DALnetizen - The Perfect Body – Thinness and Slim

The Perfect Body – Thinness and Slim

One of the common attitudes that surround many young people today is the attitude towards the young body of being thin and slim. The perfect body is young taut, and lean. It is supple, with a narrow frame, a lean machine. However, this ideal body is hard to reach, and to make matters worse for the youth today, the attitudes surrounding this body image or shapes is very strong. The media has help shaped these attitudes and are taunted as the main opinion leaders for it. The human beings are vain by nature, we often like to look good, and looking good is often linked to feeling good with examples such as, dress with our favorite outfit that will make us feel confident while presenting to the publics. You don't have to go very far to notice that the ideal for women's bodies at present is a thin, fit, radiantly healthy, young, and beautiful person. Just open a magazine, an advertising supplement in the newspaper, waiting for a bus or train, or merely walking down the street or the university campus. The message of what we should look like is literally everywhere. The inescapable presence of these images shapes our imaginary and fantasized images in our thoughts. Here are some of my thoughts on the notion that affects us in wanting to achieve towards the “Perfect Body” and why ‘thin’ is considered as an ‘in’ thing for the younger generations, which can be explained by a few reasons.

Post-Modernity of Body
Throughout history and through cross-section of cultures, women have transformed their appearances to conform to a beauty ideal. Ancient Chinese aristocrats bound their feet as a show of femininity; American and European women in the 1800s cinched in their waists so tightly, some suffered internal damage; in some African cultures women continue to wear plates in their lower lips, continually stretching the skin to receive plates of larger size. The world’s ideal of beauty has continually focused on women's bodies: the tiny waist of the Victorian period, the boyish figure in vogue during the flapper era, and the voluptuous curves that were the measure of beauty between the 1930s and 1950s. Current standards emphasize a toned, slender look, one that exudes fitness, youth, and health.

However, this relentless pursuit of thinness is not just an example of women trying to look their bests, it is also a struggle for control, acceptance and success

In attempting to mould their appearances to meet the current ideal, numerous women are literally starving themselves to death. The incidence of eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia, has "doubled during the last two decades". This increase is no longer limited to women in their teens and twenties, but is increasingly diagnosed in patients during their thirties and forties years of age. One of the negative psychological side effects associated with eating disorders is the patient's distortion of their own body image.

Eating Disorders
Eating disorders are a problem many young people face today. Many of its patients are young women, although it should not be forgotten that men go through many of the same symptoms. While anorexia affects two out of every one hundred teenage girls, bulimia affects three out of every one hundred teenage girls. Both anorexia and bulimia are essentially slimming eating disorders, where the individual aims at loosing weight. Sufferers of anorexia nervosa and bulimia often suffers from mind/body dualism in which the mind neglects and tries to take control of the body by telling the body it does not require further food intake, so as to stay ‘slim’ and ‘thin’ and be socially acceptable.

This attitude has over time become popularized into an ideology, which dictates that unless one has the perfect body, one will never be accepted. Especially when the individual in question is over-weight or filled with too much excessiveness of fats. Thus, being fat is the opposite of success and power, and would be a metaphor for failure. Although this isn’t necessarily be true that all fat individuals do not constitute as failures, many see themselves as a failure as they do not fit the ‘thin and beautiful’ image in the society that constant pressurizing them in staying ‘thin’.

For the anorexic this distortion is exaggerated, the patient feels fat even while emaciated, however, many women who are caught up in the relentless pursuit of thinness also experience some degree of disturbed body image. The experiences and practices of women who "simply diet" are not radically different from those who are diagnosed with eating disorders. For some women, achieving the "perfect" body form becomes the most important goal in life. Hence, giving them a sense of “body image” or rather, the “perfect body image”, to look good and feel confident of themselves.

It is alarming, then, that almost 80% of women think they're overweight. Body image has very little to do with the way a person actually looks; many women who appear to fit the ideal body type are actually dissatisfied with their appearances. Women with perfectly normal bodies see themselves as being heavy; so that the definition of "normal" becomes inaccurate and this perceived normalcy is represented by a very small percentage of women. It follows that if body image is so closely linked to self-image, it is important for women to learn to feel comfortable with the body they live in, despite any "imperfections". Consistently aiming for perfection is a "self-defeating goal that only sets you up for failure". All evidence indicates that "our sense of our bodies develops in the process of learning, and these are social processes, not psychobiological ones given at birth".

So why is it that during this process of development so many women become dissatisfied, self-critical, and judgmental about their own bodies? One of the reasons may have to do with the media and various forms of advertising. Ads sell more than just products; they present an idea of normalcy, who we are and who we should be. The postmodern body is identified with the notion of desire. An idea that I am inclined to agree with. Advertising is a major vehicle for presenting images and forming attitudes. The majority of ads incorporate young, beautiful, slender models to present their products and services. While individual ads may not be seen as a big issue, it is the cumulative, unconscious impact that has an effect on attitudes towards women, and in women's attitudes towards themselves. As women are consistently exposed to these feminine forms through both print and television, it becomes difficult to distinguish what is normal, and even more difficult not to compare them to this form. Take for example if DALnet is not just IRC, but on Television. And channels are allowed to advertise on TV, I bet the usage of slim sexy female models would be used as an attraction.

It is not just women who judge themselves, but also men who begin to liken these models to the women in their own lives and then make comparisons. Advertising creates an ultimate standard of worth, so that women are judged against this standard all the time, whether we choose to be or not. When I go into a newsagent, I will see glamorous and beautiful sexy looking women on the covers of magazines, yet when I walked down the streets, I don’t see any women looking as half as good as the ones on the front cover of the magazines.

