Introduction

This lesson lets students take a good look at pressures to conform to standards of beauty – particularly current pressures to be thin – and the related prejudice against being "over" weight. Through class discussion and activities, students begin to recognize how the media pressures us to achieve a certain look and how media images may lead to prejudice against those who don't conform to their standards of attractiveness.

Background

It is important for students to realize that over time, different societies have had diverse notions about beauty. Prior to the 20th century, Europeans and North Americans admired larger women because they seemed stronger and healthier. Being larger, smaller, taller, shorter, darker, lighter, older or younger has been admired in various societies, for reasons particular to that culture.

Today, we live in a society where thinness is among the more admired traits, where most of us want to be thin (including 80 per cent of 11 year olds) and where fat and fat people are often stigmatized. It has been noted by some that obesity is one of the last socially condoned prejudices in North American culture. In fact, by the age of six, most children have already learned to regard the obese as ugly, lazy, stupid, unworthy, etc.

Pictures portraying images of beauty in other cultures and in other historical periods are useful in demonstrating how ideals are socially constructed. For example, pictures of Victorian women can be used to demonstrate the popularity of the curved figure, achieved through wearing a corset. Pictures of Chinese foot binding can also be used to show how small feet, a sign of beauty in Imperial China, were achieved.

Pressures to Be Thin

A study of women who were Playboy centrefolds and Miss America pageant contestants has shown their body weights and shapes progressively diminished between 1959 and 1979. Over these same twenty years, however, there has been an increase in the average weight for women in the general population, particularly those in young adulthood. Thus, there is a growing disparity between the ideal and reality. One good way of demonstrating this is by collecting and discussing images of women in fashion magazines.

Women respond to pressures to be thin by dieting. A 1978 Nielson survey reported that 56 per cent of females aged 24 to 54 dieted periodically, 76 per cent of whom dieted for appearance, rather than health reasons. The Canadian Weight Gallop Poll conducted in 1984 showed only 17 per cent of women in Canada "eat what they want." More than 80 per cent of women dislike their bodies, and dieting is becoming a concern of women of all ages, from nine year-olds to the very old.

This is not surprising, given that women are constantly told to diet and are made to feel guilty for eating. A survey of women's magazines during the period from 1970 to 1978 found the number of diet articles had doubled from the previous decade. And it's important to note that health is not the primary goal of diet and exercise in our culture: beauty is, health only legitimates it.

Men are not immune to these messages. The result of years of being bombarded by images of buff young men with "six pack" stomachs in magazines, film, music videos and television is a generation of teenage boys who are flocking to gyms in record numbers in an attempt to achieve that "ideal look." Body image disturbance is the term used to describe the condition where young boys and men go to any lengths, from over exercising to abusing steroids, in order to reach their goal of a perfect body.

Advertisers, movies and television programs use deeper societal pressures to be thin to sell their products. Having thin, attractive women and men model expensive products and play glamorous characters works to link thinness with wealth, success and happiness. Hip, muscular, young men and thin, scantily clad women in music videos link attractiveness and sexuality with being cool. Using fat women or men to demonstrate "before" pictures in diet ads and to play poor or unhealthy characters reinforces the myth that fat people are poor, unsuccessful, lazy, unhappy and unhealthy.

Ironically, at the same time marketers are spreading the gospel of thinness, they have been identified by health practitioners as a significant contributor to what has been termed an "epidemic" in childhood obesity, through their relentless promotion of junk food, soft drinks and fast food. Children need to become aware of these conflicting messages in order to use their own judgement in determining what a healthy body looks like, and to feel more comfortable with their own self image.

Adapted with permission from, Teacher's Resource Kit: A Teacher's Lesson Plan Kit for the Prevention of Eating Disorders. National Eating Disorder Information Centre, © 1989.