Medicine Oops I Did It Again
This is a one-question multiple choice test....
1. When I see this earlier and after flick of Britney Spears
a. I am happy for her and have hope for my own battle with the bulge
b. I am envious
c. I realize that her weight is of societal, if not global importance
d. I am indifferent
I don't believe I would be the kickoff psychologist to propose that we are a social club obsessed with weight...and health; so information technology isn't it ironic that in "The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Iv Meals", Michael Pollan describes the 'American Paradox'. Information technology is the notion that in countries like France and Italian republic, so-called 'unhealthy' foods and the very process of eating are more thoroughly enjoyed so they are in America, where, in spite of our obsession with health, calories and high fructose corn syrup, guilt seems to accompany every mouthful, and obesity and nutrition-related diseases reign supreme.
If, for one moment, you incertitude that we are a food-obsessed civilisation, simply consider the countless plethora of diet and diet books; cook book, cooking shows and cable networks devoted to food preparation and eating; the always-changing landscape of nutrition and wellness gurus and governmental guidelines; food movements both fast and tiresome; epidemics of bulimia, anorexa and obesity; media and advertising feeding frenzies, and of grade, the complex legacy of transitioning from natural industrialized food supply, distribution and consumption. Faced with this deafening 'dietary cacophony' (a phrase used by Harvey Levenstein in his Paradox of Plenty, and borrowed from French sociologist Claude Fischler) of information on how, what, where and why to eat, it is no small wonder that we are seemingly befuddled nigh how to feed ourselves, and then much then, that Pollan suggests "instead of relying on the accumulated wisdom of cuisine, or fifty-fifty the wisdom of our senses, we rely on skilful opinion, advertisement, authorities food pyramids and nutrition books, and we place faith in science to sort out for us what culutre once did with rather more success." .
Then, you may ask, what does whatever of this have to do with Britney Spears and her nearly contempo physical metamorphosis? Well, for ane, images of the 'new', slimmed-downwardly Britney are everywhere, and America seems poised to re-invite her into its centre without knowing or caring about the full dorsum story. Equally long as she is slim and sexy, many of us may be willing to embrace the possibility that all is well. Hope does jump eternal, afterall, and certainly we wish her well.
Britney'southward weight (and life) fluctuations are fascinating, and the popular press constantly reminds us how important our weight is. They do so by providing a 24/7 flood of pictures of celebrities in their bathing suits, underwear, evening-clothing and formal wear...everywhere, all-the time. To name a few...Oprah, Jessica Simpson, Wynona Judd, Nicole Richie, Queen Latifah, Valerie Bertinelli and Kirstie Alley. Who knows; perhaps in the near future, we will be able (for a pocket-size fee tacked onto our cellular bill) to receive a Twitter proclamation from the bath scale of your favorite star.
Delight note that when famous men gain and lose the pounds, it is typically in the course of preparing for a motion-picture show or tv role, and not in response to the emotional vicissitudes of their lives (just we'll save that for some other blogpost).
Back to Britney. Psychology and Science accept teamed up to help u.s. empathise the complex network of factors that influence our wieght, and that barring hormonal, endocrine, metabolic, medication-related and other physiological and concrete atmospheric condition affecting body mass, that our eating habbits and nutrient choices are specially succeptible to and influenced by external factors, such as location, time of twenty-four hour period, the company we share, the mood we are in (or call back we are in), and/or a host of other triggers we may not even be enlightened of. And this makes me wonder how nosotros are influenced past a constant alluvion of images of clebrity before-and- after pictures? How powerful a trigger must it be to see these gods and goddesses vaccilate then in their efforts to maintain a stable body weight...any that may be?! I practise believe that these images and our fascination with celebrtiy bodies reveals just how dependent nosotros, equally a culture are on 'exterior' messages of well being. Somwhere forth the line, we have come up to elevate celebrities bodies to the level of popular platonic. As their weight goes, so goes our pereceptions of our own success and failure at weight direction.
Simply, perhaps there is a bigger picture here; i that psychology cannot fully illuminate. Mayhap we need to entreatment to the ideas and insights of other social science disciplines. Two that come to mind are Medical Sociology and Cultural Anthropology. The field of Medical Sociology, a sub-discipline of sociology asks us to consider how societies ascertain (or construct) concepts of health and illness, both physical and mental. The mission of the Medical Folklore Section of the American Sociological Association is to help united states to understand, among other topics, the subjective experience of health and disease, weight loss and weight gain and our overall sense of physical well-beingness. The 'the normal body', is an elusive construct, i that we co-create through the various media of pop culture. Our fascination, or more accurately, our obsession with the celebrity body may simply be a manifestation of our personal internal stuggle to achieve some sense of normal. And our physical bodies are the frontline representation to the world of how normal (or abnormal) we are.
In the field of cultural anthropology, a subdiscipline of Anthopology, the piece of work of Mary Douglas stands out to me, for she noted that our bodies may be a microcosm for society. In her Purity and Danger too as Essays in the Sociology of Perception, she asks u.s.a. to consider how it is that we come to consider the standards nosotros use to define ourselves in relation to society, and in detail how our bodies are a marker for that relationship. Obesity might correspond a polluted body and as such, a reflection of a greater societal pollution; whereas a fit and slim trunk would in plow relfect more than positively on the cocky and the society in which it is embedded.
It makes sense, at least to me, that as the weights of celebrities go upwards and down, so likewise may our own sense of personal well-being and security, too the perception of our social club as healthy or sick. Certainly, we react strongly, either positively and negatively to fluctuations in the financial market place, the climate and/or geo-political events. We take been conditioned through our insatiable consumption of the media to look outward for a sense of inner peace, rather than inward, and we seem to grasp onto any external standards of 'normalcy', non the least of which is glory trunk mass.
I may exist making more of Britney's waistline than I should. But then again, perhaps I am not. I will leave that for you to ponder.
Source: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/popular-culture-meets-psychology/200908/oops-she-did-it-again-theres-hope-us-all
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