Proud mother! This is what Florencia Saslavsky wrote today: As I keep pursuing my new major in Sociology, its been really incredible how Ive become more conscious about the world around me. I find myself having lingering thoughts about the things that are discussed in class, and how I have been so oblivious to the very world and society I live in. Im sure Ive bore some of you (James) with extensive conversations about this new insight Ive gained but I think some of it is crucial to share. I was especially drawn to the close connection between capitalism and body image. Ive come to realize that the construction of body image that girls, in particular, are supposed to follow is so undeniably tied to the economy. Thin wasnt always the standard of beauty, in fact throughout history, a voluptuous woman was desired over the size we consider beautiful and acceptable today.This was because when countries had less money, being bigger showed prestige and had an association with wealth. The new obsession with being skinny only happened within the last 40-50 years. This was due to countries becoming wealthier and choosing to be healthy and fit as a lifestyle choice became associated with the wealth necessary to afford the thing to achieve that image of perfection. The societal norm then was to accept the image of thin person over a larger person and caused for accepted discrimination of bigger people, to the point that they are expected to either fix the problem or to hide from the rest of society (Taken from the documentary liked below.) It should be no shock therefore, that young girls who are born into this consumer generation where corporations rule, the perception of beauty as being thin is ingrained into them as young children. From barbies, to skinny princesses, girls are shown that if they do not look just like that, they are not beautiful. This probably contributes to the levels of anorexia, depression and anxiety increasing. Not only that, but they also are encouraged to judge and discriminate those who do not look like that. The judgemental attitudes that this issue creates doesnt allow room for compassion or empathy for those who dont choose to be large, be it for medical, personal or any array reasons. By no means am I encouraging obesity and unhealthy habits, but these unrealistic expectations which benefit the economy are rather damaging to people and our society. It just stuns me how unaware we are to the correlation between the economy and our values and how it truly impacts our day to day lives. From marketing to beauty, to the things we choose to worship, the economy seems to be able to shift our values and morals to make us more profitable to corporations. Check out the video and article below, they are rather interesting https://youtube/watch?v=VIm4AQ1_5g8
Posted on: Sat, 04 Oct 2014 22:05:47 +0000
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