Brock Press

Issue date: 12/2/08 Section: Features

Media Credit: Dario Ayala

Facebook tells me I'm fat almost everyday. Or at least that is how it makes me feel.

Call it lack of self-confidence or a distorted body image, but being constantly bombarded with advertising for Oprah's Miracle Akai diet or ways to cut down the flab on my middle section, I can't help but feel like there is something I need to improve, and as a result, spend time scrutinizing myself in the mirror.

I have a feeling that I'm not the only person who feels this way.

According to the Wardenburg Health Centre at the University of Colorado, "women overestimate the size of their hips by 16 per cent and their waists by 25 per cent, yet the same women were able to correctly estimate the width of a box".

However, women are not the only ones who struggle with the way they look and how society tells them to look. The same study from the Wardenburg Health Centre discovered that one out of four men are on a diet at any time, whereas for women, it is only one in three.

I think it is fair to assume that most people, both men and women, have one thing about themselves that they would change if they had the chance, and Dr. Kim Gammage in the Department of Physical Education and Kinesiology at Brock University can explain it in terms of what society believes to be the ideal for both genders, and how many of us strive to achieve it.

"There are a couple of major differences between men and women. First, the ideal is different - for women it is thin, toned - not too muscular - and young. For men, the ideal is muscular, with a v-shaped torso - broad shoulders, narrow waist," she said. "Women tend to be more concerned with the lower body - hips, thighs, buttocks - while men tend to be more concerned with the upper body - chest, arms, back. The other major difference is the direction of dissatisfaction - women pretty consistently want to be thinner than they are and often will overestimate their body size, while men are more equally divided between wanting to be thinner and wanting to be bigger - more muscular.

"Because of these differences, women are more likely to use diet (dietary restraint, eating disorders) to achieve the ideal. Men are more likely to use exercise. They are also more likely to use steroids and supplements. However, there is some shifting going on in what is ideal - it is becoming more muscular (slightly) for women."

Continued...

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