Department of Public Health, Universidad de La Frontera, Chile; Department of Health, Ethics and Society, Maastricht University, The Netherlands.
Department of Public Health, Universidad de La Frontera, Chile.
Soc Sci Med. 2018 Mar;201:80-86. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.02.006. Epub 2018 Feb 10.
Obesity in Chile disproportionately affects women of low socioeconomic status (SES). Research has shown that ideals of body size and differences in perceived social pressure for being slim across socioeconomic strata contribute to the social stratification of body size among women in modern societies. Thinness is most valued by high SES women, following western standards of ideal body size. Aiming to understand the link between ideals of body size and SES, this qualitative study explored how 36 Chilean women construct their bodily ideals according to their social position. A purposive sample of women with different profiles with regard to educational attainment, nutritional status and body size (dis)satisfaction was defined, aiming to cover a diverse spectrum of bodily perceptions. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and approached through a thematic and narrative analysis. Drawing on Bourdieu's concepts of habitus, field, capital and embodiment of the social context, this study explains how ideals of body size and appearance are strongly linked to class-dependent gender roles and social roles. The existing gender and class inequalities in the Chilean social structure have been literally embodied by these women through a 'gendered class habitus'. Compliance with the thin ideal confers women different degrees of power according to their social position in different fields, such as in marriage and on the labour market, which turns thinness into an embodied form of capital. The societal dynamic behind obesity rates cannot be disregarded when approaching possible solutions. Promoting obesity-related lifestyle modification at an individual level might appear an over-simplistic and individualistic approach to a complex social issue. Context-oriented interventions that take cultural constructions of gender and social class into account might yield better results in the long term, while advocating for a more equitable society and social justice as a public health concern.
智利的肥胖问题不成比例地影响社会经济地位（SES）较低的女性。研究表明，体型理想和社会对苗条的感知压力在社会经济阶层之间的差异，导致现代社会中女性体型的社会分层。 SES 较高的女性最看重瘦，遵循西方理想体型标准。本研究旨在了解体型理想与 SES 之间的联系，探索了 36 名智利女性如何根据自己的社会地位构建身体理想。通过半结构化访谈收集数据，并采用主题和叙事分析方法进行分析。本研究利用 Bourdieu 的习惯、场域、资本和社会背景体现等概念，解释了体型和外貌理想如何与依赖阶级的性别角色和社会角色密切相关。智利社会结构中现有的性别和阶级不平等通过“性别阶级习惯”被这些女性身体化了。遵守瘦的理想根据她们在不同领域的社会地位赋予她们不同程度的权力，例如在婚姻和劳动力市场中，瘦成为一种具体化的资本。在解决可能的解决方案时，不能忽视肥胖率背后的社会动态。在个人层面上促进与肥胖相关的生活方式改变，可能是一种过于简单和个人主义的方法来解决复杂的社会问题。从长远来看，考虑到性别和社会阶级的文化构建的以背景为导向的干预措施可能会产生更好的结果，同时倡导一个更加公平的社会和社会正义作为公共卫生关注。
