Why Women?

Women’s bodies undergo more radical changes over the course of the biological continuum than men’s. Women go through immense changes at puberty, can get pregnant, bear children, nurse them, and go through menopause. All of these changes are accompanied by hormonal shifts that may radically change a woman’s body. Men can’t come anywhere near that; we change as we age, to be sure, but that pales in comparison to the changes that a woman’s body can go through. Yet on the whole we fail to appreciate these immense and profound shifts in women’s biology and rather scrutinze her every body part in pursuit of an impossible ideal based purely on aesthetics.

It is also true that a great many of the issues which The Century Project depicts are largely women’s issues in our society. Yes, there are some anorexic men, for example, but their numbers pale in comparison to women. Ditto bulimia. Ditto cutting. In general, body image issues are very significant for most women, and substantially less so for men (though this is admittedly changing).

When it comes to sexual violence, as children, little boys are as likely to be victimized as little girls, but when they reach their adult size and strength, this equation breaks down: adult women are far more likely to be sexually abused and raped than men.

The Century Project is at its heart very socio-politically driven; the political imperative for men is simply not as significant as it is for women.

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