Lecture 12

Question 1

Are somatotypes a legitimate science?

Answer 1

No.

Question 2

Endomorphs

Answer 2

Rotund, soft, and overweight. Easygoing, gregarious, self-indulgent. Not prone to violence.

Question 3

Ectomorph

Answer 3

Tall, slender. Nervous, high-strung, introspective and thoughtful. Loners who might engage in vandalism, theft, or other non-violent crimes.

Question 4

Mesomorph

Answer 4

Less sensitive, more aggressive.

Question 5

How is deviance constructed when it comes to body types?

Answer 5

Children’s movies and books idealize thinness. Associate it with positive attributes. Obesity correlated with negative attributes. Also, Barbie dolls.

Question 6

Many scholars reject this idea about body types, but public agrees to it.

Answer 6

Believe that it can be transmitted genetically, that you are born into violence.

Question 7

Do Barbie dolls represent the normal women?

Answer 7

No.

Question 8

How do Barbies affect young girls?

Answer 8

• See this as the ideal body type for women.

- Girls who play with Barbies have lower opinions about their bodies, and a desire to be thin like Barbies.

Question 9

In the adult world, media body images are often ___.

Answer 9

Edited. Digital retouching, photoshopping.

Question 10

How does the media affect women’s self-image?

Answer 10

Women hold themselves to the standard of retouched photos.

Question 11

How does the media affect men’s ideas of women?

Answer 11

Men who are exposed to the ideal body type have unrealistic expectations of women.

Question 12

Voluntary Aspects

Answer 12

Element of physical appearance that we have some control over. Connected to subcultures.

Question 13

Involuntary Aspects

Answer 13

Height, disfigurements, and physical disabilities.

Question 14

How does the scientific method approach body size?

Answer 14

Science is based on health risks and harm. BMI. 18.5-24.9. Individuals above that range are overweight, while those under are underweight. WHO report that worldwide, 1.4 billion adults are overweight. 3 million die each year from being sedentary.

Question 15

Causes of obesity:

Answer 15

Lifestyle choices, saturation of culture with unhealthy food, emotional factors, and interactions between human biology and human culture over a long period of evolution.

Question 16

Interactions between human biology and human culture over a long period of evolution cause obesity. Explain this:

Answer 16

As mammals and primates, humans have the opportunity to store body fat when the opportunity to consume excess energy arises. Such opportunities were rare and transient, Also had to engage in lots of physical activity. Evolved elaborate and complex physiological systems to protect against starvation. However, we also devised technological ways to decrease effort and increase energy consumption.

Question 17

How do sociologists talk about obesity?

Answer 17

• It is a form of physical deviance.

- Obesity is portrayed as a social problem.

Question 18

How is obesity portrayed by the general public?

Answer 18

Many people see obesity as a form of deviance. Manifestation of weak, self-indulgent, or lazy behaviour. Ignore social-scientific viewpoint.

Question 19

Fat Shaming

Answer 19

Making someone who is obese feel inadequate in some way.

Question 20

How does fat shaming vary between cultures?

Answer 20

While most cultures see a morbidly obese person as problematic, some racial groups have different views. African-American women are often complimented by their African-American partners for having a larger body size. Larger body sizes can be a sign of wealth and status.

Question 21

Thin or Skinny Shaming

Answer 21

Making someone who is thin feel inadequate in some way.

Question 22

Example of thin shaming:

Answer 22

“Real Women Have Curves” campaign.

Question 23

Why is thin shaming problematic?

Answer 23

Trying to counter the thin standard of beauty. However, still singles out a certain kind of women as beautiful.

Question 24

Anorexia

Answer 24

Combines extremely low body weight with other physical and psychological symptoms.

Question 25

Muscle Dysmorphia

Answer 25

Bigorexia. They can never get big enough.

Question 26

4 causes of anorexia:

Answer 26

• Psychoanalysis: Problematic mother-child relationship.
• Controlling families: Create anxiety, don’t have ownership over yourself. Exhibit control by reducing what you eat.
• Hormonal factors.
• Internalized social norms: Usually from media, emphasis on thinness.

Question 27

True or false? “Too thin” takes longer to take hold than “too fat.”

Answer 27

True.

Question 28

True or false? Media participates only in the social typing of “too fat.”

Answer 28

Media takes part in the social typing of too thin, just as it participates in the social typing of too fat.

Question 29

Why do we have to be skeptical of soft sciences?

Answer 29

Standard in soft sciences is much lower than disciplines like physics.

Question 30

Problem with the Barbie study:

Answer 30

Relationship determined has a major error. Were exposed to images of Barbies, n dolls, or no dolls at all. Then completed assessments of body image. Girls who played with Barbie desired a thiner body shape, and had a poor body image. However, this immediate negative impact of the Barbie doll was no longer evident in the oldest girls in that group (8).

Question 31

What did a follow up study to the Barbie study find?

Answer 31

Another study found that although exposure to Barbie may lead to higher thin ideals among little girls, this exposure has no impact on body esteem or body dissatisfaction.

Question 32

Is there a long-term impact in adults for playing with Barbies?

Answer 32

The idea behind these studies is that what adult women think about their bodies have some origin in childhood experiences. We do not know.

Question 33

What is wrong with the view that body ideals are socially constructed?

Answer 33

Almost like they’re saying these ideals are fantasies. There is way more consistency than there is variance, both between cultures, historically, and geographically.

Question 34

Why would clean and clear skin be a near universal ideal?

Answer 34

Biology and psychology say that skin quality conveys a lot of valuable information about prospective female mates. Blemishless women signal lower androgen and higher estrogen levels. Fluctuates with menstrual cycle.

Question 35

Why would ratio between waist and hip ratio be a near universal ideal?

Answer 35

Sexual trait that is unique to humans. Well known to influence men’s mate preferences. Women’s ratio provides information about age, health, and fertility. Men’s preferences concerning this physical features may play a cognitive adaptation selected in the human lineage.

Question 36

Why should we be skeptical that unrealistic female body images might influence men in a negative way.

Answer 36

Hundreds of studies show that the body type most men prefer is larger. Points to a more complex relationship. Maybe we are critical of media messages we internalize.

Question 37

Why should we be skeptical that men feel insecure about their bodies due to an unrealistic view of men?

Answer 37

However, men are not a homogenous population. Gay men have more appearance concerns than heterosexual men. Not that much evidence that most heterosexual men respond to this pressure from women.

Question 38

What is the difference between men and women when they are dissatisfied with the way they look?

Answer 38

Even if men are dissatisfied with the way they look, it does not mean that they are motivated to change their appearance. Women are.

Question 39

Describe the unrealistic body image of the Ancient Greeks:

Answer 39

Ancient Greeks thought beautiful body was a reflection of a beautiful mind. Sculptures were thought of to be an impossible ideal. However, we now realize that these sculptures were made from casts of real people. Representing the best of themselves.

Question 40

True or false? Anorexia is a function of TV and magazines.

Answer 40

False.

Question 41

Looking at anorexia skeptically:

Answer 41

• Hypocrites reported more than 2 millennia ago that eating disorders occurred predominantly among women. Puts to bed the notion that media images alone are to blame.
• Even in cultures where Western media’s thin ideals are not as prevalent, anorexia exists.
• Very few of the women who are exposed to the ideal body images in media become anorexic.