The body transgresses many boundaries; no matter how hard it tries to confine itself to its perfect dimensions. Dana, the protagonist in the novel Kindred by Ocatvia Butler, travels back in time to a different era in which she must learn to adapt or suffer dire consequences. The nameless narrator in the novel Bodies Out of Bounds by Jeanette Winterson leaves her lover when she finds out the latter has cancer. As pointed in the article, “Unbearable Weight” by Susan Bordo, society has hardwired into us that there is such a thing as the perfect body. All of these characters try disparately to attain perfection in their lives.
There are various boundaries being crossed in Kindred. The most obvious being the different time eras. Dana is transported to the antebellum South where she meets her ancestors. She does not want to be there. However, she knows that if she does not keep saving Rufus, her very own existence is threatened. So she will do anything, however awful, to ensure that Hagar is born. Dana hopes that Rufus will not grow up to be like his father. The question of whether Dana can save hime from his culture is always omnipresent. Although she would much rather stay and live in her comfortable home in California, she is willing to leave it behind to save Rufus. Dana does not belong in this era and yet the fate of her family and her very self depend on her.
The second obvious boundary that Dana crosses is landscape and geography-wise. California still was not part of the United States. Because of this, Dana has a foreign accent and is “dressed like a boy” (Butler 41). It was dangerous to educate slaves and therefore the fact that she could read and write makes her an outcast and a threat to the slave master. Although there is nothing wrong with being literate, Dana took a whipping from Tom Weylin for trying to teach a child to read. There were boundaries to keep the slaves as slaves and the slave master would go to any cost to implement them.
Gender roles is another boundary being crossed. It is expected that Dana sleeps with Kevin in the plantation because he “owns” her. Further, a female is not supposed to be knowledgeable and yet Dana does wonders with the injured. Tome Weylin and Rufus trust her more than they do the doctor; but they do not pay her and when she could not save Tom, Rufus mistreats her. Additionally, there is also the concept of possession. When Alice had committed suicide, Rufus wanted to rape Dana. He figures that he can have any female he wants. Then when Dana finally gets back home, Kevin asks her if she was raped because he wanted all of her to himself.

When the narrator in Bodies Out of Bounds falls madly in love with Louise, they both thought they were going to live happily ever after. Just like when two people swear to stand by each other in sickness or health, they unofficially declared this. And just like when someone falls ill for an extended period of time, the other partner starts leaving them. This is what happened to Louise. Once the narrator found out she had cancer and that Louise’ white T cells were out of their boundaries attacking Louise internally slowly by slowly, she left her. She covered her tracks. She did not discuss it with Louise. They were blissfully happy and Louise had promised that she would “never let [the narrator] go” (96). Why was not the narrator willing to do the same? She brought all the sorrow she experienced upon herself. The narrator is good at translating for others but completely misinterprets her own life’s situations. A translator should be able to fully grasp the meaning of a text and situation so that its essence is not lost in translation but the narrator fails to do just this. She did not take Louise’ feelings into consideration when she single handedly chose to leave her. It took Gail Right to put her action in perspective. She mentions that she cannot stand people who cause,” trouble so that they can solve it” themselves (159). This summarizes the narrator’s actions and whole life. When she gets bored with her lovers, she “itches” to leave and find someone else. She thinks the thrill of having an affair is love.
Sexuality is another boundary that is being crossed. The gender and name of the narrator is unknown but it is clear that the narrator is queer. He or she dates and sleeps with both females and males, mostly females though. The narrator believes marriage is banal and prefers drama. It is so ironic that the narrator is so against marriage yet completely respects Louise’ and Elgin’s marriage. This is the most horrible marriage of them all. He is so manipulative and even the narrator underestimated his abilities because apparently he got Louise and was able to split them up.
When did perfection start applying to the human body? Indeed “the bar of what we consider ‘perfection’ is constantly being raised” (Bordo xvii). This article discusses the extent to which people in today’s society will go to in order to “contour” themselves to look “normal” (Bordo xvi). The media has a huge impact on how we want to bound and confine our physical self. People look at ads and do not see that the images are not real. They perceive them as what should be expected “from flesh and blood” (Bordo xviii). This is a dangerous trespassing of a boundary because the implications of how to attain that image can be unrealistic. They insinuate that the body can attain that level of perfection. But is this true and what is the cost of this look? The images are computer generated and that the subjects themselves have gone through surgeries or spent hours with personal trainers or at gyms in order to look "perfect"

Westernization has was a huge boundary that was imposed on many people around the globe. When western ads were shown and displayed in other countries, there was a significant increase in eating disorders on those nations. The girls watching the ads were not educated or sophisticated enough to know that what they were watching was not real. They did not know and maybe did not care that the images had been digitally altered and enhanced. For example, “Nigeria sent its local versin of beautiful to the Miss World Competition” but when Agbani Darego, a super skinny light skinned Aficana won the competition, everyone realized that “‘slim is beautiful’” (Bordo xiv). From this point forward, no one was saved from the desire to be slim.
With this desire to take up less space, more cultural boundaries are being trespassed. Family is a strong tie these youth are “aware of traditional values but constantly feel the pull of contemporary demands” (xx). What do they do then? They feel alone and torn as if they are betraying their families. These generations are growing in a society where “‘comfort with the body’” is fast becoming a relic of another era” (Bordo xxii). The older generations conserved their values and their image of beauty being a voluptuous body. However, nobody wants that anymore. It is not normal. It is not accepted. It means you are weak to control your impulses. The bar for perfection has been set by these digitally generated models and is constantly being raised.
The perfect image boundary also spread to engulf men and boys as well. When Calvin Klein “brought the sinuous, sculpted male body out of the closet” everybody “succumbed to its classic, masculine beauty” (Bordo xxiii). Men have the mentality that with a perfect body comes better sex and better lifestyle. They body build and find themselves at the gym oftenly. However, this also targeted young boys. These youngsters turn to steriods for the “perfect” body. They are targeted at a very young age, since the time they played with G.I Joes. It became apparent that even the most “‘well-adjusted’” men could be affected by their body image. This boundary does not apply to men though because this just made it “decisively clear that [even] ‘well-adjusted’ girls... are at risk too” ( Bordo xxiv). This is not a special boundary reserved for males but it did highlight that females were in the same situation as they are.
Then there is the plastic versus natural boundary that many cross and the question of who can actually afford to attain this ageless and perfect look. The concept of not aging at all is becoming the “new bodily norm” (Bordo xxiv). Many celebrities look younger in their 90s movies than they do today. This is resulting in the determination of who gets to have this look and who is left out. As more of these procedures are being implemented in the faces of people with fortunes, “the difference between the cosmetically altered and the rest of us grows more and more dramatic” (Bordo xxvi). Everyone is aging, it is part of the process of life but those who can not afford these expensive surgeries and treatments look older beyond their years because of this new technology. It is unnatural to look natural nowadays. And where are heading to?
In conclusion, there are many boundaries being crossed and stepped over in all of these instances. History chose Dana to fix it even thought she did not want to. The narrator stepped all over moral boundaries and yet she could not continue doing so and left Louise to Elgin. Perfection cannot be applicable to the body and yet we cross limitless boundaries with the mentality that we can achieve perfection.