Bodyimageinasianwomen

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The Struggle to Achieve the Ideal Body Image in Asia

Body Image. is defined as "a person's feelings of the aesthetics or sexual attractiveness of their own body, which may be forced onto them by others or social media". A person's’ body image is thought to a product of their personal experience, personality named various social and cultural forces. A person’s sense of their own physical appearance, usually in relation with other or in relation to some cultural ideas can shape their body image. In this case, a person's’ perception of their appearance can be different from others actually perceive them. Study shows that positive body image is relate to better life outcome, such as happiness level and life satisfaction. However negative body image is related to destructive behaviour such as eating disorder.

The ideal body type is similar in Asian and Western culture, and consists generally of a slim physique. Marketing campaigns throughout the cosmetic's and clothing industries have played a massive role to promote the idea of slim body in their advertisement. These industries have employed various techniques to create unrealistic beauty ideals. One technique commonly used is photoshop. Photographers will use photoshop to modify the features of the model, oftentimes making them slimmer, clearing their complexion, or erasing any visible flaws. Photoshop enables you to change anything in the photo and yet keep the realism. This often results in a flawless picture of a model, and sets unrealistic expectations for viewers.

In Western culture there are broader qualifications to achieve a desirable body than in Asia. A body that is proportional, healthy looking and fit is what Western culture considers a good body. Despite the fact that body image is a big issue in the West, Asia takes it to another level. In Asia, women are surrounded by parents, friends, and co-workers who constantly judge their weight. Women are pressured to fit a specific mould regardless of whether they have obtained a healthy weight or not. The ideal in Asia is to have big eyes, narrow cheekbones, a pointy nose, big breasts, a skinny waist, and a butt. This mould is universal in Asia that is different than in Western societies, however these beauty standards only appeared in the recent decade. The reinforcement of these ideals is promoted through globalization- the process of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas and other aspects of culture. Simply, it means the information and ideas are effectively transported through the internet, so people can have access to any current and new ideas from around the world.

Different Concepts of the Ideal Body

Many Asian young women believe that the standards between Asian and Western countries are different. Young women, who would consider themselves to be a healthy weight in America, believe they are chubby under Asian standards. The ideal women are approximately 5’1 and 100 pounds. The Asian beauty standard is to keep ones body weight under 110 pounds, granted most women are more petite in Asia because of genetic height differences.

Research on Body Image and Eating Disorders

Women often have false perceptions of being overweight, this is one of the causes of eating disorder. The general population in Asia pursues weight loss, in an effort to model themselves after the standards set in magazines. In Leslie Johnson’s article, “eating disorder in Asia” , he highlights how dissatisfaction with body weight will cause problems such as eating disorders. A study was done in Taiwan among 843 schoolgirls, age 10 to 14 (Wong et al., 2000), in which they collected data regarding traits such as “body-weight perception, body-weight satisfaction, desired body weight and attempts at intentional weight loss.” They classified the test population into groups: “obese, overweight, acceptable weight, underweight, or severely underweight.” The statistics showed that “8.1% of the students classified as severely underweight, 10.4% underweight, 64.3% acceptable weight, 10.8% overweight, and 6.4% obese.” The majority of Taiwanese schoolgirls fell under the acceptable weight category. Being qualified as overweight is just 16.4% of the population, which is significantly smaller compared to most North America’s statistics. The paper concluded that “dissatisfaction with body weight occurs in women in all weight categories” and “the desire for lower body weight also increased with age.” All in all, there is a tendency where Asian women in all age categories attempt to lose weight and often categorize themselves to be in a higher weight group.

Dove Campaign Against Photoshop

The Dove campaign, Beauty Study, went viral last year on social media[1]. It depicted a normal woman being converted, via photoshop, into a 'super model'. The campaign emphasized that photoshopping creates unattainable expectations for women. Dove has now banned the use of photoshop in their advertisements and are actively promoting real, healthy women.

Obstacles to Weight Loss in Asia

In many Asian cultures, eating is a form of commitment and affection to ones family. Some traditional parents will feed their children a lot of food to show affection. Many parents do this because they come from impoverished backgrounds and never want their children to experience the pain of being profoundly hungry.

Cosmetic Surgery

Cosmetic surgery can be one of the solutions. It is basically converting your undesired body parts into the desired body dimensions. Through cosmetic surgery, you can get rid of the fat, have big wide eyes, pointy nose, narrow cheekbones and double eyelids. Usually, the most reliable and effective cosmetic surgery is in Korea and Thailand. In Korea, it is a common culture that young girls would change their facial appearance through surgery. For some young Korean girls, it is a birthday present for them when they reach the age of an adult. Their facial features are a great source of pride.

