Combating the Cult of Thinness
Combating the Cult of Thinness
Why would a frightening percent of American women gladly trade five years off their lives for 10 pounds off their bodies -- or prefer to be perceived as thin rather than as kind or intelligent? In our society, the thin message is relentless, and is rapidly spreading among women of all ages. The American standard of physical perfection promotes both eating disorders and an obsession with thinness among women, and consequences of this obsession can often be tragic. Women need to devise a way to empower themselves against a society obsessed with beauty and thinness. In order to combat the Cult of Thinness, society must remove the emphasis placed on the ideal figure.
It is no wonder that American women are obsessed with thinness. From a very young age, it is emphasized to women how important it is to be pretty-- and to be pretty by society’s standards means being thin. This message is blatantly seen everywhere. Women’s magazines, with their glossy pages of cosmetic advertisements and beauty advice columns, hold up an especially devious mirror. These magazines that claim to offer help to women, in fact do them an injustice by presenting a standard nearly impossible to attain. Computer-enhanced photography employs techniques such as airbrushing blemishes and slenderizing the bodies of models. This adds to the creation of an ideal model, that women strive to mimic.
Many women believe that in order to lose weight, they need to buy something, whether it be a pill, a food plan, or membership in a self-help group. As a result, an entire industry has been created for the American dieter. There are currently more than 17,000 different diet plans, products, and programs from which to choose (Hesse-Biber 39). The diet plans, typically geared toward the female market, often promise fast and permanent weight reduction. Jenny Craig has annual revenues of over $400 million, due to the fact that as a culture, we associate beauty and thinness with the good, and ugliness and obesity with the bad.
The greatest dissatisfaction with body weight and shape is seen among female college students. Recently, colleges and universities across the country are reporting dramatic increases in eating disorders among their students. There are several reasons why the college environment may be a breeding ground for weight obsession and eating disorders. Women who live in close quarters such...