Spending half an hour in a clothing store fitting room can be a revealing experience: “Not the white pants, I look fat,” “look at my thighs, they're huge,” “is my belly sticking out?” “Size 28 doesn't fit, I'm officially fat.” What you hear in there is worthy of sociological studies (and it has been) in recent times. What are the effects of negative public self-criticism regarding body image and what we eat?
We are exposed daily to a myriad of messages warning us about the problems and possible consequences of obesity. However, the discourse focused on fighting obesity, which dominates the spotlight, overlooks other issues stemming from the glorification of thinness, which are no less harmful to people’s emotional and physical well-being.
In 1994, after observing how teenage girls talked among themselves about their bodies, researchers coined the English term fat talk to describe all those discourses that devalue, negatively criticize, and ridicule body image or eating habits, associating them with being “fat.” In many cultures, instead of empowering women to see beyond body image, they are taught to “hide small imperfections,” “hold in your stomach,” “stand up straight.” Body image is a way of presenting oneself to the world and, in a way, is part of one’s capital. Recent studies have shown that fat talk, although mainly used by women, also occurs among men. There are discourses in which men proclaim some kind of “guilt” for eating foods considered “fattening.” Whether this guilt is genuine or not, the point is that this discourse serves as a way to “look good” in the eyes of others. Put another way: Eating this high-calorie food doesn’t mean I don’t know it makes me gain weight, but mentioning it makes me feel less “fat” than the “ignorant” fat people. And today, in some social contexts, being obese is almost equivalent to being Black in the southern United States in the 1950s.
Thus, it seems that conversations about “fatness” even serve as a socialization tool. The problem is that these kinds of conversations, far from helping, have very negative effects on people. Different studies have found that repeated exposure to these conversations and comments increases dissatisfaction with one’s own body, lowers self-esteem, generates anxiety, and can even trigger isolated episodes of unhealthy eating behaviors, such as fasting followed by binge eating or unhealthy restrictive diets. All these factors cause a degradation of self-image and even a distortion in the perception of one’s own body. Other studies have found that even if a person does not take a stance for or against these discourses, simply being exposed to them can affect how they perceive and accept their own image.
It is very common to complain that the imposed model of thinness is unrealistic, and it is a cliché to blame the media, fashion, and television for promoting bodies based on a standard that is not attainable for everyone. Although we cannot directly control what is published, promoted, or enshrined as an ideal of perfection and beauty, we can start by controlling how we talk about our own bodies, others’ bodies, and what we eat.
Originally published in El Economista
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— This article was originally published in Spanish by Liliana Martínez Lomelí. Translation generated with AI from the original text.