Silvia Tubert
Puesto que no existe una feminidad esencial, la cultura construye modelos ideales - articulados con las relaciones sociales de desigualdad y poder entre los sexos- con los que las mujeres se identifican e incorporan a su Ideal del Yo. Estos modelos normativos suelen entrar en conflicto con los deseos, posibilidades y aspiraciones de cada sujeto, creando un malestar que, cuando no puede ser reconocido y expresado, se manifiesta de manera sintomática o mediante el pasaje al acto. Consideraré a continuación los efectos deletéreos de dos ideales culturales -ideal corporal de delgadez e ideal maternal- tanto en la autopercepción, auto-valoración y relación de las mujeres con su cuerpo, como en la manipulación no sólo de la imagen corporal sino también del cuerpo real de las mujeres. En ambos casos se pondrán de manifiesto las desigualdades de género que persisten en estos "tiempos de igualdad."
Inasmuch as there isn't any essential femininity, ideal models are constructed by the culture. These ideals, which are entangled with the codification of power and subordination social relations between both sexes, are incorporated by women into their Ego Ideal through the process of identification. These normative models are usually opposed to the desires, possibilities and expectations of each subject, generating thus conflicts and discomfort which, when not recognized and put into words, show themselves as a symptom or acting out. I shall consider the deleterious effects of two different cultural ideals -that of the slender body and that of maternity- not only in self-perception, self-esteem and the relationship of women to their own body, but also in the manipulation of the body image as well as of the real body. In both cases it is possible to realize that gender inequalities are still present in our "equality times."