What Makes A Healthy Weight For Women?

It is no secret that women often change their bodies in order to meet the societal expectations that are portrayed in the media. The patriarchy and the male gaze dictate the ideal female which is depicted on television, in movies, and in magazines. Woman most often alter their weight in order to match the small slim physique of models. Weight is one of the main aspects of the female body that the patriarchy controls. Woman are taught by society that their natural body is not beautiful and that they must conform to the societal standard of a thin, size 0 woman in order to accommodate the male gaze. The patriarchy dictates this of a woman in order to maintain male dominance in society. However, these expectations have a negative effect on

Everyone wants to be accepted for who they are and it doesn’t matter if they’re thick, fat, thin, or skinny. Susie Orbach discusses her thoughts of being“fat” in her article“Fat Is a Feminist Issue”. She wants to persuade people and females in general that being overweight is not necessarily a troubling issue. She’s not supporting being unhealthy, but she’s also not supporting society’s opinion on how every woman should be thin. Orbach lets her readers know that society will trick a person's mindset into thinking that being skinnier or having a less amount of fat is better than having a curvier shape.

In society, women relate to friends, models and actresses which are actually people who are in the industry portraying the ‘ideal body.’ Women think too much about what others think of them instead of just caring about themselves. They also choose to take the unhealthy approach and gain all these bad habits to obtain the ‘ultimate’ body image of this ‘ideal woman’ society has created.

In the article “Never Just Pictures,” Susan Bordo acknowledges how the cultural perception of body image of both men and women has been increasing in viciousness exponentially. The societal views of the models in advertisements, on television or in magazines, have proven themselves to be “fabulously” horrific throughout the last few decades. However, an incredible amount of commercial funding, euphemistic language, dietary support groups and other lifestyle changes are merely thought up, created and shipped out door-to-door to virtually all people who cannot simply stand being a kind soul towards others who are apparently suffering, in the medias (blind) eyes. This terrifying phenomenon is especially shocking since there have been articles

However, we live in a society where women are being exposed by the media. Typical stereotypes suggest that woman are suppose to be beautiful, skinny, and have flawless bodies. Carl’s

Thesis: The media puts pressure on women of all ages to conform to their standards of what looks best, and this pressure results in women having a negative body image.

In movies, one always sees the thin women living great lives and looking happy. In contrast, there are the not so thin women who seem to struggle and be unhappy. This has shaped the moral of women today. Women are beginning to feel ashamed and discouraged of their bodies if they do not look like the next Victoria Secret model. According to society, thinness is associated with being happy. So if one wants to be happy and accepted by society, they must be no larger than a size four, and that might be pushing it, this is the world we are beginning to live in. The pressure is not just on women, but men too. For men, their ideal body is a little different compared to women. To be viewed as having a perfect body for a male, they need to be extremely muscular with ripped abs and defined muscles. “… a man takes off his shirt and you see a low percentage of body fat, rippling biceps, and 6-pack abs. That’s the

The “ideal body” has been constructed by a male-dominated culture and is not only supported but also strengthened by multibillion-dollar industries. Beauty ideals additionally encourage competitiveness and jealousy between women. The patriarchal and social conditioning women experience daily consequently contribute to low self esteem which is many times manifested by the deflection of one’s own insecurities and negative feelings about oneself onto others. Women particularly in the United States have been taught at an early age to hate fatness and have in turn internalized the perfect body as being thin with the dominating negative demeanor towards the overweight population best described as sociocultural phenomenon. This is shown by artwork as recent as the Renaissance period, where one can see that the female body was portrayed in a number of different ways through numerous paintings and sculptures, many including a more chunky and voluptuous figure. A figure that at different times and in different places was considered beautiful by popular opinion, a foreign concept to many people now. American’s are inherentley taught to loathe fatness with the “ideal body” type only further limiting and objectifying women through lowering self-esteem and self-worth. It is critical to fight widespread and detrimental negative body

Ones body is a physical aspect that sets each individual apart from another.Body image is how one perceives their body visually, body image is determined by how one thinks and talks about their body along with how they feel others view their bodies. Body image is large part of society “74.4% of normal weight women stated that they thought about their weight or appearance “all the time” or “frequently.” Sociocultural standards of feminine beauty are presented in almost all forms of popular media, barraging women with images that portray what is considered to be the "ideal body." Such standards of beauty are almost completely unattainable for most women; a majority of the models displayed on television and in advertisements are well below what is considered healthy body weight.

“To be happy and successful, you must be thin,” is a message women are given at a very young age (Society and Eating Disorders). In fact, eating disorders are still continuously growing because of the value society places on being thin. There are many influences in society that pressures females to strive for the “ideal” figure. According to Sheldon’s research on, “Pressure to be Perfect: Influences on College Students’ Body Esteem,” the ideal figure of an average female portrayed in the media is 5’11” and 120 pounds. In reality, the average American woman weighs 140 pounds at 5’4”. The societal pressures come from television shows, diet commercials, social media, peers, magazines and models. However, most females do not take into account of the beauty photo-shop and airbrushing. This ongoing issue is to always be a concern because of the increase in eating disorders.

Everyday women suffer more and more from body issues which result from the media amplifying standards of beauty which are unrealistic and having both men and women enforce these impossible standards. Even though it is easy to think that these standards are the media's fault Derenne & Beresin explain that this trend is not new “Throughout history, the dominant political climate and cultural ideas always have shaped the public's perception of the ideal female body” Beresin and Derenne pg 57. This quotation supports the fact that the problems of body expectation goes way back and that this is not a new problem, it is just an evolution of a monster. An example of how the cultural and political ideas change is “ Society valued competent, strong

Women have let the idea of looking beautiful take over their self-confidence and life. Healthy Place, an online magazine teaching women about living a healthy life, says that, “today's fashion models weigh twenty-three percent less than the average female, and a young woman between the ages of 18-34 has a seven percent chance of being as slim as a catwalk model and a one percent chance of being as thin as a supermodel.” So why do women push themselves to be excessively thin when these models are anomalies? They do it because the media tells them that this look is the only look that can attract men. Even if a woman is “beautiful” according to the media’s standards, she will always find something about her body that she hates, whether it is her hair or her belly button, no women is completely satisfied. Our society is very accepting of different religions and lifestyles, so why can we not accept different types of beauty as well?

Beauty myths about the “perfect figure” and “perfect woman” are all partially to blame for today’s heinous beauty standards. There has been differing views on the way people perceive physical attractiveness. In the article “Real Women on Real Beauty”, the author, Kimberly Bissell, talks about how, “societal standards for beauty require an almost impossible standard for thinness, and women are left with psychological dispositions that lead them to engage in dangerous eating and exercise behavior” (Bissell

In our lives we have developed a certain concept of what is generally accepted as beauty or the “perfect” weight. This can affect our culture in several different ways. Seeing all the magazines that glorify perfect skinny and fit men and women does not help the overall acceptance of heavy people and or people not as good looking. Sometimes the standard even in those magazines is impossible to achieve without digital editing which leaves people unsatisfied with their “figure”. This can be detrimental to people’s attitudes and ego.

In today’s society we let the media decide everything in our lives from what clothes we should wear, music we should listen to, and how we should look. One of the biggest problems that both men and women face is body shaming, because the media sets standards for young kids and young adults., they often times try and fit the description of “perfect” which leads these people to either be depressed because they do not look like people want them to look or harm themselves in order to achieve the desired look. The most common ways the media shames both men and women are by celebrities and how they are the “perfect” body, publishing magazines of what is the ideal man and woman, and by the people who believe being “too” fat is bad and being “too” skinny is bad.