Week 2: Defining “healthy”

A notion of a “healthy body” means different things to different people. From one point of view, a society defines a “healthy body” based on cultural norms that can take into account distorted scientific knowledge and gender prejudice. What is the norm of how person has to look can be found in popular culture, popular magazines, movies, and billboards. On the other hand, for example, a “healthy body” means a different thing to athletes (I consider athletes’ point of view because that is how I am used to see the world).

The term “healthy” gets its definition according to the time you live in. In different times scientists define what means to be healthy in different ways. Moreover, culture distorts definition given by scientists. For example, Margaret Lowe’s paper “From Robust Appetites to Calorie Counting” shows how definition of “healthy” was used to define women. Before 1920s, for women to have extra weight meant to be feminine and healthy. The American society defined what meant for women to be healthy based on scientific knowledge they had (I have to mention that often science can be interpreted the way someone wants or to be incomplete). Then in 1920s or a little early an idea of a “healthy body” changed. According to Margaret Lowe’s analysis, popular flopper image and a “healthy body” meant the same thing. Moreover, having slim/perfect/healthy/flopper body meant that a woman was capable to control her needs, had wealth and was popular, could good men and a job. So a “healthy body” did not mean that a woman was eating healthy food, was physically hardy and strong. A “healthy body” was a reflection of woman’s character and social status and, unfortunately still is.

Today’s obsession with perfect/ “healthy” body is everywhere (I use terms perfect and “healthy” interchangeable because in cultural norms there is no difference between these terms). The perfect body usually means a slim and muscular body. At least that kind of perfect bodies looks at us from billboards, magazines, and other advertisements. Popular magazines with the help of bathroom scales determine how healthy you are. Or you can easily google body mass calculator and within a minute you will now your verdict: normal, overweight, or obese. April Michelle Herndon in her paper “Mommy made me do it” explores how rhetoric in popular magazines, books for parents and mass media blames mother for obese nation. Herdon considers a prevailing belief by some Americans that mothers have to give birth and to raise slim children. And if a mother fails to raise a slim child, she is responsible. While Herndon examines rhetoric in parent books, government agenda of the popular belief that women are responsible for obese nation and that body size determines how good mothers fulfill parenting duties, we can take one more step and think why women get to be blamed.
My guess is that women are easy target. If people consider what factors contribute to obesity, they would get such agencies like government and big corporation. To be short I will just list problems that possibly lead to obesity without detailed discussion.
• Fast food and junk food advertised directly to children (no government regulation about advertisement of products to children. Big companies buy politicians);
• no differentiation between cultural definition of “healthy” and medical definition of “healthy” (people do not read medical journals, they read popular magazines)
• in New York City for example, no space for children to be physically active (not every parent can afford to pay for a child to play some sport);
• no public education about nutrition;
• culture;

As a child of a professional swimmer, I could never force myself to read popular magazines for women or look at actresses and models and think like many people that those women are “healthy” or accept that that is how women has to look like (I cannot call male models and actors “healthy” too). For me “healthy” always meant to be smart about my nutrition and to exercise regularly. Moreover, my mom did a very good job by breaking any cultural stereotypes about cultural norms. So cultural standards of a “healthy body” bombard us from everywhere and not giving up to cultural norms is really hard. Cultural standards of a “healthy body” are different from medical standards. Blaming women for obese nation is a cover up of those people who actually are responsible for obese nation.