Annie Husted

Hungry for The Perfect Body

In a consumer-capitalist world, we live by the idiom “bigger is better”; however, when it comes to the mentality wrapped around women’s bodies, this is not the case. The book Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters, by Courtney E. Martin and the chapter “Getting Your Body Back” in Shari L. Dworkin and Faye Linda Wach’s book Body Panic, explore the societal pressures that eat away at women’s psyche, as well as the outlets for which that body criticism has propagated. Both pieces of writing dive into the physical and emotional tolls that women are doing to their bodies, and the beauty ideals that drive women to do such damaging things to their bodies. 

Both the “Introduction” and “Past Dedication Is Disease: Athletic Obsession” chapters hone in on the destructive psychology that young girls are being introduced to when viewing their bodies, and specifically, their weight. The Introduction chapter focuses on the epidemic of eating disorders and the proliferation in cases of United States high school-age girls. The chapter notes that “In 1995, 34 percent...” of girls “thought they were overweight. Today, 90 percent do” (Martin 1). Ultimately, the current generation of young girls are, quite literally, are consumed by what they consume. In a survey, “two-thirds [of girls] surveyed would rather be mean or stupid” than be fat--thus, girls would rather have ugly internal traits, than to be perceived as ugly (1). The chapter also addresses how, when interviewed on their opinions of the body mentality that absorbs the young girls of our nation, many women simply believe that “That’s womenhood. Women have always obsessed. They always will” (2). Martin discusses how, in her upbringing, she was taught to cherish the power and beautiful resilience that women were blessed with. Yet, through the scrutinizing pressures girls face today, the image of a woman is no longer defined by her internal strengths, but by the outward appearance of the body that holds them. Young girls and women everywhere feel stressed out by the choices they make in picking which foods to eat, and are overwhelmed with the guilt that follows certain choices. As girls look at fashion magazines and are enticed by the “effortless perfection” that celebrities are painted with in the media, it’s no wonder girls and women are constantly trying to figure out ways to emulate women who are so praised for their beauty. Eating disorders--disorders in which individuals obsess over their food consumption, and, in-turn binge, purge, or starve themselves--are the ramifications of such damaging thought processes.  Eating disorders were conjured by the pressure to have the socially acceptable body, and have turned into a full blown, psychological battle for many individuals. Martin discusses the average time a girl thinks about her body image and/or food consumption on any given day, going through minute-by-minute thought processes. She notes that “about a hundred minutes a day--” are spent by women “scrutinizing instead of loving their bodies” (8). As I read this minute-by-minute train of thought, I couldn’t help but sink into my seat. As a young woman in living in this body image-contorted society, I can say that I am more than guilty of this obsessive mind set. On a given day, I contemplate foods that I should eat, and typically do not eat what I am really craving for fear of the dreaded “food guilt,” as well as figuring out how I will later compensate for an especially large or small meal. In my (sadly) honest opinion, I can’t imagine only eating food that I wanted, because the idea of “letting myself go” physically is too mentally exhausting, and would cause me an added layer of self-consciousness. I think that many people view eating disorders as truly selfish mindsets. However, I graduated in a high school class where I can count on my hands the amount of girls who suffered from eating disorders, and I view these disorders as the sad outcomes of such high societal pressures.To think that, on average, women lose “over three years” of their lives thinking about body image and consumption, is extremely sad, and unfortunately, believable. 

