Sandra Lee Bartky (née Schwartz; May 5, 1935 – October 17, 2016) was a professor of philosophy and gender studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Using this information, she explains her idea that the "ideal body of femininity is constructed" and states that this perfect woman reflects the cultural obsessions and preoccupations of that society.
They are expected to follow a strict diet, monitor their hunger to maintain their size and shape, exercise to "build the breasts and banish cellulite" and "spot-reduce problem areas" such as thick ankles or thighs.
Women are expected to always have soft, supple, hairless, and smooth skin, worry about their beauty, be hesitant to extend their body, have a graceful gait and a restricted posture, always avert their eyes, and appear small with hands folded and legs pressed together when they are sitting.
Bartky concludes that "The ... project of femininity is a "setup": it requires such radical and extensive measures of bodily transformation that virtually every woman who gives herself to it is destined in some degree to fail.