Body Image Analysis

Society demands a perfect image. In certain societies, people must have the perfect body image. Men and women will do anything to fit this certain body image. Individuals believe they can not have a trace of body fat on their body. In Judith Lorber’s article, “Believing is Seeing: Biology as Ideology,” she explains the influence society has on individuals body images. In Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber’s article, “The Spread of the Cult of Thinness: Preteen Girls, Adolescents, Straight Men, Gays, Lesbians, and Ethnic Women,” she explains the extremes people go to achieve the high standards set by the society in Lorber’s article. With such high standards set by society, men and women will have the urge to join the Cult of Thinness. Society demands

People in distinct societies, ethnic groups, and race have roughly the same size bodies. In Lorber’s article she says, “People of the same racial ethnic group and social class are roughly the same size-but there are many varieties of bodies” (Lorber 731). Society members can act as if they live in the norm because the people around them have usually the same size body. People in the same social class have an effect on each other. This can change a person negatively or positively. In Hesse-Biber’s article she shows, “They are barraged with messages from beauty magazines and TV, and from classmates and parents and doctors, about the value of thinness and the liability of obesity. Many of them, by virtue of being female, white, and middle class, are already primed to join the cult of thinness” (Hesse-Biber 769). Doctors, classmates, media, and family members have an everyday impact on the people around them. These people influence a person’s body image and weight. The media especially negatively influences white middle class females. These white females join the cult of thinness more than any other ethnic group. The media influences the women to have skinny bodies, the doctors encourage healthy bodies, and classmates make fun of the larger bodies. These white, middle class, females grow up with a disadvantage compared to other social classes. The media where these women live have a negative impact on

Many people argue that physical differences do not exist between a man and a woman. A very big difference does in fact occur, women have wombs and menstruate. “When scientist began to question the divine basis of social order and replaced with faith with empirical knowledge, what they saw was that women were very different from men in that they had wombs and menstruated. Such anatomical differences destined them for an entirely different social life from men” (Lorber 727). Society says that this difference means nothing until women and men categorize themselves into the two categories. The menstruation cycle shows a sign of maturing in a women’s life. Many women dread this cycle in their lives. “Some researchers suggest that young girls’ problems with weight, body image, and eating are linked to puberty onset, which brings a 20-30% increase in body fat. Though it is critical to to maturity and reproduction many young teengaers regard this normal increase with horror” (Hesse-Biber 770). Most women will began their menstruation cycle at some point in their lives. Hitting puberty and starting a menstruation cycle shows a sign of growing up. Many young girls dread the time they will start their period, for it represents a sign of growing up. Among starting puberty, young girls or teenagers usually increase by 20-30% in body fat. In order to reproduce and mature this needs to happen