Skinny Jeans and the Weight of My Sins

In a Picasso painting of a woman poring over her reflection with a hint of disappointment and disapproval in her face, it applies to the hypothesis from James Ciment's essay entitled "Obesity and Eating Disorders" regarding the evolution of women's body image into its current, unnaturally thin state nowadays. One of his two hypothesis claims that the source of this ideal body image is not any sort of religion but rather that it is a matter of aesthetics taking over the world, and that was what gave way to concepts like the unnaturally cinched waist and lead to the rise of, for example, corsets in the nineteenth century. The painting ties to that hypothesis in that the woman in the painting has no explicit ties to any sort of religion, but rather, her concerns are of nothing but aesthetics. Her disappointment in her own self-image is something she deeply wishes she could change, but since that is not an instantaneous change, she gazes into the mirror wishing for ideal beauty. On the other hand, a painting by Goya depicting men beating themselves and others before a Christian statue would not apply to the aesthetic hypothesis but rather the hypothesis stating that the rise of Christianity correlates directly with the change of particularly women's ideal body image to unnatural thinness due to the practice of fasting and other kinds of ritual purification. In this painting, however, an implication is made that this ideal body type also carried over for men, even if it is not to quite so extreme a level as it was and is for women. The painting shows that men also underwent the changes of ideal body type, first by means of religion, though today it seems as though men have also subscribed to the thinner body image. No, they are not going for a size zero waist. However, in the minds of many people in the modern world, it is still not socially or aesthetically acceptable for men to be fat. Quite unlike Picasso's and Goya's paintings, there is a painting of a considerably sizable Mary holding a pudgy baby Jesus. This implies that this painting is from the age when obesity and being overweight was exalted as a sign of the gluttony and sedentary lifestyle that the life of the wealthy entailed. This is evidence of the constant changing and evolution of body image: one day obesity is hallowed and the next day people are becoming anorexic for the sake of the unnaturally thin body image. However, Christianity playing a key role in bringing the unnaturally thin body image to the table long ago, and it has since had yet to leave the world. Aesthetic concerns found in ancient paintings carry over into the music videos of the entertainment industry today. On that note, it has been found that sexually objectifying music videos – which are disturbingly common nowadays – can have a negative effect on women with low self-esteem and can lead them to idealize the unnaturally thin body image. This is seen in a scientific study conducted recently by researchers from the Behavioural Science Institute at Radboud University Nijmegen, where they tested college women to see the effect of sexually objectifying music videos upon their perception of their own body image. In their article entitled “Thinking Big: The effect of sexually objectifying music videos on bodily self-perception in young women”, they say, “they [the college women tested with low self-esteem] perceived themselves as bigger and showed an increased discrepancy between their perceived and ideal body size after video exposure. The neutral music videos did not influence women’s bodily self-perceptions. These findings suggest that body image is a flexible construct, and that high self-esteem can protect women against the adverse effects of sexually objectifying media.” One example of these sexually objectifying music videos that may be detrimental to the women watching is “Can’t Remember to Forget You” by Shakira featuring Rihanna. In this video, the lyrics and meaning of the song were set aside as the video was instead filled with the two women constantly in very revealing clothing and concerned only with sexuality. Women must be on the lookout for these videos, for the videos practically slap them in the face with this ideal body image. On top of Christianity, aesthetic concerns, and music videos, the media - not excluding social media - also takes its toll on body image and the thin body ideal. According to a scientific study conducted by researchers from VU University Amsterdam, while the media significantly impacts adolescents girls in regards to their ideally thin body image, media has its greatest impact when in conjunction with peer opinions. They claim in their introductory statement, "...we argue that media effects are negotiated by individual differences in susceptibility as well as by peer feedback on media messages (here the media message is: an ideal body is thin). Going off of this, social media must have a similar if not more brutal effect than the media at large, for that is when peer opinions are undeniably and constantly present. People look at things and post their opinions as comments. The girls on these websites are thus exposed to a heavy concentration of the media with uncensored opinions flying, with certainly a significant amount of these opinions in favor of the unnaturally thin body image. The media does not only have negative effects of ideal body image for women, however. For example, the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty reached many women anywhere from TV commercials to ads playing before Youtube videos. This campaign instead tells women to embrace realistic body image rather than unrealistic, unnaturally thin ones. Lastly, genetic framing, stigma, and personal responsibility also have an effect upon women with eating disorders, who strived for the unnaturally thin body image to such a great extent that they ended up diagnosed with a mental illness. In a study conducted by researchers at the Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy at Duke University, the researchers interviewed women to learn of their thoughts on the role of genetics in eating disorders. They found that for the most part, the women interviewed “anticipated that genetic reframing would help reduce stigma from personal responsibility.”