Women, body image & the perception of “ideal beauty”
Article written by: Madhulika Rathore, Intern at Heart It Out, Bangalore
There was a girl, tall and fair and thin
Her hair, her hair, was the colour of delicate ginger ….
It took me years to unlearn the meaning and the purpose of this rhyme which my girlfriends and I would often sing and march to in school in India. I had to undo years of conditioning to make myself believe that I don’t have to be thin or tall or fair to be called “pretty” or “beautiful”.
Unfortunately, rhymes like these are just one of the hundred rigid and unrealistic ideas of beauty that our culture has fed us since the very beginning. It was only when I studied psychology that I realised that both me and almost my entire friend circle were grappling with body image concerns. I realised that the notions of beauty that were fed to me by my parents, family members, and media, had presented me with a distorted, unkind and narrow definition of beauty.
Body image refers to “a person’s perceptions, thoughts and feelings about his or her body” (Grogan, 2008). It benefits to have a positive body image, “as negative body is related to having damaging effects like low self-esteem, uncontrolled dieting, and eating disorders.” According to Naomi Wolf, ‘beauty’ is a currency system like the gold standard. “It’s assigning value to women in a vertical hierarchy.” According to a culturally imposed physical standard, it is an expression of power relations.
Often women who are not considered beautiful as per the societal standards, face stringent social and economic implications. Media and society appear to interact with psychological factors to impact appearance concerns and body image disturbances. The role mass media plays in the perception of beauty and ideals, affect an individual’s behaviour and well being. According to a research, “conventional attractiveness is a realistic route to power for women”; women deemed attractive are “more popular, more likely to marry men of higher socioeconomic status and maybe more often hired, more often promoted, and paid higher salaries.
Why don’t I look like them? What will they think of me and my body?
Our (Indian) society and many other cultures have always valued the beauty of an individual. Although each culture has its idea for beauty, one of the most popular is the thin idealization. It refers to idealizing the slim figure and finding it beautiful. Some of the main causes of thin idealization come from the culture, society, media and western influence.
The following factors play a very important role:
- Popular Media: The consumer media is always showcasing unrealistically thin models. The problem arises when these models are shown to be living the happiest lives and are completely happy with no problems in life. Hence, the message given out is that buyers should not only consume the actual goods advertised but also it has symbolic meaning. For instance, if you drink green tea like a famous Bollywood actress then you will not only lose weight but out of nowhere, your life will turn as glamorous, happy and successful as her life is supposed to be.
Idealized media models not only communicate that “wealth and beauty should be central life goals for everybody”, but they also “define the boundaries of what it means to be beautiful, successful, and happy.” For instance, often “advertisements define beauty in rigid terms like having fair and spotless skin”, and “after which the model in the advertisement becomes fairer, all aspects of her life improve and she gets a good job, gets married, becomes popular etc.” An Indian study (Hindustan times, 2019) found that 90% of women believe that films and television shows tend to make fun of people who do not obey the standard norms of beauty. 89% of women reported they feel uncomfortable about themselves when they read comments on social media about other people’s appearances.
- Culture and society: Culture and society also propagates thinness to us from a very young age, by repeatedly presenting it as the ideal. Children, typically girls, are seen playing with Barbie dolls. Barbie has an unnatural and unrealistic size — her waist is 39% smaller than that of anorexic patients (Dittmar, 2007). On the other hand, boys are targeted with toy action figures, who are extremely muscular.
- Western influence: A lot of countries have started idealizing being thin because of the west. India had earlier regarded heavy women as beautiful and healthy but western influence has been successful in propagating the thin idealization. They try to represent and show the world famous fashion models who are seen unrealistically thin.
Can I learn to love my body?
One activity was found to be particularly helpful — the ‘Appearance facts or fiction exercise’. Here, the participants reviewed whether 6 statements were generally regarded as fact or fiction. Five of the statements reflected dominant beauty myths, (e.g., ‘Most models and actresses have a healthy weight’, ‘Attractive people are happier than less attractive people’), and one focused on the media (‘Looking at photos of models in fashion magazines can lead to feeling bad about oneself.). They are then made to challenge each beauty myth and asked to rework their original answers. For instance, the myth about attractive people being happier than less attractive people will be challenged by presenting statistics showing that attractive people also have their share of hardships.
In terms of actionable steps that can be individually helpful, cognitive restructuring is one of the most effective ways to solve body image concerns. In this method, psychologists encourage participants to counter their attitudes by speaking against the thin ideal of beauty. This causes dissonance to the participants as they are acting opposite to their beliefs by speaking against their internalized thin ideal of beauty. For instance, a person who thinks they are on the heavier side, look into the mirror and say ‘I still love the way my body looks.’
Another strategy is to write a letter to a girl who is struggling with her body image to persuade the girl not to pursue the thin-ideal. So the arguments you give to the struggling girl will oppose your aspiration for the thin-ideal and help you move towards body positivity.
Another activity is role-played to resist pressure to pursue the thin ideal. The facilitator acts like a severe dieter and participants make attempts to reduce her excessive dieting behaviour. For instance, the participants would give arguments like you must respect your body and nourish it or it’s important to have a healthy relationship with food.
“I am healthy in my mind and I am healthy in my body”
Often women fall prey to self-objectification where they internalise the notion of the society, that her body is a sexual object and that her appearance is more important than her internal traits. For example, a boss who praises his female employee more for her looks than the work she does. This makes a woman internalise the idea that she is more valued for her beauty than her functionality. Thus, making women aware of their body functionality is one of the important approaches to positive body image. Research shows that making women realise the functions of their body like running, playing an instrument, body language makes them focus on their body more and focus less on appearance.
Apart from these individual interventions, a macro-level intervention strategy is required which involves work at multiple levels like policy making, education, design and architecture, media surveillance. Issues like body image, notions of beauty, effects of body image issues on mental health etc. should be included in the school curriculum. They can be taught under the topic of sex education. Further, there should be serious surveillance on the functioning of marriage portals. Women are described as a commodity in matrimonial columns of newspapers and websites, for example, ‘…looking for a fair, slim, tall, beautiful, homely girl…’.
Ultimately, there is a need to gender sensitise our policy framework. We need to analyse and make policies through a gendered lens because there can’t be any neutral lens and if there is one then that is from a male perspective. It has taken a lot of years for me to come into terms with my body and I’m still under process as the internalization is very deep. Nobody should be made to feel ugly about their body. We are all beautiful in our way!
REFERENCES
1. Alleva, J. M., Martijn, C., Jansen, A., & Nederkoorn, C. (2014). Body language: Affecting body satisfaction by describing the body in functionality terms. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 38, 181–196.
2. Casanova.E(2004). “No Ugly Women”: Concepts of Race and Beauty among Adolescent Women in Ecuador. Gender and Society, Vol. 18, pp. 287–308.
3. Dittmar.H(2007). The Costs of Consumer Culture and the “Cage Within”: The Impact of the Material “Good Life” and “Body Perfect” Ideals on Individuals’ Identity and Well-Being. Psychological Inquiry, Vol. 18, pp. 23–31.
4. Halliwell, E. and Diedrichs, P. C. (2014) Brief report: Testing a dissonance body image intervention among young girls. Health Psychology,33 (2). pp. 201–204.
7. Pope, H. G., Gruber, A., Magweth B., Bureau, B., deCol, C.,Jovent, R., & Hudson, J. I. (2000). Body image perception among men in three countries. American Journal of Psychiatry, 157, 1297–1301.
8. Grogan, S. (2008). Body image: Understanding body dissatisfaction in men, women and children (2nd ed.). Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.