Influence on Body Image

Effect of Media on Body Image

In the media, there are numerous of advertisements portraying messages about beauty and physical attractiveness such as fashion, cosmetics, diet program ,and surgeries. Studies have shows that advertisement negatively impacts teenager’s self esteem by setting unrealistic expectation about physical appearance through the use of idealized model.[1] According to the statistic, 1 out of every 3.8 television commercials portray message relating to attractiveness and the audience receive around 5260 advertisement related to physical attractiveness per year. Out of these messages, 1850 of them are specifically about beauty.[2] They show stereotyped body massage in advertising and convey false ideas of reaching the ideal body image through body transformation.[3] In addition, the emphasis on the association between celebrities and their body image portrayed in the media help reaffirm the belief that success can only be obtained if supplied by an ideal body. In the media, thin women are associated with wealth, health control and beauty while being fat is associated negatively with weakness,, laziness, lack of control and unhealthy lifestyles.

The media have been criticized for creating images of an ideal body that may be impossible to obtain for majority of women (9). However, while most consumers believe that those body image are unattainable, they do tend to compare themselves with these idealized images resulting in lower satisfaction with their own bodies and lower self esteem.[4]

Effect of Asian Parenting and Upbringing on Body Image

“A pretty face is worthwhile long term investment” is the motto among many Asian parents throughout Easy Asian who believed that their daughters’ attractiveness will lead to better job or marriage opportunities and success in life.[5] In a competitive society, appearance is an important elements in the keen market today. In Asian countries, receiving a double eyelid surgery as a present from your parent is common. In addition, Habitus is defined to be an unconscious and culturally “learned behaviour”, predisposes Asian women to be aware of their body from childhood. It is socially acceptable in Asian society for parent to say to their daughters , “Hey fatty- lose some weight.” In this case, Asian women become sensitive about their body image from childhood and they tend to express significantly more dissatisfaction with their bodies.[6] Filial piety is a cultural value common in collectivistic cultures and includes duty and respect and honor one’s parents. Asian families tend to be authoritarian parenting style. - parental involvement and control which have been implicated in the development of psychological distress, including body image dissatisfaction (BID). In addition, Asian family viewed married daughter as a sign of social success and physical appearance is known to be an important factor that influence marital prospects.[7] Asian parents often use critical and authoritarian parenting technique such as shaming to help motivate their children to succeed. In this case, intense focus on physical appearance can contribute to development of perfectionism and self consciousness which are both related to harsh self criticism.[8]. In addition, if a child is ugly and the parent will worry because if their daughter doesn't get married no one will look after them when they become old.

Effect of Asian Culture on Body Image

In the old day, Asian culture viewed plumpness as a sign of prosperity, good health and beauty. Nowadays, ideal Asian women body is the one that is tall, thin and hourglass shape and consistent with this body ideal of extreme thinness, most Asian women develop poor body image. In asia, a fair complexion serves as a marker of class.[9]. In many Asian society, high status of wealth and privilege is associated with light skin since upper class do not need to perform manual labor[10] In addition, nowadays, society is competitive and appearance is an important element in the keen job market today. The view of plastic surgery as an investment for the future has also been internalized into young Asian women themselves being successful and and employment opportunity and would be more accepted by society. Asian women may feel a heavy burden to correct the negative image of their culture and being to work to be the “perfect Asian women” which lead to perfectionism. In the society were Asian women is often oppressed by men may report to seek power and identity through pursuit of physically ideal body.[11] One study recognized the need for women to obtain an ideal body image as a mean to achieve more social recognition in a typically male dominated society.[12] Lastly, collectivist culture in many Asian countries emphasize values that promote interpersonal harmony and value conformity, in this case, physical appearance that deviate too far from the norm are often regard as unacceptable.[13] Moreover, in a collectivist culture, if the individual fails to meet expectations of the beauty ideal, there can be great shame and dishonor brought to the family of that individual.[14] In this case, this belief may pressure Asian women to maintain perfect physical appearance to avoid bringing shame or embarrassment to the family.[15]

Effect of Western Influence on Body Image

After WWII, with the emergence of globalization, US cultural influences such as celebrities, lifestyle, media product, materials good and perception of beauty becomes widespread and become a standard aspired to among many Asian.[16] Due to the dominance, power and influence that european held in their colonized countries, the idea of white privilege heavily spread to colonized people.[17] In the old days, being chubby is considered to be a beauty ideal because it represent healthy while being thin is not. However because of globalising dynamic and global access to western socialising agents’ messages, there appears to be an increasing trend in ideal body image of thinness in women.[18] White standard of beauty is indeed the global ideal to which Asian women unconsciously conform. The increased prevalence of European models in Asian advertisements raise the possibility that beauty ideals are becoming global. In this case, European physical characteristic are associated with upward social mobility, respect, acceptance, and self esteem.[19] As a conclusion, western culture influences Asian’s beauty ideal as having pale skin, large round eyes, pronounced nose bridge, angular jawline and a small mouth.

