In Susan Bordo’s “Unbearable Weight,” Bordo discusses the idea that women (and men) are pressured to look a certain way by society. Women use eating disorders as a way to demonstrate their power, over themselves and others. By attracting attention to themselves by use of their lean bodies, women feel a sense of empowerment over the opposite sex. This empowerment over men, is an interesting idea, as traditionally men have been given the power role in societies throughout history. Women drive themselves to eating disorders in order to gain the power they seek. In a similar way, nudity can be used by women to achieve power over lustful men.

In Ingres’s “Valpicon Bather,” this idea of female empowerment is also explored. The woman is being viewed by a “peeping tom,” and the woman is not aware that she is being watched. Her body is relaxed and natural as she gets ready to bathe. This woman, while being nude, exerts no power over the man, because she does not know that the man is watching her. In class, we looked at pictures from magazines and ads of women wearing little clothing. In these pictures, all of the women were posed in positions to best display their bodies and exert power over those viewing their picture. This is the opposite of what is happening in Ingres’s painting. Because the woman does not know she is being watched, her nudity is supplying her with no power. She is not posing to exert power, she is captured in her daily routine at a private moment. She is the vulnerable victim while the “peeping tom” has the power.

Relating this back to Bordo’s idea about power, a person cannot have power over another person—whether through means of lust, nudity or any means—unless the person is aware of the power they possess. If a woman with an eating disorder does not know her body attracts the attention of others in society, her disorder has gained her no power over them, just like the nude bather did not have power over the man watching her because she was not aware he was watching.