CULTURE AND FEMALE BODY

Effect of Representation and Visual Culture on Female Body

Abstract

Body image can be described as a combination of a person's perceptions, feelings and thoughts about his/her body and their general physical appearance. Self-perceptions are important to examine because they can have implications for a person's psychological and physical health. Past research has shown that culture plays a significant role in forming appearance ideals and that these vary for women of different cultures. A significant proportion of women of different ethnicities are dissatisfied with their bodies and many are dieting to lose weight. The similarities between the groups indicated that the effect of non-Western cultures that previously promoted larger, more realistic body ideals is now diminishing. Thinner body ideals are now being reinforced for all women regardless of culture and ethnicity, thereby increasing the vulnerability towards developing a negative body image. The purpose of this study is to discuss the impact of culture and ethnicity on the body dissatisfaction in Women.

Table of Content

Abstractii

Introduction1

Factors Affecting Body Image Concern1

Environmental and cultural factors2

Socio-economic status3

Media influence4

Theories related to the effect of the media5

Socio-cultural Theory5

The cultural body ideal6

The importance of appearance for societal success7

The effect of media on the individual's perception of the ideal body image7

Social Comparison Theory8

Theories of body image dissatisfaction10

Personal control belief and body dissatisfaction10

Self-discrepancy Theory10

Objectification Theory11

Feminist Theory12

Cognitive-Behavioral Model13

Conclusion13

References15

Effect of Representation and Visual Culture on Female Body

Introduction

Body image is a construct that has applications in several areas of psychology and medicine, including patients with neurological disorders leading to inaccurate perceptions of personal appearance, patients with noticeable physical deformities, individuals with pathological misperceptions about certain aspects of their appearance, as well as in eating disorder patients (Fulkerson, McGuire, Neumark Sztainer, Story, French and Perry 2002). In fact, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) requires the presence of body image disturbance for the diagnosis of both Anorexia Nervosa (AN), marked by food refusal due to fear of weight gain, and Bulimia Nervosa (BN), in which patients binge and purge in order to prevent weight gain (Fulkerson, McGuire, Neumark Sztainer, Story, French and Perry 2002).

Body image can be described as a combination of a person's perceptions, feelings and thoughts about his/her body and their general physical appearance (Ogden 2010). It is usually conceptualized as an individual's body size estimation, evaluation of body attractiveness and emotions associated with their body shape and size (Ogden 2010).

Factors Affecting Body Image Concern

Body image concern is thought to be influenced by a large number of factors including age, gender, family environment and the media. Halliwell and Harvey (2006) have devised a categorization of these factors into four key areas: biological, psychological, interpersonal and environmental and cultural factors (Figure 1). The following section uses this categorization to describe the evidence from the literature concerning these influences on body image (Halliwell and Harvey 2006).

Figure 1: The model of factors affecting body image concern, adapted from Taylor et al.

Environmental and cultural factors

Environmental and cultural factors are those relating to the external influences affecting body image, ...