What Is Shilling's Ideal Body Image?

Ge et al. (2001) mentions that the ideal body image varies across different ethnicities and Becker et al. (2004) discuss how thinness is the main goal across different cultures. However problems can occur if that ideal body type is not achieved by individuals therefore in this case, Shilling’s (2012) idea of body project becomes an important aspect. I will focus on body image within adolescents as this is a vital age for physical transformation (Ge et al. 2001) and how this can positively or negatively affect their sense of self. Granberg et al. (2009) discusses how African American girls can compare their body to African American women and receive positive results because they are - in general - larger in size and have a range of body types

Therefore being part of an ethnic background such as African American that does not expose the typical slender figure creates a positive relation with how adolescents view their body. This describes the way ethnicity plays an important role for people’s sense of self – in this case, adolescents – because girls are happier with the appearance of their body. In the other hand, Boyd et al. (2011) study suggests how the ethnicity influences the way adolescent girls may feel about their own body. The study focuses on body projects in order to achieve the desired body and maintain their current body through ‘exercise, diet, take diet pills, or vomit’ (Boyd et al. 2011: p 668). The article also mentions that the ideals and the norms of an ethnic group can be influential to girls’ body image. This links to sense of self because as she becomes exposed to what the attractive weight is based on her ethnic background, an importance is placed upon this ideal weight and becomes part of her identity which may create a feeling of sense of belonging as she is conforming to her culture’s

Although religious background varies depending on cultures as some may not be as religious, this aspect can still affect a person’s ‘identity development and evolution over time’ (Oppong, 2013: p 12). Oppong (2013) describes religion as ‘a process of reconnecting by worship a missing or broken intimacy between God and worshipers’ (p 11). A person who is religious does well for others and will act according to his beliefs. Stavrova et al. (2013) discusses why religion in different ethnicities has positive impact on the individuals. The results are that if a good amount of people from an ethnic background are religious and their religion is part of their culture then they are more likely to be satisfied. This is because they feel a sense of belonging and feel accepted by their society as their religion is part of the social norm. This has a positive impact on people’s sense of self as this shows how people are at peace with their selves and will likely have good mental and physical health as it states on the article that individuals are more likely to take care of themselves. It also states the reason why some religious individual may likely be healthy and that is because they do not follow social norms such as drinking. As a result, religion in different ethnicity has a positive impact on a person’s sense of self because, like the previous paragraph, it