Ideal body image

[jack]

Finally, two too many people are on my friendslist compaining about other people's attempts to help weight loss made me think of this. Many people are overweight and need to do something about it, this is unarguable and not what I want to discuss.

But there's also the strange thing that the ideal image seems to be way too thin. It used to be the case that fat was seen as beautiful, because it meant you were rich and had enough to eat, whereas poor people weren't and didn't[1].

Will we experience a resurgence of this? Certainly probably the richest people tend to do office work and not have spare time, which isn't a recipe for staying in shape. On the other hand, I can think of a few reasons for the status quo:

* Maybe success correlates with self-control correlates with body image
* It's an overreaction to people being overweight. So much effort is put into losing weight people forget the goal is a healthy weight, and try to continue to lose weight afterwards.
* It's just self-perpetuating. Standards of beauty get reinforced because everyone tries to live up to them, so it takes a long time for anything else to take hold
* Maybe it's a complete myth. Maybe no-one actually does like looking at skeletally thin people at all, but fashion magazines are just print them anyway because they're really stupid or in a modern art rotting cow way .

[1] Or so I've always heard. I haven't looked for a historical cite to confirm that.

Comments

[mobbsy.livejournal.com]

In the West, there's currently a correlation between being overweight and low income.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I guess that would explain it. Though I'm not sure exactly why:

* Boring food?
* Less gym time?
* Less scheduling of time?

[mobbsy.livejournal.com]

From what I can tell, although the fact is undisputed the mechanism is still being investigated. There's various cohort studies around testing hypotheses, but I can't find much of a consensus.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Fair enough, thank you. I should check more before I post.

[nakedtoes.livejournal.com]

This isn't the be all and end all (is that right?), but it's a lot more expensive to buy a couple of chicken breasts, some vegetables and some exciting fruit like pineapple for dessert than it is to buy a frozen pizza and some chocolate mousse. Of course, if you buy Pizza Express pizza and some expensive Taste the Difference type profiterole thing that's probably more expensive again, but arguably you wouldn't be buying that on a low income either.

[mair_in_grenderich]

buying healthy food is often more expensive, I think (fruit&veg expensive, brown bread, ...)

also ignorance factors in, which is correlated, not just that people don't realise that what they are eating is rubbish, but that they don't know for example how easy it is to make something healthier (home-made casserole instead of microwave food, or something)

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Healthy food is more expensive, but more importantly it's perceived as being even more expensive than that, and also as being posh. Also, many poor people smoke, and it's difficult to taste and enjoy food that isn't salty and loaded with MSG if you smoke. There's also the problem that once you get intestines full of partially digested meat and grease, you feel hungry, because it sticks round the edges and doesn't let everything else through, and when hungry, of course salt and energy is the thing you feel hungry for first. And if you eat healthily when all the other poor people you know eat shit, they accuse you of being posh and clever and having self esteem, and in this world those are insults, and treat you like crap about it. And all the places that poor people hang around in - pubs, clubs, shopping malls - serve unhealthy fatty sugary fizzy food and drink, and a paltry selection of gone-off fruit and stomach-destroying orange juice to put on a show of caring. So then all your poor friends hang around in these places eating crap, and you get hungry and you have two choices - go and buy something else healthy, come back and find they've decided you're a snob and gone off somewhere else without telling you, or eat it too.