Nancy N. Chen: The inaccurate link between body ideals and health | TED

50,611 views ・ 2021-11-12

TED


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Transcriber: Leslie Gauthier Reviewer:
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Hello and welcome.
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As visual beings,
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we rely on images to perceive the world
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and make meaning.
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Imagine I ask you to draw a human body.
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How would you depict this body?
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Body ideals reflect social meanings
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about how we dwell in spaces both physical and cultural.
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We often interpret bodies with categories of gender,
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race,
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ethnicity,
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class
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and belonging --
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or not --
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through modifications such as hair,
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skin,
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clothing.
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As a medical anthropologist,
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I study cultural concepts about bodies
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and how these shape both being in the world and health.
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Curvy bodies have been around for millennia.
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The limestone figurine,
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known as the Venus of Willendorf,
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is considered to reflect two values that were ranked high in the past:
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reproduction and abundance.
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Fertility figures with voluptuous curves suggest
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that body ideals for females have focused on full-figured, curvy bodies,
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especially in agrarian societies.
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Low waist-to-hip ratios,
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or hourglass figures,
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have long been considered to be more attractive,
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from an evolutionary perspective,
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in terms of the ability for childbearing.
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Then something changed.
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In the past century,
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body ideals shifted significantly
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when Western societies increasingly featured thin-bodied female models
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in mainstream media.
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The Western body ideal in the 1960s was Marilyn Monroe.
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By the 1970s, magazines featured Twiggy.
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That’s a huge shift,
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and such body ideals continued shrinking.
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Throughout the 1980s and 90s,
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the gap between the average size of regular women
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and the size of models continue to grow.
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This gap between actual and ideal can impact self-image.
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Over the past three decades,
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thinness has come to be associated with dominant portrayals of prestige,
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in addition to well-being.
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The systemic proliferation of thin body ideals circulates on a global scale.
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Body dysmorphia,
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and often accompanying eating disorders,
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can be found around the world.
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Thinness has become a matter of achievement through diet regimes,
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food avoidances,
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exercise --
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even surgery.
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In 1998, the category of orthorexia,
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the obsessive focus on healthy eating,
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was coined as a new category of eating disorder.
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During this pandemic,
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social media followed the journeys of celebrities documenting weight loss
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and other transformations.
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Idealized body types aren’t just about thinness anymore.
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New forms of thin --
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lean, muscular bodies --
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have come to be pursued across gender,
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age,
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income
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and locations with accompanying bias against fat.
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It's important to note, however,
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that not all societies and cultures fully embrace thin bodies as ideals.
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Curves remain significant for many cultures and ethnic groups even today,
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including Black, Indigenous and Latinx communities.
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Moreover, standards of beauty differ
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and are not solely based on external features.
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An earlier study of body ideals in rural Jamaica found
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that bodies there are reflections of one’s social relations.
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Whether by shared fluids or food,
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plump bodies in this rural context are considered to be desirable,
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healthy
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and loveable
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in this measure of well-being.
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Thin bodies there were interpreted to be antisocial
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or neglected without social capital or relations to feed or care for them.
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Similar positive views about ample or thick bodies
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have been found in ethnographic studies across Africa,
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the Pacific Islands
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and the U.S.
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With increased globalization and market reach,
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body ideals change over time,
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even in rural and remote areas.
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Weight stigma,
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or fat phobia and bias,
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are increasingly found not only in the Global North,
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but also the Global South.
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With increasing obesity around the world,
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public health campaigns to address overweight and obesity may backfire
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by reinforcing weight stigma.
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How is it possible to move beyond these body ideals
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that may be harmful for esteem or self-care?
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The problem is that no matter the preference for thick or thin,
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these universally imposed body ideals miss a key point.
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There are many different kinds of body shapes, weight and looks.
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Yet the conflation of appearance with health often facilitates
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unhealthy shaming of oneself or others
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based on outdated ideals.
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The good news is that body diversity is being recognized
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as a critical component and reflection of social diversity, equity and inclusion.
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In calling out standard media portrayals,
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which feature size-two models
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while the average American woman may be a size 16,
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body diverse activists,
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along with earlier queer and Black activists,
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have pointed out the harm of body-shaming
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and they advocate instead for retraining social lenses on systemic ideals.
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With increasing body positive advocacy,
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there’s been a shift in national and global ad campaigns
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that feature more diversity of bodies,
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skin color,
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hairstyles
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and even age.
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Another way to enhance body diversity entails expanding
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where we look for diverse bodies.
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For instance,
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sports events are major stages where bodies are on display
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Rather than uniformly thin or lean,
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different proportions, sizes and abilities can be seen
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in the bodies of Olympians,
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Paralympians
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and other athletes.
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Beyond athletes,
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ad campaigns for clothing or cosmetics
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may also feature a range of ordinary consumers
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to represent their brand as accessible and inclusive.
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These approaches are helpful correctives
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to address the divergence between ideals and actual lived bodies in everyday life.
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These are important directions addressing narrow body ideals
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by expanding diversity and inclusion of bodies
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that become the focus of media,
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social media
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and advertising.
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Nonetheless, these images keep our views,
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often subjective,
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on outer body features
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as opposed to objectively thinking about health.
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If we are concerned about health and well-being,
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then we need to go beyond body standards or ideals.
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We need to consider how healthy bodies are based on what’s going on inside,
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rather than focusing on externalities.
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Medical anthropology,
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the history of medicine and comparative knowledge,
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offers insights on how to examine bodies in different ways.
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All the classical systems of medicine --
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Ayurveda,
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Chinese,
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Greco-Islamic,
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as well as Indigenous healing knowledge,
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understood bodies through one’s life force
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and the energy in connection to natural and social environment.
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Energetic qualities of bodies such as dosha,
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chi
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or vital essences such as blood,
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are much more significant than external features.
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The outside body was a reflection of one’s interior
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to understand what was happening inside for health and balance.
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Well-being meant being able to harmonize one’s body
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in relation to dynamic relations between vital substances,
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human organs
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and one’s environment
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to live as long as possible.
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The immune system and microbiome are contemporary examples.
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They help to understand human bodies in relation to entities such as bacteria,
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microbes or pathogens.
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These offer key opportunities to reframe body ideals
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that engage vitality from within,
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such as metabolic health,
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rather than focus solely on externalities or ideal representations.
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We are in dire need of healthy bodies, societies and environments.
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We come in all shapes and features that are desirable and beautiful.
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By caring for healthy bodies,
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placing more value on internal vitality,
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which takes into account living in relation to our environment
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and each other,
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we might be able to experience better health
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and collective well-being in this century.
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We can begin to heal by looking within ourselves.
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We can thrive by seeing vitality together.
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Thank you.
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