Eating+Disorders

=A Global View of Beauty=

"Each culture has a set of general beliefs about what constitutes beauty and femininity" (Frith, 2005).Know that each culture defines beauty in different ways. "While porcelain skin has historically been valued in Japan, scarification is a beauty process in parts of Africa" (Frith, 2005).



=**__THE PRICE OF BEAUTY__**= Jessica Simpson has been travelling the world to see how beauty ideals differ across the globe. Simpson travelled to Thailand where women were trying to lighten their skin to appear "beautiful" and to Uganda where new brides gain massive amounts of weight to look "beautiful" for their new husbands (Clark, 2010). Although this show may not be grounded in any scholarly subject, it effectively shows the varying beauty standards throughout the globe.

media type="youtube" key="zzb7ZwkM1Qc" height="405" width="500" align="center" =**__ARE ALL ETHNICITIES AFFECTED THE SAME?__**= The US, a "tossed salad" (or "melting pot", depending on your views) of many different cultures has varying definitions of beauty as well. Due to these variations, certain cultures are affected differently by the same US magazines. Let's take a look at the study conducted by Heather Henrickson of Kent State University. Henrickson begins by defining the socio-cultural theory, an important theory to know when discussing beauty ideals across the US. This theory basically blames body dissatisfaction on the social and cultural pressures, associated with Western culture, to be thin (Henrickson, 2006). The question Henrickson raises is whether this emphasis on thinness equally affects women of different races. She looks at women from four different ethnic groups: African-American, Asian, Caucasian, and Hispanic. Here are some of her results:


 * Caucasians strongly believe that weight is controllable, compared to Hispanics who tend to express less concern about weight
 * African Americans are more satisfied with skin color than other groups
 * African Americans and Hispanics are more satisfied with hair thickness than other groups
 * African Americans have higher self-rated attractiveness than Hispanics, while Hispanics have higher self-rated attractiveness than both Caucasians and Asians
 * Hispanic girls report higher body confidence than Asians, while Asian girls report higher body confidence than Caucasians
 * Caucasians have the highest rates of internalization* of the thin ideal (Henrickson, 2006).


 * Internalization is the basis of body dissatisfaction. If one can ignore the media and judge their beauty on their own standards, than they are not affected by the socio-cultural theory. It is when social/cultural beauty ideals are internalized that issues arise. "Although the messages involving thinness are pervasive, it is the internalization of this thinness ideal that determines body and eating-related disturbances. Internalization occurs when a person has the awareness of the thinness ideal and accepts standards of appearance that they then try to emulate by engaging in certain behaviors. Specifically for body image, theorists have proposed that internalization drives body dissatisfaction because of the difficulty for most women to approximate the ideal in reality" (Henrickson, 2005, p. 17). To what extent these different cultures internalized the thin ideal depended on certain characteristics amongst their culture.

A similar study was conducted by Pompper and Koenig in 2004. They focused primarily on Caucasians and Hispanics, but their results yielded very similar results.

=__**WHAT THIS MEANS**__= Americans, regardless of ethnicity, are all affected by the media's influence on body image. Clearly, white Americans are the most body conscious of the group. Hispanic and African-American women tend to reject the "thin ideal" the most and embrace their curvy bodies. Research suggests that the reason these women are more accepting of their larger bodies is because they are typically heavier set than Japanese Americans and Caucasians. Perhaps a culture's natural body frame can be a predictor of what the individual cultures will view as "beautiful".

= = =Content=

1. Magazines and Body Image (Home) 2. How magazines affect men 3. Worldview: how cultural beauty ideals differ

=Sources=

Clark, C. (2010, March 13). Jessica simpson's journey reveals 'the price of beauty'. //USA Today//, Frith, K. (2005). How Advertisements in Global Women's Magazines in China use Stereotypes. //Conference Papers -- International Communication Association//, 1-22. Retrieved from Communication & Mass Media Complete database.

Goodman, J. (2002). FLABLESS IS FABULOUS: HOW LATINA AND ANGLO WOMEN READ AND INCORPORATE THE EXCESSIVELY THIN BODY IDEAL INTO EVERYDAY EXPERIENCE. //Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly//, //79//(3), 712-727. Retrieved from Communication & Mass Media Complete database.

**Henrickson, H. (2006). //Understanding body experiences and the relationships among ethnic identity, acculturation, and internalization of the thinness ideal among hispanic and latina women//. Informally published manuscript, Department of Philosophy, Kent State University, Kent, OH. Retrieved from []** Pompper, D., & Koenig, J. (2004). CROSS-CULTURAL-GENERATIONAL PERCEPTIONS OF IDEAL BODY IMAGE: HISPANIC WOMEN AND MAGAZINE STANDARDS. //Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly//, //81//(1), 89-107. Retrieved from Communication & Mass Media Complete database. **