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The SAGE Encyclopedia of Abnormal
and Clinical Psychology
Social Standards of Beauty, Body Image
and Eating Disorders
Contributors: Antonios Dakanalis
Edited by: Amy Wenzel
Book Title: The SAGE Encyclopedia of Abnormal and Clinical Psychology
Chapter Title: "Social Standards of Beauty, Body Image and Eating Disorders"
Pub. Date: 2017
Access Date: April 20, 2017
Publishing Company: SAGE Publications, Inc.
City: Thousand Oaks,
Print ISBN: 9781483365831
Online ISBN: 9781483365817
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483365817.n1289
Print pages: 3246-3248
©2017 SAGE Publications, Inc.. All Rights Reserved.
This PDF has been generated from SAGE Knowledge. Please note that the pagination of
the online version will vary from the pagination of the print book.
Western cultures are blamed for placing extreme value on physical appearance, particularly
on body shape and weight. Research has long documented the powerful role that
sociocultural influences have on the development and persistence of a negative body image.
This negative evaluation of and discontent about one’s body has been consistently linked with
a range of body change–related behaviors, such as dieting, purging, overexercising, and
ingesting muscle-building substances and anabolic-androgenic steroids, which are behind
the development of several mental health disorders, including anorexia nervosa and muscle
dysmorphia (or reverse anorexia). The term sociocultural indicates environmental factors that
include the contextual experiences people encounter on a daily basis. These have a
meaningful impact on how individuals evaluate themselves physically (body image) and
modify their thoughts regarding acceptance of the prevailing social norms of physical beauty
and appearance (internalization of social standards). These factors can also motivate changes
in behaviors designed to produce a physical body more acceptable and closer to the idealized
physique. The contemporary body change–related consequences of a negative body image
are perhaps best understood by considering the underlying role played by the body shape
ideal to which one aspires. Focusing on the idealized physique also contributes to a better
understanding of the different methods that women and men adopt to reach their
appearance-related goals. This entry discusses body image, sociocultural ideals for men and
women, and the role of self-surveillance in realizing the discrepancy between one’s current
body and ideal body.
Sociocultural Ideals and Their Effects
Sociocultural conceptualizations of body image and eating-related disturbances state that the
existing social ideals of beauty in a particular culture are transmitted via a variety of
sociocultural channels. The media is the most powerful and pervasive transmitter of these
ideals.
Female Ideal
A casual examination of any female fashion magazine reveals a preponderance of extremely
thin women. It has been estimated that the average female fashion model in contemporary
magazines has a body mass index of 16, well below the normal healthy range of 18.5 to 24.9.
In addition, digital modification techniques are commonly used to further remove inches from
hips, thighs, and waists. The current societal standards for female beauty thus inordinately
emphasize the desirability of thinness, at a level that is impossible for most women to achieve
by healthy means. Concerned with the size of the female body ideal, psychologists have
researched its existence and effects. It was found that the female social beauty ideal has
become increasingly thin over time. For instance, analyses of Playboy centerfold models and
Miss America winners over the latter half of the 20th century documented a significant
decrease in body size from the 1950s to the 1990s, by which time the majority had weights
that were more than 15% below the expected weight for their height. This trend has been
confirmed by numerous formal content analyses of visual media including television, film,
video games, and fashion magazines. The female levels of thinness have not abated but
continued as the ideal into the first decade of the 21st century, but with greater focus on
having at least a medium bust size, in addition to being extremely slim.
Despite the media’s female thin ideal being impossible for most women to achieve by healthy
means, many nevertheless internalize it. Sociocultural conceptualizations of body image and
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eating-related disturbances state that the thin ideal is adopted and incorporated by some
women as the reference point against which to judge themselves. Satisfaction or
dissatisfaction with the physical appearance then is a function of the extent to which they do
or do not match up to an unrealistic ideal. In turn, body dissatisfaction encourages a range of
body change–related attitudes and behaviors, such as dieting, high-level exercise, and other
maladaptive weight loss practices, such as self-induced vomiting, fasting, and laxative abuse,
that are behind the development of eating disorders.
