f any mishaps in the future. Your body would help you in your old age if you help it in the young. Take care of it right now and it will take care of you for the rest of your life.
Even the history provides evidence of the preference of a healthy body over a seemingly ideal yet thin one. The beginning of the 1920’s highlighted the era of the flappers which contradicted the more full figured women. The women preferred to be flat chested but this trend did not last long for obvious reasons. The trend that followed however became a huge success. This trend highlighted the full figure of women empowering them to avoid any unhealthy eating of starving practices to keep themselves fashionable. To analyze all of this with respect to the aspect of body image, we need to observe the changing trends over the last two centuries. From busty to thin, busty again later on to be replaced by thin again, the 20th century has seen it all. These trends were not just related to fashion and the glamorous lifestyles of people following them. The macro-economic factors had each and every role in their partaking. For instance, in the late 1920’s, after the trend of flappers faded off, the full figured woman was considered to be the talk of the town. The great depression had its after effects on each and every field of the country. Health was on the top of the damage list. People were skinny and weak because of the lack of nutrition and good food. In such times, a full figured woman carrying a full bust was considered to be a fashionable sign. This figure represented the idea that a woman had enough to maintain a healthy lifestyle thereby not being included in the category of the poor.
The US has been plagued with obesity and there is absolutely no denying the fact that this country has by far the greatest number of obese people as compared to the other countries of the world. This is considered to be a widespread reason for people not being able to achieve a healthy body with a healthy mind. The overweight trend has made it difficult for people to achieve the status of a healthy body now, thus making it even more unattainable. Not only is it extremely difficult for them to shed the weight, they cannot find themselves concentrated and strong willed enough to achieve their dream figure. Not that I believe that a thin figure is what we should all work for, I do think that obesity is the cause of many other diseases thereby making it a necessity to get rid of. Same goes for the case of starving oneself to achieve an “ideal” figure. I perfectly agree with the guest speaker when she says that the “thin idea internalization” is the reason why we lose too much weight. It is the person inside us which tells us that our success and beauty is connected with how thin we are. Not only do we listen to this person and put our bodies through a tormented ordeal, we justify ourselves in a later stage. It is like harming oneself and then trying to drag in logic to prove it. Barbara Cohen puts these words very elegantly in her book “The Psychology of Ideal body image as an oppressive force in the lives of women”. She is of the view that society says that women have to be beautiful to be worthy. In doing so, the society sets such unattainable standards that are very hard to achieve. In spite of standing up against such standards, the women tend to sacrifice their health to go a long way to achieve the unachievable.
The media has played a crucial role in spreading the image of the “ideal” body among the youth. The survey in the presentation clearly showed that the age group of 8-18 spends about 8 hours of media time daily.
