Chinese and Western women face familial and social media pressure to be thin
There’s a lot traditionally passed down through Asian families: values, traditions, language. Pressure to be thin seems to also be on that list for Asian American women.
There’s a lot traditionally passed down through Asian families: values, traditions, language. Pressure to be thin also seems to be on the list for Asian American women.
Take, for instance, the Reddit discussion titled “Asian moms and their terrible body image issues.”
“I was always told that I was too fat, but at the same time my mom shows her love through food and is always shoving food at me,” a user wrote. Then there’s the Cold Tea Collective, which published an article with tips for dealing with fat-shaming in an Asian family. Thick Dumpling Skin on Tumblr shares blog posts about body image, offering a place for “hungry Asian voices to be heard.”
A new study released Wednesday by PLOS ONE examines those deep-rooted East Asian body standards, as well as the pressure Western social media puts on white women when it comes to body image. The study assessed women’s positive feelings about their bodies and found that both Chinese and white Western women idealize thin bodies significantly more than Black Nigerian women.
These groups, specifically, were surveyed to capture globally diverse experiences and represent people who aren’t always included in existing research, the study says.
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