Historical Body Ideals and Cultural Context

• Visual beings rely on images to perceive world and make meaning
• Body ideals reflect social meanings about dwelling in physical/cultural spaces
• Bodies interpreted through categories: gender, race, ethnicity, class, belonging
• Modifications include hair, skin, clothing
• Medical anthropology studies cultural concepts about bodies and their impact on health

Ancient to Agrarian Body Standards

• Curvy bodies existed for millennia
• Venus of Willendorf limestone figurine reflects past values: reproduction and abundance
• Fertility figures with voluptuous curves common in agrarian societies
• Low waist-to-hip ratios (hourglass figures) considered attractive from evolutionary perspective
  • Related to childbearing ability

Western Shift to Thinness (Past Century)

• Significant shift when Western societies featured thin-bodied female models in mainstream media
• 1960s ideal: Marilyn Monroe
• 1970s ideal: Twiggy (huge shift)
• 1980s-90s: Gap between average women size and model size continued growing
• Gap between actual and ideal impacts self-image

Global Proliferation of Thin Ideals

• Past 3 decades: thinness associated with prestige and well-being
• Systemic proliferation of thin body ideals circulates globally
• Body dysmorphia and eating disorders found worldwide
• Thinness achieved through: diet regimes, food avoidances, exercise, surgery
• 1998: Orthorexia coined as new eating disorder category (obsessive focus on healthy eating)

Modern Body Ideals Evolution

• During pandemic: social media followed celebrity weight loss journeys
• Idealized bodies beyond thinness: lean, muscular bodies pursued across gender, age, income, locations
• Accompanying bias against fat

Cultural Resistance to Thin Ideals

• Not all societies embrace thin bodies as ideals
• Curves remain significant for many cultures/ethnic groups:
  • Black, Indigenous, Latinx communities
• Beauty standards differ, not solely based on external features
• Rural Jamaica study findings:
  • Bodies reflect social relations
  • Plump bodies considered desirable, healthy, loveable (measure of well-being)
  • Thin bodies interpreted as antisocial or neglected
  • Without social capital/relations to feed/care for them
• Similar positive views about ample/thick bodies found in:
  • Africa ethnographic studies
  • Pacific Islands
  • U.S.

Globalization Impact on Body Ideals

• Increased globalization and market reach changes body ideals over time
• Even affects rural and remote areas
• Weight stigma/fat phobia/bias increasingly found in:
  • Global North
  • Global South
• Public health campaigns addressing obesity may backfire by reinforcing weight stigma

Problems with Universal Body Ideals

• No matter preference for thick or thin, universally imposed ideals miss key point
• Many different body shapes, weights, looks exist
• Conflation of appearance with health facilitates unhealthy shaming
• Based on outdated ideals

Body Diversity Movement

• Body diversity recognized as critical component of social diversity, equity, inclusion
• Standard media portrayals called out:
  • Feature size-2 models
  • Average American woman size 16
• Body diverse activists with queer and Black activists:
  • Point out harm of body-shaming
  • Advocate for retraining social lenses on systemic ideals
• Body positive advocacy creates shift in national/global ad campaigns
• Features more diversity: bodies, skin color, hairstyles, age

Expanding Body Diversity Representation

• Sports events as major stages where bodies displayed
• Rather than uniformly thin/lean, different proportions/sizes/abilities seen in:
  • Olympians
  • Paralympians
  • Other athletes
• Ad campaigns for clothing/cosmetics feature ordinary consumers
• Represent brands as accessible and inclusive
• Address divergence between ideals and actual lived bodies in everyday life

Limitations of Current Approaches

• Keep views on outer body features (often subjective)
• Opposed to objectively thinking about health
• If concerned about health and well-being, need to go beyond body standards/ideals

Alternative Medical Perspectives on Bodies

• Medical anthropology, history of medicine, comparative knowledge offer insights
• Classical systems of medicine understood bodies through:
  • Life force
  • Energy in connection to natural and social environment
• Systems include: Ayurveda, Chinese, Greco-Islamic, Indigenous healing knowledge
• Energetic qualities more significant than external features:
  • Dosha
  • Chi
  • Vital essences (blood)
• Outside body reflection of interior to understand health and balance

Holistic Health Approach

• Well-being meant harmonizing body in relation to:
  • Dynamic relations between vital substances
  • Human organs
  • Environment
• Goal: live as long as possible
• Contemporary examples: immune system and microbiome
• Help understand human bodies in relation to: bacteria, microbes, pathogens

Future Direction for Body Ideals

• Reframe body ideals engaging vitality from within
• Focus on metabolic health rather than externalities/ideal representations
• Need healthy bodies, societies, environments
• Come in all shapes and features that are desirable and beautiful
• Care for healthy bodies by placing value on internal vitality
• Takes into account living in relation to environment and each other
• Potential for better health and collective well-being this century
• Begin healing by looking within ourselves
• Thrive by seeing vitality together