The Social Construction of Feminine Beauty “Ambrose Bierce (1958) once wrote, ‘To men a man is but a mind. Who cares what face he carries or what he wears? But woman’s body is the woman.’ Despite the societal changes achieved since Bierce’s time, his statement remains true.” (Saltzberg & Chrisler) “In recent decades the beauty ideal has combined such opposite traits as erotic sophistication with naïve innocence, delicate grace with muscular athleticism, and thin bodies with large breasts.” (Saltzberg & Chrisler) Beauty as internalization (beauty standards are learned) Beauty as externalization (beauty is done) Beauty as objectivation (beauty is an institution that acts on us) Beauty is connected to social control (ugliness is punished) Beauty is connected to stratification (beauty is stratified by race, class, gender, etc.; other resources are stratified by beauty) Beauty is justified by institutionalized ideologies Ford and Beach’s (1951) study of “primitive” societies found no universal standards of “sexual allure” among women. Body trait Number of societies that admire trait Slim body build Medium body build Plump body build 5 5 13 Narrow pelvis and slim hips Broad pelvis and wide hips Small ankles Shapely calves 1 6 3 5 Upright, hemispherical breasts Long and pendulous breasts Large breasts 2 2 9 Large clitoris Elongated labia majora 1 8 Source: Hatfield & Sprecher. 1986. Mirror, Mirror. SUNY Press. Paul Campos (The New Republic, Jan. 13, 2003) claims that medical research has not shown that being overweight is a health risk of any kind. (Sedentary lifestyle and bad diet are health risks.) Some evidence suggests that overweight people live longer than people who are “fashionably thin.” People who lose weight lower their life expectancy, possibly because of the negative effects of dieting and diet drugs. According to new government standards even sex symbols like Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Michael Jordan are “overweight.” Sammy Sosa and 3/4 of the NFL are “obese.” “Americans think being fat is disgusting. That psychological truth creates an enormous incentive to give our disgust a respectable motivation. In other words, being fat must be terrible for one’s health, because if it isn’t that means our increasing hatred of fat represents a social, psychological, and moral problem rather than a medical one.”