PRETTY THIN: THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN ATTITUDES ABOUT FEMALE
stopped presenting actual average weight values and began to include purely ideal numbers (153). No longer based in statistical measurements, the tables now reflected scientists’ opinions about how much a person of a particular height should weigh. In fact, when applied to the 1914 American population, these charts designated “more than half of all Americans over the age of thirty-five” as obese (Schwartz 157). Idealistic and not based in fact, standard height-weight charts set subjective, unrealistic standards of body size for women to pursue. The 20th century advent of the home scale, mentioned by Brumberg (Fasting Girls 234), allowed women to keep track of whether they were obese according to height-weight charts. Additionally, it increased focus on body weight and imbued largeness with negative personal significance. Advertisements for bathroom scales warned buyers, “a few pounds overweight and the graceful contour of youth has become heavy and unpleasant” (Schwartz 170). The fashion industry, especially with the Gibson Girl image, encouraged women to appear slim and youthful. The scale, then, allowed women to measure their progress as they sought thinness and a smaller body size. To be overweight (a designation easily determined with the aid of the scale) was to be unattractive or lacking style, as implied by the fashion industry and media. With the availability of the personal bathroom scale, people could also more easily compare their weight with that of others. Here, as occurred with the trend of revelation in fashion, emerged the opportunity for judgment and critique of female body size and shape. As largeness connoted a lack of trendiness and beauty, weight was no longer an isolated scientific health fact. With the help of a scale, women could determine if they were overweight and, by extension, whether their body size was acceptable based on its accordance with the popular thin preference. Thus, as women came to rely on the scale to determine their beauty and trendiness, they internalized negative perceptions of overweight individuals, and the anti-fat mindset became a more solidified part of American culture.
NUTRITION SCIENCE INFLUENCES IDEAS ABOUT THINNESS The 20th century saw an increase in understanding and discussion of nutrition science, which facilitated the negative characterization of overweight women. Public interest in nutrition science also intensified during this time. According to Stearns, in the early 1900s, the number of American journal articles about nutrition and related topics grew from almost none to “at least five” per year (28). As scholarly communication about nutrition increased in America, different ideas about health and food were developed and exchanged. As a result, the American public had access to more information about nutrition as well. Researcher Wilbur Atwater contributed significantly to the American discussion of nutrition. Atwater calculated the “fuel” that each food provided, creating the calorie system (Schwartz 87). The use of calories as an index for food’s nutritional value became a fundamental part of American ideas about nutrition. As it grew in popularity, counting calorie came to be perceived as a method of weight control that made thinness and good eating habits effortless to acquire (Schwartz 135). Armed with knowledge of foods’ caloric content, anyone was expected to be able to manage his or her weight with ease. As a result, if a woman could not maintain or lose weight by counting calories, she might be labeled as ignorant or lazy. In this way, development in the field of nutrition science linked overweight individuals with the negative characterizations of negligence and of being a sloth. VOLUME 25 / 2015-2016 | 39
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