Body Image and Cultural Background

Title of Article: Body Image and Cultural Background
Author: Alyson Kay Spurgas
Source: Sociological Inquiry, Vol. 75, No.3, August 2005, 297-316

This article provides insights regarding race/ethnicity, cultural background, media consumption and exposure, and individual psychology being directly related to women’s perception of their body image. This study examines how cultural background, includes to compare and contrast body image perception in diverse cultural background, affects a woman’s body image. Also, this study examines how media with the influence of cultural background affects a woman’s body image.



The results from this study was compared to previous studies in the past between 1950's-present.

· Since the 50’s, people have related psychological, emotional, and health issues with poor body image. These problems occur more frequent in women than in men because it is hypothesized that women are more concern with their body image for social purposes.

· In past studies, the main comparison between culture and body image were studies that were based on white and black women. The research supported that black women were more comfortable with their body image than white women.

· In past studies concerning diverse ethnic background, it was found that Asian women were more prone to suffer from bulimia to correct their weight problems, while black women had a more negative perception of their body image.



This study was conducted by interview with a series of questions and discussion regarding participants’ cultural background and self-body perception. There were eleven women, between the ages of 16 and 25, from a public university.

The study finds:
· Participants that were non-U.S. expressed that they were more comfortable with their body in their home countries before they came to the U.S.· Family members were also a factor of how women feel about their body image because parents influence their daughters to look based on their ideal image of a woman. Women may also compare their bodies to the female members of their family.

· Friends and peers were also factors that influence how women feel about their bodies because friends and peers express their thought about body image directly and openly.· Men’s preferences in women’s body influence how women want to look because they want to please men’s desire for women.

· In regards to culture, race/ethnicity, and the media, these three factors are interrelated when it comes to body image because most women this study feels as if they should conform to western standards of beauty. Western standards of beauty were defined as being Caucasian, thin and slender by all participants. Participants also expressed the exposure to media is a direct link to their ideal perception of their body. One participant expressed that in Africa, skinny means that you do not have money to eat, while in Western culture, skinny is considered beauty. Also, participants agree that media, especially in western culture, sends stereotypical messages by encouraging healthy living while praising unrealistic thin women models for their physique. Participants discussed that thin images in the media may be the cause for eating disorders or consideration for cosmetic surgery.

Overall, this research concluded that race/ethnicity, cultural background, media, and individual psychology have influenced their self-perception of body image. Compared to older studies, the results tend to show that the Western influence of the ideal women look is dominant in most culture around the world. Women from non-western cultures are affected by the beauty standards of thin Caucasian women.

I agree with the findings of this study. As an Asian-American, I have notice that in both Asian and Western culture praise women, who have fair skin, are slim and slender, and have soft features. The media exposure just amplifies the idea of a beauty for a woman. Although there is a very small percentage of women that actually has the ideal look of beauty, women tends to try to looks as similar as the ideal look as possible to be socially accepted. The effort to achieve the ideal look comes with unrealistic expectation that may result in poor physical and mental health.