Today, women perceive themselves as fat irrespective of their weight, and the diet craze pursuing a slim figure is intensified by social, historical, and economic factors.
Today, many women perceive themselves as fat regardless of their actual weight. Regardless of wealth or age, they uniformly desire to be thin, and this desire fuels the diet craze. Given that the body relates to our diverse desires and self-expression, the diet craze can serve as a mirror reflecting our society.
Concern for the body is not a recent phenomenon. According to one sociological report, in the United States, women with very slim figures were popular in the 1930s, while women with voluptuous figures, like Marilyn Monroe, were popular in the 1950s. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, when economic conditions were poor, slim women who appeared agile became symbols of attractiveness because working women were needed. However, by the 1950s, as the economy began to improve, societal expectations shifted toward women building happy homes, leading people to favor the image of actresses with voluptuous curves.
This historical context plays a crucial role in understanding contemporary perceptions of the body. The obsession with slim figures is not merely about appearance but is deeply intertwined with social and economic shifts. For example, since the 1980s, amid global economic instability and intensifying competition in the labor market, a slim figure has come to symbolize competence and self-discipline. Consequently, dieting transcended mere aesthetic standards and became perceived as directly linked to social success.
In a consumer society, the body naturally becomes central to self-expression. As industrial development brought material abundance, humans gained the ability to satisfy their desires through diverse consumption and came to believe they express themselves through consumption. Today, consumption tends to be heavily shaped and regulated by mass media. Furthermore, humans seek to express themselves by imitating images seen in visual media. In this sense, self-expression through consumption can be said to be defined by the gaze of others and is difficult to view as a process of creating a self-image that is autonomous and active. Ultimately, the act of shaping one’s image through consumption amounts to nothing more than enhancing one’s market value.
The preference for the image of a slim woman is closely tied to this. Not all types of dieting were undertaken for the same reasons as today. In the Middle Ages, dieting was a form of discipline within religious lifestyles aimed at controlling the soul, while in the 18th century, it was a way for members of specific groups to regulate the quantity and type of food they consumed. In contrast, most modern diets are undertaken with the goal of creating a slim figure to increase one’s market value. Misguided perceptions about appearance have fueled this diet craze, which is increasingly amplified and reproduced through mass media.
Interest in the body as a means of self-expression, dominated by capitalist commodification logic, is instead alienating people from their own bodies. The image of the body as a commodity and appearance-oriented values disseminated through mass media reinforce an obsession with an attractive physique, driving people to join the ranks of those pursuing a slim figure through dieting. This homogenized body image constructed within mass media leaves us with nothing but an image of the body, not the body itself. Consequently, modern society’s fixation on the body can be understood less as a genuine expression of the self and more as a reflection of social and economic pressures.
In this context, pursuing a healthy body image should be recognized not merely as a matter of appearance, but as a process of restoring a positive attitude toward oneself and self-respect. This suggests the need for a balanced approach that considers both an individual’s mental and physical health. Only when the purpose of dieting is established not solely as a means to external beauty, but as one method for holistic health, can we finally achieve a proper understanding of the body.
