Body Image

I never thought about how my dieting and exercising was a form of body modification. I make sure that I stay in shape because I know that is what makes girls appealing to the men in our society. I have this notion because of the magazines I read and how they always talk about being in shape. Also, the advertisements are all with small figured girls. And personally, I feel better when I feel that I am physically fit and I believe that I am more healthy as well. The more I thought about it, girls in America will even go to the extreme to be skinny and will torture themselves by depriving themselves of food, becoming anorexic or bulimic. However, this phenomenon of being skinny as a form of beauty, is not everywhere. For example, in Akpabuyo, Nigeria, it is the complete opposite - girls go into “fattening rooms” (Simmons 124) to gain weight. To the Nigerian girls, plumping up is a right of passage into womanhood and is seen as beautiful. A Nigerian woman named Edet has said “beauty is in the weight” and “to be called a slim princess is an abuse” (Simmons 124). In addition, “the fattening room is like a kind of school where the girl is taught about motherhood” (qtd Simmons 124). In reading the article where “Fat is a Mark of Beauty”, by Ann Simmons, it made me realize how important it is to become a certain size. It is not only for beauty reasons, but it allows girls to pass into adulthood, and within the “fattening rooms”, other women come in and teach them how to speak to their husbands, cook, sew and other things necessary for womanhood (Simmons 124-125). In addition, it must take a lot of self control to go through the process; the girls, when in a “fattening room” are to sit all day and eat starchy foods (Simmons 125). For girls in America, it is not an intense process like a class. We do not completely isolate ourselves from society when we are trying to lose weight or get in shape like the girls in Nigeria. There are instances where females feel like they do need help and might go to a spa or a camp where they have support, but generally, dieting is more private. In addition, our fascination with being skinny has nothing to do with a rite of passage, but more of a girl’s fascination with fashion and supermodels who have set the stage of beauty. In both cultures, girls modify their bodies by either eating starchy foods non-stop without being able to exercise, or girls who will do anything to be a certain size to be what is considered attractive. In both cultures it takes a lot of patience to obtain the body that is culturally desirable. In the end, both the Nigerian girls and the American girls end up modifying their bodies to shapes that are culturally beautiful which gives their bodies new meanings to themselves and others.

Work cited
Simmons, Ann. “Where Fat is a Mark of Beauty” Annual Editions Anthropology 08/09