Saturday, October 24, 2009
How thin do men want women to be?
Societal Myth--all men want all women to be extremely thin in order to be considered attractive. Yes, even though women's and men's magazines would lead you to believe this, the research data, and my own experience professionally and personally bears the research out to be true. A famous study looked at what shape and weight women are, what there own ideal weight and shape was, what they thought men wanted, and what men said was their ideal for a woman's shape and weight. As expected, women wanted a much lower weight that what they actually were. They THOUGHT that men wanted a shape and weight close to the women's own self-ideal. What men ACTUALLY said was attractive was a weight and shape that is the same as the average women actually is. So, in reality, men are not the source of the thinness pressure on women. Women put more pressure on themselves than men put on them. This is not to blame women for their thinness obsession. There are clear societal pressures on them to embrace the thinness ideal. More on that later . . .
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It seems that so much is open for interpretation. What is considered extremely thin? How is it being defined? Do most man share the same viewpoint of what an average-sized woman is? What I am finding very disturbing these days is the bombardment of advertisements for cosmetic surgery targeting the population who I would perceive to be a little at the higher end of average but still average...those with a bit of a softness to them but not obese, the size 12-14's, those with just a little bit of a "problem" area, the muffin tops. I'm seeing the advertisements on billboards, in magazines, on tv, etc. The vast population is now a target for "improvement." None of us are perfect, and we need to embrace our own uniqueness and self, including the differences in each other. I feel that this is not only a self-esteem issue, but that it also has potential to fuel intolerance of others who are less than what is perceived to be perfect.
ReplyDeleteHi Dr. Mizes this is Christy Graening....No I did not die. I even gained some weight back but.... back to anorexic hell I guess. I don't know if you can generalize about what men see as ideal size. I would hope personality would play a larger role than looks. My brother has always had a woman of "size" he says he would not have a thin woman. In fact I know several men who do not go after the thin. well just my two cents...Christy
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