Thin Is In…What’s Up With That?

Hello Friends!

I hope this newsletter finds you well.  Today as I draft this newsletter it is a very grey and rainy day here in Ohio.  It’s a good thing, too, I needed to get inside and get this newsletter written!  Knowing the warmer days are disappearing, we have been cramming as much outside work in as we can.  And I love any excuse to get out of housework!

Oh-quick update!  I survived working the polls on election day!  It was an amazing voter turnout, we were busy all day.  It was actually kind of fun.  People were very kind and friendly.  No one really knew anything about anybody else’s political views.  I saw parents bringing their young children with them to learn, eager first time voters…and of course those who vote every single election.  The experience gave me a sense of how much more united we are than some would have us believe.  It makes me feel hopeful.

In this issue, I’d like to talk a bit about the “thin ideal” body in our culture.  The “ideal” form that we see in fashion, media, even in healthcare, varies so widely from what so many of us look like in the general population!  Yes, we do see more inclusion of plus-sized models and actors/actresses these days-but the diet and weight loss industry is still booming, thanks in part to the promotion of the idea that thin is better, more attractive, healthier.

The history of body image ideals is super interesting, (I think) and I wanted to share it with you.  I hope it gives you pause to think about what you believe is the “ideal” body weight, shape or type.  Can you identify where that ideal came from or what influences you to perceive it as such?  Great food for thought. (is that a good pun?)

Having grown up and been indoctrinated (in my nursing and wellness coaching training) to a weight centric social and health culture, I have had (and full disclosure still do to some degree) an aversion to fatness (including/especially my own).  I believed “everybody feels the same way”, that this was natural.  I assumed we are drawn to the form most favorable to our species survival (aka thinness).

In Fat Politics(I am still reading it! here’s the link) J. Eric Oliver relates the chronology of how views of the body and what was “good” or “bad” in terms of size…it really isn’t about health, prowess but much more. What really draws us to favor any cultural norm is how it translates power and influence, and how they influence economic status and social position.  In many areas outside of the industrialized Western world, fatness and large bodies are seen as symbols of success and power.

Going back as far as the Ice Age, body fat was an incredibly important and valued resource.  The body was the safest place to store energy reserves that were crucial to survive the brutal conditions of cold temps and scarcity of food.

Body fat has historically carried economic and political significance as a marker of wealth and social dominance.  Figures like the Venus of Willendorf, believed to represent a favorable female form (representative of fertility and/or prosperity) go back 25 thousand years!    Words describing fatness, large bodies or weight gain also have meanings like wealthy (fa fu in Chinese or mota in Indian).   In some cultures a word like “overweight” made as much sense as a word like “over-rich” or “over-beautiful”.  (isn’t that an interesting perspective)

Art has historically reflected the value of fatness.  Depictions of fatness conveyed plenty, health, political dominance, physical prowess, an economic abundance.

Religion (especially the Medieval Catholic church) supported the notion that fatness was a result of sin, like gluttony and greed and would lead to more sins of the flesh.  (fatness on its’ own was not condemned as “the problem” but was a symbol of sinful nature).

Anti-gluttony, anti-overeating messaging was not just for spiritual or physical (health) benefit-this messaging was actually often political, subversive ideology.  This messaging was a way for early church leaders to keep in check the wealthy ruling class (who had the means to over-consume).

The French revolutionaries held to a slender ideal, contrasting the excess of the aristocrats (like Marie Antoinette) they wished to overthrow.

American progressives hailed leanness as antithetical to greedy, gluttonist, industrial capitalists.

With the Industrial Revolution, the food supply became greatly expanded.  It also changed how people worked and how they ate.  This brought about changes in the value of fatness and thinness as symbols of class status (or lack thereof).

Industrialization created the middle class, many of whom were White Anglo Saxon Protestants.  They were obsessed with bodily cleanliness, order, control, and self-discipline.  They also had a strong and deep fear of sensual pleasures (like eating)  This austerity was in direct opposition to the indulgence of the Catholic aristocracy(during Protestant Reformation).  Thinness became a sign of self-control and discipline-which were much prized.  Suppression of sensual pleasures like enjoying food, eating, and other things like alcohol, drugs, pornography and more).  This helped to provide a more disciplined and productive work force.  It also helped the new middle class justify the inequality of wealth and prosperity (If you aren’t prospering it is your own fault because you are not disciplined enough)  Illness, fatness, poverty, were seen as due to a moral defect (not an unjust distribution of wealth or opportunity).

As the middle class continued to expand, thinness became a marker of social status. (this was the late 18th/19th centuries)  Instead of family pedigree, physical cues began to relay one’s social standing.  Speech, manners, clothing and body size (a thin body) indicated greater social standing-or at least the moral capacity to deserve to be there.

