On The Culture of Thinness

I recently had some thoughts on obsession of skinny in this culture...and why our society values very thin as the physical ideal when it hasn't always been this way. I am thinking this really had a lot to do with our country moving more into a consumerist nation over several time periods. Excess is accessible to many people...even poor people in the U.S. aren't on the same level as the economically dispossessed in developing nations. We have so much...in many different ways...food/nutrition, multimedia stimulation and so forth. It's easy for someone to become overweight and excessively so. No longer is this a physical stature common to only the wealthy and well-to-do classes like it was back when zaftig and rubenesque bodies were admired and adored.

Having a full or plump form was associated with living well, having rich drinks and beverages, and having excess overall which wasn't accessible to the rest of peasant society who suffered from nutrition deficiencies and the like. A collective social mind developed and many subliminal connotations were born creating a culture of desires, ideals and standards that reflected the environment and the economy. As our society became more industrialized and technologically advanced, no longer was the average American a peasant or dispossessed from accessing excess in some way or another...even if they were poor. Poor families are still "over-nutritioned". They aren't starving the way children are starving in developing countries and we don't even get the types of diseases that starving children in developing countries get...quite often. The poor in the U.S. tend to eat more poorly more than anything else.

Anyway, a body that is fat is considered unfit and common. It is without a guidance of control and structure. Anyone can get fat and there are many relatively new illnesses at epidemic levels associated with obesity. In the past, these culture-specific epidemics weren't there (and they aren't in developing countries today), which further shows and validates a change in the infrastructure and culture of our nation. As a result, again the collective social mind has developed a culture of desires, ideals and standards which reflect these changes. A thin, lean and taut body is one of those pervasive ideals that have come out of this changing collective social mindset...

I would even argue, that although eating disorders aren't truly about being very thin/weight and they are manifested through the mask of body image dissatisfaction and never before (until now) have we seen eating disorders at such an epidemic level, the mask that eating disorders take on is a symptom of wanting to gain control through an ill method of survival in this excessive and over-stimulated nation. The metaphorical desire is to be as thin as possible. It's truly a dark theatrical entity which gives validation to what I am theorizing about here. We don't see these problems in developing countries.

We can advertise about diets all day every day, but the common body ideal won't change until our economy shifts and changes. I don't see this happening unless the U.S., Canada and other first nation countries go into a deep, abysmal, economic depression for a long period of time, thus making excess truly inaccessible to the vast majority in a profound way...the way it is in developing countries. The very thin, lean taut body ideal will remain for quite a long time. It's also very telling how weight loss surgery is becoming so common. I even remember the popularity of people getting their mouths wired shut, back in the 80s and early 90s, so they could only drink liquids in order to lose weight and control their eating. We have certainly gone to extremes and normalized them...and continue to do so.

Metaphorically, power now is about having control over one's body in a world of excess and this translates into being very thin. It's interesting because with so much excess all around, one would think we'd embrace what's inevitable by living in it, which is an overweight body...a complete symptom of our cultural realm...but that's what essentially makes the desire for control so much of a pathological focus and drive in this country

I also remember reading an article about men who suffered from anorexia or didn't eat much and how this influenced the kind of body they tend to be attracted to in their partners. If I am not mistaken, I think it was a Psychology Today article. It was mentioned that these men found full-figured women more attractive because they represented enrichment in lifestyle and physique that they lacked or aspired to have themselves. A fuller body wasn't just about looks to these men psychologically, when it came to arousal, but it was associated with comfort, pleasure, sensuality and satisfaction. Some also were said to equate fuller bodies with more sexual expression because the women ate more, which was reflected in their body builds, and were seen as able to enjoy life on a large scale by not restricting and withholding as most women do because they have an obsession with being thin.

That's quite intriguing. There's a lot to think about when looking at men (or women) who consider themselves FAs or Fat Admirers in a culture that highly resists and scoffs at such preferential or at least inclusive attraction. What's in this rebellion or difference of mind, amid the majority ideals, regardless of whether it is more nature or nurture?

The article was an interesting read; I wish I could find that article online somewhere. I read it a few years ago. It made me ponder more on this theory of the etiology of body ideals and standards in a given society or culture.

I'll be writing an article on ideas for establishing a healthy mind and lifestyle in the near future. I have a list of articles that I am working on.