Effect of Racism and Negative Stereotypes on Body Image

The stereotype that asian women suppose to be lightweight, petite, soft spoken, light skinned, delicate and thin become a cultural pressure for Asian to conform. In this case, asian women experience oppression based on specific racial expectation that normalized all asian women’s bodies as being thin. Being a physically distinct ethnic minority group, Asian women have a heightened awareness of racial characteristics that separate them from the dominant group. The media portray negative stereotype of being exotic, passive or sexual object. Experience with racism may lead to low self esteem, internalized racism and denigration of one’s own physical appearance.[20] Study shows how that Asian are most dissatisfied with their physical appearance and were most likely to prefer to be white if they could choose to do so. In this case, the acculturation to American culture would be accompanied by the adoption of western body image ideals and increased BID.[21]

Effect of Social Class on Body Image

In the past, Asian culture has dictated one’s position by birth family, clan, profession or caste system but much of these indicators of status have become less rigid with education and globalisation. Nowadays, the amount of money you have or luxury brand is a key classifying criterion for social class. In this case, in today’s Asia, you are what you wear, and the luxury are a part of a new social protocol where you redefine your identity and your self worth are determined by the visible brands on your body.[22] Asian culture are vulnerable to the effect of luxury brand since their collectivist culture emphasize “Face” and bringing honor to the family which welcome opportunity to flaunt wealth. It is evident in the study that of the US $80 billion luxury brand industry, more than half the sales come from Asian consumers.[23]

Effect of Competition Between Women and Body Image

Women are encouraging the negative effects of sexualization and unrealistic physical appearance by policing each other to ensure conformance with standards of thinness and sexiness, creating kind of competition among themselves. There is an unhealthy culture of competition between women and nearly 80% of women interviewed said they have competed with women over physical appearance. This competition over unrealistic beauty extends to women competing with younger women, women competing with their younger selves and seeking cosmetic procedure to attain younger and more beautiful image of themselves. These women are driven by an unhealthy belief that winning the looks competition will show how gain them the husband, the career or the self they desires.[24]

Consequences of negative body images

Consequence 1: Increased risk for social problems

Many Asians want to confirm to society and increase their social mobility. However, purchases meant to evoke social status and wealth are often out of proportion to buyer’s actual incomes.[25] The descriptive side effect of an addiction to high end brands, obsession with their beauty through excessive purchasing of cosmetic products, and engaging in cosmetic surgery leads to a high debt from using credit card and in some cases, people may commit suicide over the debt, live with their parents into adulthood rather than forgo a disposable income, scrimp on food and necessities to afford luxuries and engage in freelance prostitution to pay for the luxury brand, plastic surgery or cosmetics.[26] Since there is a high cost in purchasing cosmetic products, women with low income, especially teenage girls may choose to engaged in freelance prostitution for easy money in order to afford high cost of cosmetic products.

Consequence 2: Eating Disorder

Asians tend to value extreme thinness in their body ideal by starving themselves to stay thin. In several Asian countries, there are lots of news dedicated to extreme weight control behavior such as dramatic cases of women who have died from untreated eating disorder and celebrities who suffered from or recovered from anorexia nervosa. Asian countries, the mass media Study shows that the ideal Asian female body is a tall, thin and hourglass shape and asian’s body ideal of extreme thinness.[27] The desire for thinnest affected body satisfaction and the desire for the thin ideal was highly correlated to overestimating one’s current weight.[28] In addition, Asian women are becoming increasingly obsessed with losing weight, even though their normal body mass index is already lower than that of most Western women.[29] There is consistent research which found that eating disorder symptoms are directly related to greater media exposure. The phenomenon is known as the process of internalization of mainstream media ideals that causes increased rates of "self-objectification and body surveillance"[30]Another study also found that women are indirectly affected by media images, through internalization of the ideal body image.[31] The pressure to be thin is especially intense in Asia where skinny women always looking for ways to get even skinnier due to their cultural perception of beauty. In addition, in Asia, women want to stay skinny without exercising because muscles aren’t considered a feminine feature. when they want to control their body weight.[32] This is the main reason why most asian women choose to starve themselves or consume diet pill as a solution for their slimness which have a long term harmful effect toward their health. Diet pills and diet supplementary are available in the marketplace and there are lots of advertisement targeting young women to seek for diet pill as a fast and easy solution to lose weight fast.