The Influenced of the Media
The media images we see of women offered us the ‘ideal’ body image. These women seem middle or upper-class by virtue of their expensive clothes, and are almost always fair in complexion and are white. Women seen outside the home are typically ‘attractive’ and occupy jobs where they never seem needed to work.

Throughout the media, there seems to be a "particular contempt these days for women whom are fat or are in any way overweight . . . above all, we're supposed to be very thin". This notion of the ideal body that is propagated by the popular media can be linked with economic organizations whose profit is solely gained through products that enhance this image. The images that are presented in advertising are designed to create an illusion, a fantasy ideal that will keep women continually consuming. Advertisers are well aware of the insecurities that most women feel about their own bodies. The influential power of the diet, fashion, cosmetic and beauty industries and their advertising strategies target this, and the "profits are sustained on the enormity of the body insecurity".

The range of actual body types in the past was no different than today. What has changed is what has been set up as the ideal. As quoted by Katie Ford of Ford Models, “studies have shown that while almost 25 years ago, the average model weighed 8% less than the average American women, today’s model weighs 23% below the national average”. The effect of many current advertising methods is that the "body is turned into a thing, an object, a package". In many ads, bodies are separated into individual parts: legs, breasts, thighs, waists; the result is that the body becomes separated from the woman. It then becomes acceptable for the woman's body to be scrutinized. Women's bodies receive large amounts of attention and comment and are a "vehicle for the expression of a wide range of statements".

Real And Ideal
Our ideal of thinness is greatly influenced by many social values. We are given the message that if we just work hard enough at dieting and exercising, anything can be accomplished. Women especially are told that their efforts in perfecting their bodies will be rewarded by success in both their professional and personal lives. Hence, becoming one form of technique of our body where we construct it to perform the way we want it to be. Look at those slimming advertisement that constantly prompting us to loose weight and having a toned body to attract the opposite sex, resulting us in becoming grotesque body in us.

An overweight or fat person may be seen as a grotesque body to some. The factors of making up the grotesque body is having being seen or portrayed differently from the rest. The grotesque body, as we have often stressed, is a body in the act of becoming. It is never finished, never completed, it is continuously built, created, and re-builds into another body. Therefore, the overweight person is seen as lazy or greedy, or without self-control. ‘Obviously’ we think, she wouldn’t be fat, if she could just control what she ate or if she bothered to exercise.

As women enter the ‘male’ dominant world of higher education and employment, we are even more pressured towards perfectionism. The perfect body is our new status symbol in today’s world. Weight consciousness has become part of our campaign for upward mobility.

Constructing the Ideal
Our preoccupation with appearance affects much more than the image that is presented on the outside. Females put on make-ups, lipsticks, and almost most of us put on hair sprays or hair gels to beautify ourselves daily. Feeling towards our own appearance affect the choices we make and the goals we pursue; "more than ever, it seems we are constricted by beauty standards.

The many emphasis on fitness, youth, beauty and thinness has caused many women to try harder than ever to attain the current body ideal. The tremendous increase in plastic surgery operations, liposuction, breast implants, tummy tucks, and face-lifts, to name a few, attest to the extreme adjustments that many women feel they must make in order to attain the body ideal, in turn making positive adjustments to their own self-esteem. "One object of women's hard work which, potentially is also a means of their success, is the body. Women have been given the message that their efforts in improving and perfecting their bodies, would be rewarded by success on both a social and professional level". With that thought in mind, women have come to relate to their bodies "as their objects/tools/weapons in the marketplace of social relations".

Perhaps a woman's ability to control her own body size and weight can be seen as a metaphor, a substitution for control that may be lacking in other areas of her life. While women continue to struggle for equality on an economic scale and within their relationships, they still maintain control over their own bodies. It is important that women begin to accept themselves for who they are, regardless of their body type, and to feel comfortable with the body they live in. If women continue to pursue the "elusive, eternally youthful body beautiful" they'll only be setting themselves up for failure.

Conclusion
Judgments may be made and opinions may be formed about a woman by her appearance alone. A woman who is judged as overweight is often thought of as one with little self-control, and from this premise, further assumptions may be made. This type of generalization occurs on a daily basis, by both men and women, and it affects the way we behave towards one another. Hence, the term “Body Culture” is part of these constructions by the social pressure given that we attempts in seeking a perfect body everyday.

Attempting to enter the basic ‘thin’ or ‘slim’ search for self-control, individuality and thinness has now, however, brought most women more health and happiness. Instead, we often feel as if we have failed and the blame is laid squarely on our shoulders. But the social requirement that we achieve the ‘ideal weight’ is based on the presumption that we can completely control our body size. In fact, the size and shape our bodies are as genetically determined as skin and eye color.

Notions of the ideal body are linked with the economy. There are wealth of businesses that depend upon the human desire for thinness to survive. In order to create a market for their product, they attempt to make us feel inadequate about our own bodies. Their product or exercise equipment will get us on the way to the "real" us, the thinner, better, more popular we will be. We are given the message that our value depends on our physical appearance. We are told that we must be sexually attractive to be successful and happy. An ideal weight is presented as a requirement for being sexually attractive and acceptable.

Unfortunately, limits on "desirable" thinness have not been set. The popular notion is that, as long as a woman isn't "badly" anorexic, being thin is not hazardous. Our standard of normal body size has become so thin that average weight people are considered abnormal. The majority of those who consider themselves "overweight" are not. Thus, resulting in the social-cultural environment to view them as grotesque.

So why stay slim when you may become unhealthy? Ultimately, keeping a wellness and healthy body should still be top priority amongst us.

Reference
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