In the other chapter in Martin’s book called “Past Dedication is Disease: Athletic Obsession,” Martin explores how eating disorders can be the corollary to other influences. This chapter focuses on the bodily pressures girls feel through their participation in sports teams. Girls spent copious hours putting their bodies through physical hell in hopes of winning a game or making their coaches, teammates, and family members proud. Martin uses several anecdotes to display how the thirst for perfection on the sports fields can translate into bodily obsession. Martin talks about her experience with a past teammate, Wendy, and her spiral into an unhealthy, and likely eating disorder tainted, lifestyle. She also talks about another girl, Kim, who became overwhelmed by feelings of not being wanted by boys at college, and soon, too, became diagnosed and hospitalized with an eating disorder. Many athletes feels the body image reprimands because the nature of being an athlete is constantly being in the public eye and having the spotlight on your every move. This spotlight, in-turn, creates a hunger for perfection, winning, and doing whatever it takes to cast yourself in an appealing light for others too see. Martin talks about how there are aspects of games that do not even concentrate on the actual act of playing, saying there were “Layers to our performance that had nothing to do with our actual athletic performance. Before the game, we combed and recombed our hair into perfect ponytails; fretted over pimples, makeup, and dirty shoes; asked one another for help braiding our hair” (Martin 225-226). Although I am not on a sports team, I do understand this mentality for looking a certain way as a ballet dancer. As a dancer, I know that before every class, I devote a certain amount of time to making myself look nice for class, because I feel that I will somehow be motivated to work harder in class if, when looking in the mirror, I like the way I look. My dance teacher also does serve as a coach, and I know that the scrutiny that I receive during class motivates me to work much harder as well. This being said, I also understand how the yearning for perfectionism can be dangerous to one’s health. In my experience as a dancer, I have seen many girls and professional dancers, similar to the athletes described in the chapter, who have fallen into the ugly trap of eating disorders. I think it is interesting how Martin notes the medias influence on the athlete ideal as well--how many elite athletes around the world “have posed naked or nearly naked in Sports Illustrated, Maxim, Playboy, and their own pinup calendars” (226). In exploiting professional women athlete’s bodies in this way, it alludes to aspiring athletes who admire these women that if their bodies look like those in the magazines, that they will somehow be one step closer to the athletic pinnacle that so many professionals have reached.  

Lastly, the chapter from Body Panic titled “Getting Your Body Back,” discusses the craze both pregnant women and new mothers face in their own body panic. Our consumer culture thrives on the aspect that “‘nobody’ escapes bodily objectification,” and this idea is very relevant regarding pregnancy. Pregnant women obviously undergo a plethora of body changes during the duration of their pregnancy. The most noticeable change being the weight gain. In a society that deems “flesh or fat on the body...” to be “framed as a signifier of excessiveness and being out of control...” pregnant women feel a new layer of stress to their rapidly changing lives by the need to get rid of their new body fat (107). Pregnant women in today’s society strive to be considered a “hot mama,” and to achieve this means adding a whole new aspect to their lifestyles. The “media imagery and texts define pregnant women’s bodies as particularly unruly and in need of fitness discipline” (Bordo 1993, Dworkins and Wachs 108). For many women, however, pregnancy can also serve as a viable excuse to not have to succumb to the body panic so many women face. Yet as soon as the baby is delivered, women are encouraged (especially through media outlets, such as the magazine Shape Fit Pregnancy) to quickly jump back on the bandwagon and get their old bodies back. The chapter explores how heterosexually married women face three shifts: “not only to sustain a first shift (paid labor) and a second shift (childcare and household responsibilities), but also to carry out a ‘third shift’--fitness regimens that allow for adherence to the latest bodily requirements” (Dworkin and Messner 1999, Dworkin 2001, 110) Thus, society is telling mothers that they must raise their baby, do household chores, and exercise. The chapter talks about the different articles that were featured in Shape Fit Pregnancy, promoting turning daily household tasks into workouts, and even turning your newborn into a “baby barbell.” Personally, I can understand why women would want to get their bodies back into the shape they were in before their pregnancy, but I do think that all the hype to immediately start the rigorous exercise routines should be socially acceptable to post-pone so that the new mothers can enjoy their newborns. I think that promoting fitness during the pregnancy to help ease the labor seems like a beneficial idea, but I think that adding a layer of stress to the already stressful transition to motherhood would not make the lifestyle adjustment any easier.