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A large body of research shows a linkage between the recent increase in eating disorders, especially in girls and young women, and the cultural emphasis on thinness. The desire to achieve the cultural thinness norm, in conjunction with the fear of deviation, leads individuals to strive for thinness, causing an array of devastating eating disorders, including obesity. An individual's deviation from the idealized image of physical thinness may provoke others to judge and condemn individual behavior, resulting in embarrassment, severe isolation, or alienation. While attempting to adhere to the norm of thinness, many people get caught in a vicious cycle of short-lived weight loss followed by weight gain.

While both men and women are obese, women receive most of the social condemnation of obesity (although rates of eating disorders among men are growing). For this reason, researchers study the media and other cultural products as explanations for the pressures exerted on women. Of particular interest is the representation of women on television, in the movies, and in advertisements. Generally speaking, the size of women in the media has been shrinking as real women have grown heavier. One example of cultural variation over the past 55 years is the White Rock mineral girl, who was 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighed 140 pounds in 1950, while today she is 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 110 pounds. Similarly, 1950s actress and sex symbol Marilyn Monroe wore a size 12 dress, while contemporary supermodel Kate Moss is a mere size 4. The White Rock mineral girl and Kate Moss are indicative of a literally shrinking media woman.

By holding up an image of female perfection--such as slenderness, daintiness, or demureness--the media insinuates that women who fall short of that perfection are somehow lacking. Print ads, magazines, television programming, and movies exemplify this, as does merchandising toward females of all ages. The "feminine failing" not only jeopardizes a woman's happiness but also questions her femininity.

Much research on women's obsession with weight assumes that all women and girls are equally affected by the culture of thinness, but some evidence suggests that not all women are affected similarly. Compared to black females, white women are under significantly greater social pressure to be thin, so that the rates of eating disorders are higher among white women than among women of color.

When it comes to obesity specifically, however, the rates are higher among African Americans and other minorities than among whites. A number of factors contribute to the prevalence of obesity among the poor and disenfranchised, including the cost of food, with fast food and fattening snacks being relatively inexpensive while healthier options are more expensive. Additionally, it takes time and resources to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

References:

1) Bruch, Hilde. 1957. The Importance of Overweight. New York: Norton.

2) Critser, Greg. 2003. Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

3) Dowling, Colette. 1988. Perfect Women: Hidden Fears of Inadequacy and the Drive to Perform. New York: Simon & Schuster.

4) Kilbourne, Jean. 1995. Slim Hopes: Advertising and the Obsession with Thinness. Northampton, MA: Media Education Foundation.

5) Pipher, Mary. 2005. Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls. New York: Riverhead.

6) Wolf, Naomi. 1991. The Beauty Myth. New York: Harper Perennial.

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