Collegians
get older, wiser and fatter
Brandy
Stowers
Have
you ever noticed that women are always talking
about, stressed over, or working on their
weight? I have. I am one of the many young
women that constantly debate over how many
pounds or inches I would like to lose. The
problem is not that I am overweight, it
is just that I am not at my ideal weight.
You often hear people talk about the “Freshman
Fifteen” — the fifteen pound
weight gain during one’s freshman
year in college, or the “Twenty-Five
by Twenty- Five” — the twenty-five
pounds that women tend to gain by the time
they reach 25 years old.
But
rarely do you hear any sayings that describe
a women losing weight by any particular
age, or at any particular time in their
young adulthood. For instance, a growing
body of research has linked the reading
of women’s beauty and fashion magazines
to potential dissatisfaction with body shape
and size. Magazines are also linked to the
presence of eating-disordered thinking.
In
a 2002 study conducted by Thomsen, McCoy,
Gustafson & Williams, the connection
between women’s magazines and the
desire to emulate what women are constantly
reading and seeing, was indeed increased
by the amount of contributing motivation
to look a certain way, be that from a friend,
or a family member.
The
study of 536 college-age women used reading
elements in order to determine whether reading
motivation was a predictor of anorexic risk.
The findings determined that although the
reading material was a factor in women’s
desire to lose weight, the best predictor
of one’s risk of anorexia was the
aspiration to excessively lose weight in
order to become popular among family and
friends. This study goes to show that some
women believe that the outcome of losing
weight is greater than the risk of trying
to lose it!
Dieting
is one of Western society’s biggest
and longest fads. Although men and women
often have different views when it comes
to losing weight, there are a number of
men who feel that the costs of losing weight
often outweigh the benefits. In the Journal
of Nutrition and Dietetics, the issues on
“Men’s and Women’s Dieting
Beliefs” talk about weight loss and
the need, ability and satisfaction of those
who do lose weight.
For
example, who knows why those who often diet
are not among those who are obese or overweight,
or why one in two men are obese or overweight,
yet refuse to lose the weight. The answers
to such questions and reasoning as to why
one gender obsesses over their outward appearance
and the other can care less relies on the
belief that men and women actually do have
different beliefs when it comes to dieting.
Men,
more often than women, will change their
eating habits to gain weight so that they
may develop a more masculine shape, whereas
women will change their eating habits to
lose weight in order to accentuate feminine
features. The decisional balance about dieting
beliefs varies in male and females. From
a young age, males and females learn that
they are supposed to be big and strong and
slim and submissive, respectively. These
are called “role expectations”.
From
a young age, women are more often than not
concerned with seeking height and a thin
frame, and young men are relatively more
likely to seek weight and height. Role expectations
extend outside of simple height and weight
requirements, although they are two of the
most interesting distinctive features of
an individual. My opinion stands that many
women fantasize about, hope for and work
towards having a beautiful body. Men on
the other hand are men; they work out, eat
hearty and probably couldn’t care
less about fitting into a size four, but
all in all men and women are equally concerned
about their appearance.
The
contributing factors that constitute why
a woman may be insecure or better yet interested
in losing weight include media portrayals,
familial or peer pressure, and simple dissatisfaction
with one’s own weight. Although being
dissatisfied more often than not is due
to other underlying factors, it is from
personal experience added in with age and
time that makes a woman feel secure or insecure
about her weight. Furthermore, freshman
year has passed, and yes I have gained the
fifteen pounds associated with it, and even
though I am not yet twenty-five years old,
all of the magazines in the world wouldn’t
and couldn’t make me want to loose
all of my curves — maybe just a few.
Brandy
Stowers is a public relations major at Cal
State Long Beach.
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