Body fascism.
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Aside from economic exploitation by means of the wages system, capitalism has many ways of cowering the proletariat. War hysteria, unemployment guilt and shaming, medical and fitness shaming, psychosexual obsessions, and body fascism.
This latter term was used in a documentary of some years ago to describe the cultural imposition, since the 1920s, of body image anxiety. Pioneered by the Hollywood film industry, it was also fostered in Nazi Germany, where Josef Goebbels took cues from Hollywood, which he greatly admired.
Exploiting the sexual imperative, body fascism exploits but also instils neuroses. People obsessed with physique and body image have little time, on top of everything else they have to cope with as wage-slaves or dole-beggars, to cultivate their minds and think about society. Body fascism locks into capitalism’s buying and selling culture and also its bullying culture, shrinking minds.
We fail to see this phenomenon in past societies, or in the few present-day societies which are yet to be absorbed into the dominant contemporary capitalist culture. Neuroses require a measure of affluence to develop, but then soon become another means whereby workers cower and bully one another, and cower themselves.
Body “fascism”! And there are some people here who think that “fascism” has some meaning outside its specific historical context. There must be a better term to describe what you have in mind. Anyway it’s not a term we should encourage being used.
I think the majority of the working class’ valuing of each other prioritises the physical, the manual, and the sportive.
Unless one occupies an academic position which brings in a high salary, and can therefore choose one’s social milieu accordingly, intellectual attributes are of little consequence in others’ eyes.
I see no evidence of body obsession/neurosis prior to the 1890s, especially none where men are concerned. Nor in peasant communities. Indians who bathe in the Ganges I doubt are worrying what others think of their bodies or looks.
TM – ‘I see no evidence of body obsession/neurosis prior to the 1890s, especially none where men are concerned.’
One of the main commentaries concerning Henry VIII at that time was how elegant and physically perfect this renaissance prince was as a young man.But was he neurotic about it, or was he preoccupied with pleasure?
I am referring to modern mass neuroses in the post-industrial world. The preening of Renaissance aristocrats is not part of this. Were they cowered – like modern wage-slaves are? I think not.
TM – There has always been class conformity in terms of appearance. I’m always fascinated by how hair styles have defined class and/or radicals down the centuries. For women this has been even more exaggerated and I believe some even went so far as to having ribs removed to acquire a slimmer waist. Of course the working class had their flat caps and bowlers. In the 1930s women were flat chested with shoulder pads and in the 1950’s they were expected to be ‘full figured’. You did also refer to the pre-1890s which is why I referenced Renaissance body expectations among the aristos. We don’t have many surviving accounts of how the peasantry felt about physical appearance but I do know that it was illegal at one stage to wear certain types of coloured clothing. I suspect there was just as much ‘class conformity’ and male and female identity conforming as there is now.
To repeat, I’m not talking about rules of dress, but neurosis. And primarily neurosis about one’s body: leading to bulimia and other psychological illnesses.
Young noblemen of the 16th century and earlier would have been fit: not for body image or sexual attractiveness, but for war. They learned to ride while small children, and to fight in armour with sword, axe, lance and shield. Peasants worked in the fields from childhood too. Hardly either were navel-gazing over their waistlines or whether they stank, nor about what other members of their class were thinking of them.
‘Peasants worked in the fields from childhood too. Hardly either were navel-gazing over their waistlines or whether they stank, nor about what other members of their class were thinking of them.’
Some ‘peasants’ became quite educated and wealthy (hence the Peasant’s revolt) so I’m sure they payed attention to both physical and fashion appearance. You may be thinking more about the serfs and slaves of medieval times and since they left very little imprint on history we don’t know much about their culture.
Body shaming would be a better term. And whether it existed or not in former times, it’s definitely going full pelt now. Yes it is used as a cowing mechanism by many people and, I would say, among all strata of the working class. As usual, their own insceurity and lack of self-esteem leads them to look for various ways to cow others.
There is a new term elaborated by left-wingers known as Post fascism, it is the new boogeyman to scare the workers and to obtain more votes for them.
It was used in Chile by the Stalinists to get votes for Gabriel Boric while the congress was controlled by right-wingers, and they to make alliance and compromised themselves with the post fascist, and also the term “facto pobre” ( poor fascists ) is used to denigrate the workers who do not vote for the leftists
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