I believe that if women push through the terrible labels and high expectations, they will gain the power to make their own decisions about their own bodies despite the negativities, just like I did with a little encouragement. In conclusion, being “marked” can relate to many different things: culture, gender, race, physical appearance, moral beliefs, etc. Mainly pertaining toward “Whose Body Is This” and my personal experiences, being “marked” means to be judged by your gender and body image.  Being “marked” can take negative tolls on people, as it has in my life. In my experience, being marked as “too skinny” made me have low confidence, which caused me to purposely gain weight to please others. Furthermore, I believe that women are more targeted by society’s expectations because there are more choices for women, in clothes and physical appearances. Therefore, this causes women to have more labels or things that “mark” them, most being more negative than positive. From these expectations I began to change, although I did gain my confidence back with a little bit of support from the females around me.  


-Kayla Hockman, Age 18