The ‘Grotesque Body’ Response
In Amy Shields Dobson’s The ‘Grotesque Body’ in Young Women’s Self Presentation on MySpace, the author analyzes females’ MySpace profile pictures in accordance with Bakhtin’s ideas on the body in “popular festivity” as opposed to the “classical statuary in the Renaissance.” She notes the common ‘open mouths’ and ‘protruding tongues’ found on the site, which, according to Bakhtin, “Exaggerates and caricatures the negative, the inappropriate.” Dobson finds that common MySpace images align with his study of the negative representation of grotesque bodies, and focuses her writing on contemporary connections to his theories and such female representation as perceived by viewers. The essay concludes with the question, "Does young women’s grotesque body representation necessarily disrupt the potentially voyeuristic pleasure of the viewer because they are the ones choosing, making and producing the representation?"
I barely frequented MySpace at the height of its popularity, but this reading struck a chord -- since the "carnivalesque" bodies studied by Bakhtin, the human form hasn't changed. When it comes to distorting her body to make a silly pose, a female still has the same limbs and the same tongue, thus producing images that can be easily compared to any study of non-classic representation and "grotesque bodies." Where does the stereotypical "MySpace photo" fit in? Where one can see the photographee's arm stretching to be the photographer? We still see outstretched tongues and unlikely poses on Facebook, but images as such are merely showing a sense of humor to contrast the classic smile and put-together pose that frequents Dobson's magazines.
To address Dobson's concluding question, I feel as though a voyeur can never be the one to choose, make, and produce a representation in any situation; there's no difference between watching a female act unlady-like through a window or on MySpace. The basis of voyeurism is to gain pleasure from watching others, and either way, the voyeur has no power to choose the representation. Not that I'm a practiced MySpace voyeur, but I'd assume that anyone who approaches a social media site with the intention of pleasure takes these "grotesque bodies" into account. Most users do not upload flashy, sexual photographs that are meant to please prying eyes, so a voyeur must make do with what he or she finds, which, in many cases, as a female in a silly, untraditional pose.
Jen L.