In today's American society, being "thin" is what is considered beautiful and valuable to most people. But what is the "ideal" body frame in other cultures? What are the stereotypes of body images in different cultures? What aspect of a culture makes a person think about his or her body the way they do? Is it religion? Media? Government? Ever since I can remember, body image and awareness has been a huge influence in my life as well as in my friends' lives. I must admit as an American I'm very ignorant in the sense that I think everyone shares the same ideas or concepts about body image as the United States do. Because of my sheltered views of body image, I've decided to research the women of Nigeria and their use of fattening rooms. When I first heard the term "fattening rooms" I was agape! I had never heard of such a thing in my life and was quite intrigued to learn more. I don't understand why a culture would admire overweight or obese women when it is so unhealthy. Does there body image have anything to do with their roles in society? Their food? Their places?The history of Nigeria?I've never really taken the time to explore this topic but it seems very interesting and hopefully will help broaden my views on different body types and images and why a certain image is held higher or more ideal to the people of Nigeria. By using the concept of fattening rooms as an subplot, I will try to uncover why Nigerian women have a certain body image and if it pertains to history, food, places or their roles in society.
Hi Ashley,
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if you changed your blog topic but I wrote a response to the introduction you posted on oncourse. I hope its still relevant.
This blog topic jumped out to me because I recently read a book that discusses body image. In The Body Has A Mind Of Its Own by Sandra Blakeslee I learned that every person has two dueling body maps. The first of these body maps is your body schema. The body’s schema is your perception of your own body’s felt position, movement and capabilities. The body schema is largely unconscious and streams information to specific regions of the brain through sensory systems. The second body map is called body image. Body image is how you view and present yourself to the world like the way you dress, pose, and how you move. Body image is your learned attitudes toward the body and the way you feel about your bodily traits, though it is not the traits themselves. Unlike the schema, body image is very much conscious. Often, the body image is very emotional. These attitudes we learn about our body are often so powerful that they cause diets to fail. This is where eating and body image disorders emerge. The way you view and experience your body is exceedingly difficult to change. When sensory information reaches the brain, the brain compares it to all the things that we have seen, heard, or felt before and categorizes it. The way sensory information is handled can be dangerous because the mind prejudges what we see, hear and feel. It will pass information on before we are really sure of what it is we are learning. This is how an anorexic person can look in the mirror and “feel” a body that is not there. That said, it’s not that an anorexic person has a “fragile” body image so much as they have a prejudging mind.
I’m not sure how body image changes in other cultures but I assume that it is more affected in countries with big media industries. In advertisement, people choose a body image that best represents beauty, not the majority of people. This is where people and body image collide. Very interesting topic, I’ll look forward to reading what you discover after exams. Good luck!
Hi I did change my blog topic to Nigerian body images and the use of "fattening rooms."
ReplyDeletehttp://nigerianwomenfatteningrooms.blogspot.com/2009/10/nigerian-women-and-fattening-rooms.html#comments
heres the link!