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[ACADEMIA]

SURVIVAL a
OF THE FATTEST

The following item was distributed this month as
a feature by the public relations office of Simon
Fraser University.

Why are North American women so obsessed

with dieting and staying slim? Is it because the —
- able food supply would have a plumper standard of

fashion industry tells them they should be thin?
Research by a team of psychologists at Simon
Fraser University suggests that these ’standards of

thinness’ probably have more grounding in biology .

than the pages of fashion magazines.
“The actuarial statistics tell us that for maximum

health, North American women ought to be fatter -

than they generally want to be. So why this
obsession with dieting?" asks Judith Anderson, a
research associate in the university's psychology
department..

Blaming the fashion industry, the movies, or TV

doesn’t make sense, says Anderson, because dieting
is too unpleasant. "Some pretty strong motivational
force is at work here. Perhaps the fashion industry

goes for thin models because women want to be thin

for other reasons,” she says.

To find out what these reasons might be,.

Anderson and her research team’ conducted an
exhaustive literature review of 62 human cultures.

Anthropological descriptions of such varied cultures '

as Lapps, Persians, ancient Romans, Aleuts, Masai,
Maori and Nootka were examined. a

The study looked for any references to standards
of beauty in women related to body fat. The results
were very interesting, says Anderson.

"We found that while many cultures value
fatness in women, a substantial minority of the
cultures preferred slender women; 20% preferred
‘slim’, while 37% favoured ’moderate’ fatness and
43.5% preferred ’plump’.” _

_ But why such a wide variation in standards
among the cultures? Is it purely arbitrary or is there
something else going on? One ariswer, theorized
Anderson, has to do with the three biological roles of

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human female body fat: insulation, storage of calories

oe and regulation of fertility (thin women tend to be. less |

fertile than plumper ones).

“To test out her theories, Anderson had’ ‘her
assistants correlate standards of beauty in the: 62
cultures to a number of ecological and sociological
variables related to the role of body fat, such as food
supply, climate, the onset of puberty, and degree of
male dominance.

The results confirmed many of her theories.F or
instance, Anderson’s "food security hypothesis"
accurately predicted that a culture with an unreli-

beauty. "Fat represents stored calories and in ances- .

‘tral populations women preferred to be fat when the

food supply was unreliable," explains Anderson. "Men
in such cultures would also prefer fatter women,
because they survived better than thin ones."

‘The converse of this theory — that cultures with
a plentiful food supply would favour thinner stan-
dards of beauty — is not necessarily true, notes
Anderson.

The study also confirmed a strong link between
climate (cold climate societies prefer plumpness),
degree of male social dominance ("macho" societies
favour plumpness, more "equal" societies prefer
slimness), and stresses associated with the onset of
adolescent sexuality (the higher the social stress, the
thinner the standard of beauty).

The study does not support the views that the
fashion industry influences societal standards ‘of |
beauty in any significant way, or that women are
necessarily trying to attract men when they attempt
to adjust their weight.

"This study suggests that the biological functions a
of female fat are important in shaping our attitudes

toward it,” concludes Anderson, It doesn’t answer all —
the questions, she admits, but it does send an impor-
tant message. .
“If we want to do something about our unhealthy,
obsessive ‘dieting behaviour, then we should stop
blaming the fashion. industry and start looking at
other areas, such as the incredible pressures weasa
society place on women,": she says. "Inconsistent
attitudes toward the sexuality of adolescent girls and
the incompatibility of women’s economic contribu-
tions with childrearing, are taking their toll."