Women today consider themselves fat regardless of their weight, and the dieting craze in pursuit of a slimmer body is fueled by social, historical, and economic factors.
Today, women often consider themselves fat, regardless of their weight. Young and old alike want to be thin, and this desire leads to dieting crazes. The diet craze can be a mirror of our society, as the body is related to our various desires and self-expression.
Body preoccupation is nothing new. According to a sociological report, in the United States, thin women were popular in the 1930s and voluptuous women like Marilyn Monroe in the 1950s. In the 1930s, when the Great Depression was hitting the economy hard, there was a need for working women, so thin women who looked agile became a symbol of attractiveness. However, in the 1950s, when economic conditions began to improve, people wanted women to raise happy families, so they favored images of actresses with voluptuous curves.
This historical context plays an important role in understanding body perception in modern society. The obsession with thinness is not just a matter of appearance; it is deeply connected to social and economic changes. For example, since the 1980s, the instability of the global economy, coupled with increased competition in the labor market, has led to slimness becoming a symbol of competence and self-care. As a result, dieting has become more than just an aesthetic standard, but a matter that is directly related to social success.
In a consumer society, the body naturally becomes the center of self-expression. With the development of industry and material abundance, humans have been able to fulfill their needs through various consumption and have come to believe that they express themselves through consumption. Nowadays, consumption tends to be controlled and manipulated by mass media, and people try to express themselves by imitating the images they see in video media. In this sense, self-expression through consumption is defined by the gaze of others, and it is difficult to see it as an active process of self-image creation. In the end, the act of shaping one’s own image through consumption only increases the value of one’s own goods.
The preference for thin women is closely related to this. Not all types of dieting were practiced for the same reasons as today. In the Middle Ages, dieting was a form of discipline to control the soul in religious lifestyles, and in the 18th century, it was a way for people in certain groups to control the amount and type of food they ate. In contrast, today’s dieting is mostly done to achieve a slimmer body and increase one’s commodity value. False perceptions of appearance have fueled this dieting craze, which is increasingly amplified and reproduced through mass media.
The interest in the body as a means of self-expression is dominated by the logic of capitalism’s commoditization, which marginalizes the body. Body image as a commodity and appearance-oriented values spread through mass media reinforce the obsession with attractive bodies and push people to join the ranks of dieting to achieve a slimmer body. This homogenized body image created by mass media leaves us with no body, only a body image. As a result, modern society’s obsession with the body can be understood as a reflection of social and economic pressures rather than an authentic expression of the self.
In this context, the pursuit of a healthy body image needs to be recognized as a process of restoring a positive attitude towards oneself and self-esteem, rather than just a matter of appearance. This suggests the need for a balanced approach that takes into account both an individual’s mental and physical health. When the purpose of dieting is no longer limited to external beauty, but becomes a way to achieve holistic health, we will be able to have a proper perception of our bodies.