In the late 19th century, image driven mass media was able to target the middle class, and women in particular, to market all sorts of things (which were now able to be mass manufactured and shipped due to the industrial revolution).  By the 1920’s the thin “flapper” body ideal was deeply entrenched.

The mass production of clothing was another big influence.  Before mail order and department stores could market this type of clothing, everyone wore “custom clothing” made my a seamstress (or their mom, I guess).  Mass produced clothing standardized body sizes.

Another interesting note-before the invention of the “penny scale” which could be easily put in drug stores/shops-people did not have any means to weigh themselves.  In the 1950’s Louis Dublin, a statistician for Metropolitan Life, developed the height/weight scales that he used to promote the notion that thinness prolonged life (note: the people he studies were mostly wealthy and white). His ideas were by the pharmaceutical industry too, who began to market weight loss drugs (like amphetamines!)

Prior to this time, medical professionals did not advocate weight loss for health.  Especially as people aged, weight gain was seen as normal and weight loss was not recognized as health promoting.

In the 1960’s lifestyle became more sedentary-body softness and fatness was no longer “precious” or rare.  Now muscular thinness was harder to come by and became more desirable.  If you were firm and muscular, it showed that you had the resources to achieve it (you could afford gym membership, trainer, time to exercise, safe place to do so etc…)  Now, this body type was a symbol of virtue and affluence.

In the later 20th century, the fashion industry became very youth oriented, to capitalize on the growing teenage consumer market (those baby boomers).  As it was promoted in fashion and art-youthfulness became prized in the culture.

In the late 1960’s fashions began exposing more flesh (bikinis, short shorts, halter tops)…which led to women being more preoccupied with their bodies than the clothes they put on them.  Popular magazines, entertainment, and media all promoted various means to shape the body to a young thin ideal.

Through the 70’s and the 80’s the ideal female form became more and more adolescent.  This is still perpetuated today (I think more models look like young boys than mature women).

I hope this summary sheds some light on influences that have helped shape the ideal that “thin is in”, that it is preferable, better, more virtuous, and desirable.  It is not a narrative of health or survival of the species.  This thin ideal has more been shaped by anxieties about economic advantage, social status and (perceived) moral superiority.  The intensity of this ideal has been enflamed by our changing way of life and business, but most so by the diet, weight loss and pharmaceutical industries.

This thin ideal is just one representation of diet culture, which is ubiquitous and implicit in our world.  So much so it is hard to see and call out.  It feels a little uncomfortable, even still.  I’d love to hear what you think about it!  Reply to the newsletter or share here on my FB page.

Mindset Matters Most-A Challenge!

I have a challenge for you-let’s call it a “hunt”!  I challenge you to hunt for examples of how the “thin ideal” is promoted.

• what size are media personnel that you see?
• what do cover models look like on popular magazines?
• do you notice health care practitioners treating people differently because of their weight
• how are large bodied people portrayed in tv shows, movies
• how many commercials or advertisements do you see for diet/weight loss products
• do you see “health promotions” that equate health with thinness or weight loss?
• do you hear any “everybody knows” type messaging about weight, diet, fatness?

Do you notice a LOT of this kind of thing?  Do you agree with the messaging?  I encourage you to have an open mind and try to remember

• weight is influence by many many things, not JUST what you eat
• long term weight loss may not be possible
• weight cycling (lose, gain, lose etc…) is worse for your health than a stable (higher) weight.

Coaches Corner-Goal Setting Tip

Goal setting can be really help you build confidence in your ability to undertake and sustain desired changes…but when we set goals and don’t meet them it can be disheartening.  A helpful prompt I include on my goal setting work sheet is the “Bare Bones Minimum”.  Sometimes, it happens, life gets in the way, sometimes we underestimate the time, effort or energy a goal might require.  Setting the “BBM” helps shift you from “Ugh, I said I would do X but I didn’t get it done!” to “I didn’t achieve X as well as I hoped, BUT (and this but is a big mindset hack) I did consistently do x(BBM), so going forward I am not back at square one!  That is still progress.

This also give you an opportunity to restructure your supports (resources, scheduling, reminders, tools etc…) to help you achieve your goals.

On the other end of things, I also like to encourage someone to set a “Stellar Success” goal level.  Say you set a goal to walk 30 mins 3 days a week for the next 2 weeks.  Your “Stellar Success” goal could be that you walk for 45 minutes, or that you walk 5 days instead of three.  This allows you to recognize and celebrate being able to and actually going “above and beyond” your goal.  It can also help you recognize when you are ready to advance your goal.

Here’s the goal setting tool below.

goal setting pdf