Male Ideal
A parallel process operates for men, but the male ideal physique promoted is different from
that of women. Like the female ideal body, the male social beauty ideal has undergone
change over time. This trend is exemplified by examining the changing male portrayals in
action figures (e.g., G. I. Joe), which have become more muscular over time. The muscularity
of Mr. America contestants and Playgirl centerfold models has also increased over time. The
ideal body for men emphasizes a V shape, structured by broad shoulders tapering to a thin
waist with well-defined abdominal muscles, equivalent to the unattainable female thin ideal
perpetuated by Barbie dolls. As with women, increased pressure for men to fit the social ideal
of beauty manifested in the media directs them to internalize the mesomorphic (i.e., muscular,
with low body fat) body type as ideal and experience muscularity and body fat dissatisfaction
if their body does not match that ideal. Research in men consistently identified muscularity
and body fat as the two primary body image concerns behind the development of anorexia
nervosa (characterised by the fear of being fat) and muscle dysmorphia (characterised by the
fear of loss of muscularity). These represent opposing pathological extremes along a
dimensional spectrum of body image disturbances, with both disorders reportedly including
abnormal eating patterns and exercise-related practices. For example, large surveys found
that 90% of men would like to become more muscular, and approximately half disclosed that
they need to reduce their body fat, not to become thinner but to highlight their muscularity as
body fat can hide muscle mass. Body fat and muscularity concerns are interconnected and
have been consistently linked to the adoption of maladaptive body change behaviors such as
rigid, unbalanced dietary regimens, for example, a diet very high in protein and low in fat;
overexercising; and the use of fat-burning, muscle-building supplements, performance-
enhancing substances, and anabolic-androgenic steroids.
Westernization of Beauty Ideals
In some Western societies, such as the United States and Italy, the prevailing focus on
thinness has been present for roughly the past 50 years, with a more current focus on the
mesomorphic ideal for men in the past 20 years. In non-Westernized societies, such ideals
may be virtually nonexistent, but in countries with more exposure to Western culture (as
highlighted in Anne Becker’s studies of the effect of Western media on Fijian body image
ideals), the prevailing notions of physical beauty and attractiveness are in a state of flux.
However, the existence of the female (thin) and male (mesomorphic) ideals in Westernized
societies does not by definition mean that there will be negative psychological consequences
for people who do not meet these ideals. According to sociocultural conceptualizations of
body image and eating-related disturbances, individuals who have internalized the social ideal
of beauty would be at risk of developing a negative body image when the internalized ideal is
not actualized.
Self-Surveillance
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Rigorous longitudinal research has highlighted that many women and men realize that there
is a discrepancy between what they see and what they feel they ought to look like via self-
surveillance. This is the habitual body monitoring and thinking of one’s body in terms of how it
looks. The findings revealed that individuals of both genders who have internalized the
gendered social ideal of beauty are compelled to engage in regular body monitoring as a way
of assessing their standing in relation to that ideal. They realize that there is a discrepancy
between their current and ideal bodies via this self-surveillance and, as a result, experience
discontent with and negative feelings like anxiety and shame about their body. This, in turn,
leads to the subsequent adoption of body change–related behaviors. These findings suggest
that empirically supported cognitive dissonance prevention programs targeting internalization
by inducing cognitive dissonance with respect to pressures to meet gendered beauty ideals
might be even more effective if they also targeted self-surveillance. Indeed, there is evidence
that the addition of self-surveillance as a target variable in cognitive dissonance programs
improved body image and reduced the occurrence of unhealthy body change–related
behaviors better than traditional cognitive dissonance programs.
See alsoAnorexia Nervosa as a Culture-Bound Syndrome; Body Image, Culture and; Body
Image, Effects of Mass Media on; Body Image, Gender and; Cognitive Dissonance; Eating
Disorders: Cultural Factors; Eating Disorders: Risk for
Antonios Dakanalis
http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483365817.n1289
10.4135/9781483365817.n1289
Further Readings
Ata, R. N., Schaefer, L. M., & Thompson, J. K. (2015). Sociocultural theories of eating
disorders. In M. P. Levine & L. Smolak (Eds.), The Wiley handbook of eating disorders (pp.
269–281). Chichester, England: Wiley.
Dakanalis, A., Carrà, G., Calogero, R., Fida, R., Clerici, M., Zanetti, M. A., & Riva, G. (2015).
The developmental effects of media-ideal internalization and self-objectification processes on
adolescents’ negative body-feelings, dietary restraint, and binge eating. European Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry, 24, 997–1010.doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00787-014-0649-1
Dakanalis, A., & Riva, G. (2013). Current considerations for eating and body-related disorders
among men. In L. B. Sams & J. A. Keels (Eds.), Body image: Gender differences,
sociocultural influences and health implications (pp. 195–215). New York, NY: Nova Science.
Hausenblas, H. A., Campbell, A., Menzel, J. E., Doughty, J., Levine, M., & Thompson, J. K.
(2013). Media effects of experimental presentation of the ideal physique on eating disorder
symptoms: A meta-analysis of laboratory studies. Clinical Psychology Review, 33,
168–181.doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2012.10.011
Levine, M. P., & Smolak, L. (2010). Cultural influences on body image and the eating
disorders. In W. S. Agras (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of eating disorders (pp. 223–246). New
York, NY: Oxford University Press.
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Contact SAGE Publications at http://www.sagepub.com.
The SAGE Encyclopedia of Abnormal and Clinical Psychology
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