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

[cornute.livejournal.com]

"But there's also the strange thing that the ideal image seems to be way too thin."

I think people don't know what a weight looks like. Steinem once discussed her age; she said that she was sad that people all thought she looked quite young at 40, because if everyone told the truth about their age, then they'd know what 40 looked like.

I'm 6' tall (184cm) and very curvy; I'll even say that I have an extra bit of padding at the tummy that ought not to be there-- yet when I turn sideways and suck in, I still have a definite indented waist between my ribs and hips.

I've talked to guys within an inch or two of my height, guys of all builds, and asked them what they thought I weighed. Now, my friends aren't known for tact, so I can assure you none of them were lowballing the number (and they certainly acted shocked when I told them the correct answer!). The answers they gave me were in the 140-150 range, with the highest being 165.

I weigh 225 pounds, barefoot and in a bath towel.

So, if we as a culture think that 140 pounds is a reasonable weight for someone 6' tall, curvy, and muscular, is it ANY WONDER that people are starving themselves like idiots?

Corr
(who hasn't weighed 140 since I was 12 and shorter than my mum)

[bouteillebleu.livejournal.com]

I think people don't know what a weight looks like.

I'm almost certain of this. At my lightest in the last five years, I weighed 12 and a half stone - this was when I was rowing six times a week and doing weights three times a week - and other people on the squad usually guessed me at about a stone or two lower.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Ooh, nice eye. (And very mary-sue :))

I agree. That is, I never know what weight people are. After all, I never ask, so how would I?