Consequence 3: Loss of the Markers of Racial Identity from Cosmetic Surgery

According to the statistic, 20% of women between the ages of 19 and 49 in Seoul admitted that they had gone under the knife.[33] In 2011, 4 of the top 8 countries in terms of total cosmetic procedure performed were in Asia: China (3), Japan (4), South Korea (7) and India (8).[34] The majority of facial cosmetic operations performed on Asian are considered “westernizing” procedures. This is because two of the most popular cosmetic procedure performed for Asian women are nose jobs (rhinoplasty) and eyelid lifts (blepharoplasty) which are specially designed to make these features look more Caucasian.[35] Asians generally have wider and flatter noses and rhinoplasty help narrows the nose and makes it project more to create a European looks. Moreover, Asian blepharoplasty creates an extra fold in the upper eyelid, and double eyelid that are present in nearly all Caucasian.[36] The consequence is the unique ethnic characteristics will be lost as society selects for one appearance type “Push towards Uniformity.”[37] Through plastic surgery, Asian women’s loss of the “markers of racial identity” from plastic surgery and their denial to conforming to the Eurocentric ideal of beauty.[38] In this case, cosmetic procedure may reflect loathing, mutilating, and revising of Asian women’s body and are the result of patriarchal and hegemonic oppression.[39]

Consequence 4: Disorders caused by low self image

Negative self-perceptions about a person's body image, such as the idea that they are fat, can in some cases lead to mental disorders. Negative body images can lead to mental disorders such as anxiety, stress, guilt, shame, insecurity, body dissatisfaction, depression and eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa. Studies shows that being exposed to media depicting ideal body images can encourage weight concern, negative mood, self-consciousness and lower perception of one’s own attractiveness.[40] In addition their desires to look western of having pale skin, large round eyes, pronounced nose bridge and small mouth- young women try to alter their bodies to try to fit this unrealistic Eurocentric ideal that they cannot naturally obtained.

See also

body image

gender inequality

false beauty advertisment

Post-Colonial Feminism

Body Positive TEDx Talks That’ll Encourage You To Concentrate On Your Body’s Strengths, Not Its Weaknesses

