The fact that the majority of people here and around the globe are unhappy with their bodies is now commonly accepted as normative discontent (Rodin, Silberstein, & Striegel-Moore, 1985; Tantleff-Dunn, Barnes, & Larose, 2011; Tiggemann, 2011). This means that body unhappiness is now considered one of the norms of being human. There are some minor exceptions to found here and there in the literature and one of them has been up until now women in France. French women have been long idealized in popular culture for their beauty, poise, grace, sophistication, and the fact that those darn women just don’t seem to gain any weight even though they dine on French cuisine every day.
Well, so dies another cultural body myth.
A study of 192 French undergraduate women with a mean age of 20.97 years explored their relationship to the influence of media, peers, and partners on their body image, drive for thinness and/or muscularity (Girard, Chabrol, & Rogers, 2018). Survey subjects completed survey assessments regarding media and interpersonal influences, appearance comparison, body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, and muscularity concerns. Initial results, which were confirmed with re-test one year later, showed that most of the women were negatively affected by both the media and peers and romantic partners. Those who engaged in appearance comparison—comparing their bodies to those of others–predicted body dissatisfaction and muscularity concerns one year later (Girard, Chabrol, & Rogers, 2018).
At the core of every body image disturbance is an internalization to fantasy-image of the ideal body. Women generally internalize a thinness-ideal while most men accept a muscular-ideal. From these beliefs flow the drives to become thin or muscular. These attitudes are based on ideals approved by significant others, mainly family and friends, and culturally-approved ideals appearing in the media. This is a process of social reinforcement. Forms of social reinforcement used by others and media include teasing someone about their weight, encouraging dieting, idealizing super-slender female bodies, being envious of the success and happiness of attractive persons, and the like (Thompson & Stice, 2001). Drive for leanness is a combination of the drive for muscularity and thinness in a person who desires low body fat, but a pronounced muscularity. This drive applies to both men and women although men have higher leanness drives (Tod, Hall, & Edwards, 2012). Studies have confirmed that women become concerned about their weight and lack of muscularity after exposure to media images (Field et al., 2005; Thompson, Schaefer, & Menzel, 2012; Tiggermann & Zaccardo, 2015).
Closing Thoughts
This study again supports to the reality that normative discontent is, well, normative. It is part of the human condition; sadly, it is a very large part. It also confirms the powerful influence of mass media including digital media technology in shaping how we aesthetically judge our bodies and how quick we are to condemn them. Another concern is that it has been found in other cultures that sociocultural influences towards both thinness and muscularity may contribute to increases in body image disturbances and risky life style practices regarding diet and cosmetic surgery. It would not be surprising to see these behaviors in young French women increase in the near future.
Paul Shane, Ph.D., LMT
Director, Academic Content
_______________
References
Field, A., Austin, S., Camargo, C., Taylor, C., Striegel-Moore, R., Loud, K., & Colditz, G. (2005). Exposure to the mass media, body shape concerns, and use of supplements to improve weight and shape among male and female adolescents. Pediatrics 116(2), p. 214-220.
Girard, M., Rodgers, R., & Chabrol, H. (2018). Prospective predictors of body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, and muscularity concerns among young women in France: A sociocultural model. Body Image 26, p. 103-110.
Rodin, J., Silberstein, L., & Striegel-Moore, R. (1985). Women and weight: A normative discontent. In T. Sondregger (Ed.), Psychology and Gender, Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, pp. 267-307.
Tantleff-Dunn, S., Barnes, R., & Larose, J. (2011). It’s not just a “woman thing:” The current state of normative discontent. Eating Disorders 19(5), p. 392-402.
Thompson, J., Schaefer, L., & Menzel, J. (2012). Internalization of the thin-ideal and muscular ideal. In T. Cash (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Body Image and Human Appearance, Vol. 1, San Diego, CA: Elsevier, pp. 499-504.
Thompson, J. & Stice, E. (2001). Thin-ideal internalization: Mounting evidence for a new risk factor for body-image disturbance and eating pathology. Current Directions in Psychological Science 10(5), p. 181-183.
Tiggemann, M. (2011). Sociocultural perspectives on human appearance and body image. In T. Cash & L. Smolak (Eds.), Body Image: A Handbook of Science, Practice, and Prevention, New York, NY: The Guilford Press, pp. 12–19.
Tiggemann, M. & Zaccardo, M. (2015). “Exercise to be fit, not skinny”: The effect of fitspiration imagery on women’s body image. Body Image 15, p. 61-67.
Tod, D., Hall, G., & Edwards, C. (2012). Gender invariance and correlates for the Drive for Leanness Scale. Body Image 9, p. 555-558.