References

  1. ↑ Martin, M. C., & Gentry, J. W. (1997). Stuck in the model trap: The effects of beautiful models in ads on female preadolescents and adolescents. Journal of Advertising, 26(2), 19-34.
  2. ↑ Downs, A. C., & Harrison, S. K. (1985). Embarrassing age spots or just plain ugly? physical attractiveness stereotyping as an instrument of sexism on american television commercials. Sex Roles, 13(1), 9-9. doi:10.1007/BF00287457
  3. ↑ Sepúlveda, A., & Calado, M. (2012). Westernization: The Role of Mass Media on Body Image and Eating Disorders. Relevant Topics in Eating Disorders, 47-64.
  4. ↑ Parker, S., Haytko, D., & Hermans, C. (2008). The Marketing Of Body Image: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Of Gender Effects In The U.S. And China. Journal of Business & Economics Research, 6(5), 55-66.
  5. ↑ Zhang, L. (2013). Eurocentric Beauty Ideals as a Form of Structural Violence: Origins and E!ects on East Asian Women. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  6. ↑ Zhang, L. (2013). Eurocentric Beauty Ideals as a Form of Structural Violence: Origins and E!ects on East Asian Women. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  7. ↑ Cash, T. F., Smolak, L., & ebrary eBooks. (2011). Body image: A handbook of science, practice, and prevention (2nd;2nd.; ed.). New York: Guilford Press.
  8. ↑ Alvarez, A. (2009). Body Image Among Asian Americans. In Asian American psychology: Current perspectives. New York: Psychology Press.
  9. ↑ Zhang, L. (2013). Eurocentric Beauty Ideals as a Form of Structural Violence: Origins and E!ects on East Asian Women. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  10. ↑ Le. (2014, June 4). The Homogenization of Asian Beauty. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  11. ↑ Hall, C. (1995). Asian Eyes: Body Image and Eating Disorders of Asian and Asian American Women. Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment and Prevention, 3(1), 8-19.
  12. ↑ Meyer, Haley M., "Korean Female Body Image VS American Female Body Image REpresented in the Print Media” (2012). Research Papers. Paper 278.
  13. ↑ Cash, T. F., Smolak, L., & ebrary eBooks. (2011). Body image: A handbook of science, practice, and prevention (2nd;2nd.; ed.). New York: Guilford Press.
  14. ↑ Meyer, Haley M., "Korean Female Body Image VS American Female Body Image REpresented in the Print Media” (2012). Research Papers. Paper 278.
  15. ↑ Alvarez, A. (2009). Body Image Among Asian Americans. In Asian American psychology: Current perspectives. New York: Psychology Press.
  16. ↑ Le. (2014, June 4). The Homogenization of Asian Beauty. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  17. ↑ Zhang, L. (2013). Eurocentric Beauty Ideals as a Form of Structural Violence: Origins and E!ects on East Asian Women. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  18. ↑ Sepúlveda, A., & Calado, M. (2012). Westernization: The Role of Mass Media on Body Image and Eating Disorders. Relevant Topics in Eating Disorders, 47-64.
  19. ↑ Alvarez, A. (2009). Body Image Among Asian Americans. In Asian American psychology: Current perspectives. New York: Psychology Press.
  20. ↑ Cash, T. F., Smolak, L., & ebrary eBooks. (2011). Body image: A handbook of science, practice, and prevention (2nd;2nd.; ed.). New York: Guilford Press.
  21. ↑ Cash, T. F., Smolak, L., & ebrary eBooks. (2011). Body image: A handbook of science, practice, and prevention (2nd;2nd.; ed.). New York: Guilford Press.
  22. ↑ Asia's love for luxury brands; the love that Asian consumers show for brand name luxury goods is well known. Radha Chadha, author of The Cult of the Luxury Brand, shares her views on why the psychology of the Asian consumer differs from that of their western counterparts and what propels them to buy more luxury brands.. (n.d.) >The Free Library. (2014). Retrieved Oct 23 2015
  23. ↑ Nuxoll, K. (2007). Global Economy - Why brand obsession is the new status quo. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
  24. ↑ Beauty At Any Cost: A YWCA Report on the Consequences of America’s Beauty Obsession on Women & Girls. (2008). YWCA.
  25. ↑ Nuxoll, K. (2007). Global Economy - Why brand obsession is the new status quo. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
  26. ↑ Nuxoll, K. (2007). Global Economy - Why brand obsession is the new status quo. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
  27. ↑ Yam, M. (2013). Does Culture Matter In Body Image? The Effects Of Subjective and Contextual Culture on Culture on Body Image Among Bicultural Women.
  28. ↑ Hall, C. (1995). Asian Eyes: Body Image and Eating Disorders of Asian and Asian American Women. Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment and Prevention, 3(1), 8-19.
  29. ↑ Sepúlveda, A., & Calado, M. (2012). Westernization: The Role of Mass Media on Body Image and Eating Disorders. Relevant Topics in Eating Disorders, 47-64.
  30. ↑ Vandenbosch, L., & Eggermont, S. (2012). Understanding sexual objectification: A Comprehensive approach toward media exposure and girls' internalization of beauty ideals, Self‐Objectification, and body surveillance. Journal of Communication, 62(5), 869-887. doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2012.01667.x
  31. ↑ Meyer, Haley M., "Korean Female Body Image VS American Female Body Image REpresented in the Print Media” (2012). Research Papers. Paper 278.
  32. ↑ Chu, K. (2010). Extreme dieting spreads in Asia. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
  33. ↑ Whitelocks, S. (2012, April 24). One in five women in Seoul have gone under the knife as South Korea tops global list of plastic surgery procedures. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  34. ↑ Le. (2014, June 4). The Homogenization of Asian Beauty. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  35. ↑ Young, A. (2013, June 26). Asia's ideal beauty: Looking Caucasian - CNN.com. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  36. ↑ Young, A. (2013, June 26). Asia's ideal beauty: Looking Caucasian - CNN.com. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  37. ↑ Zhang, L. (2013). Eurocentric Beauty Ideals as a Form of Structural Violence: Origins and E!ects on East Asian Women. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  38. ↑ Zhang, L. (2013). Eurocentric Beauty Ideals as a Form of Structural Violence: Origins and E!ects on East Asian Women. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  39. ↑ Hall, C. (1995). Asian Eyes: Body Image and Eating Disorders of Asian and Asian American Women. Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment and Prevention, 3(1), 8-19.
  40. ↑ Meyer, Haley M., "Korean Female Body Image VS American Female Body Image Represented in the Print Media” (2012). Research Papers. Paper 278.

Body image and weight consciousness among South Asian, Italian and general population women in Britain. health psychology about body image social media



Further Reading

Haraway, D. "Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective". Journal article. (1998). Originally printed in Feminist Studies 14(3): 575-599.

McIntosh, P. "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack". Web article. (1990). Reprinted from Independent School, Winter (1990). amptoons.com

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