Survival of the Fattest

The North American beauty ideal depicted through mannequins. Photo credit: Samantha Daniels

Weight is a pretty big issue in North America. You hear about the “obesity epidemic” in the news, and in a lot of ways it should be a concern. There are a number of health-related issues to obesity, including diabetes, heart problems, and general well-being issues.

If you were to look around the world, most societies favour physically fit individuals with low body-fat seen as a beauty ideal. However, this hasn’t always been the case. Looking back to Renaissance Europe and even Classical era Greece and Rome, the beautiful women were the round, voluptuous ones. In one sense, their weight signified wealth because it meant they could afford to feed themselves.

In one part of the world this idea that extra weight is beautiful remains. The Azawagh Arabs of Niger in Africa still practice an ancient custom of fattening. At a young age, girls are forced to eat enormous quantities of milk and porridge until stretchmarks cover most of their body. Big, round, fleshy bodies are the ideal that signifies beauty.

Toronto graffiti showing the extremes people will go to for a ‘beautiful’ body. Photo credit: Samantha Daniels

In a strange sense, this is similar to our society. In both cases, the natural body needs to be ‘socialized’ until it is an acceptable specimen in terms of societal norms.

The Azawagh Arab’s fattening through immobility and gorging is the same as our culture’s slimming through exercise regimes and fad diets. And you may think one is inherently better than the other. Fatness can lead to health problems, but so can skinniness. Either way, it’s a refusal of what comes naturally in preference of an ‘idealized’ form.

So be the change. Accept your body for whatever you were given naturally. The idea that desirability depends on how big or small you are is as ridiculous as it depending on your eye colour.

Attempt Understanding.

Throughout history, one thing is consistently present: conflict.

As a seemingly universal experience of all humans, our world revolves around conflicting ideals and beliefs spurring from areas of uncertainty. The most obvious are the big trigger areas, such as wealth, politics, and religion, which are often topics to avoid when talking to anyone but those closest to you — and sometimes you still have to choose your words wisely.

Everyday we are exposed to conflict, not only on the individual level, but also within each group/society, as well as on the global scale:

• Have you ever struggled to get out of bed in the morning?
• Have you ever driven faster than the speed limit even though the government says it’s not safe?
• Do you disagree with the actions or beliefs of a certain culture?

Not only are you in daily conflict with yourself, your society, and the rest of the world, but each is in conflict with you and the others. A society may disagree with your life choices, a country may disagree with with another country’s policies, it seems everyone is in conflict with something.

Even science, the closest we have come to knowing the objective truth, is contested by many around the world. With an ever increasing supply of ideas and points of views from which to interpret an occurrence, it becomes more and more unlikely for everyone, let alone a couple people, to fully agree on what is true about the world.

With so many versions of the truth, my goal is to present as many of these conflicting ideals as possible to make space for understanding, and perhaps more tolerance. People’s opinions aren’t going to change overnight, so instead of trying to convince others to see as you see, we all might as well try to understand where they’re coming from. It may even change your mind about how you see the world.

From my individual perspective, going into university from a science-dominated background, I was used to the black-and-white answers that only science can provide. 1 + 1 always equals 2 in science. So, I started my first year in the health sciences, thanks to my high school love of chemistry and grandiose ideas of being a neurosurgeon.

By the end of my first year I realized it wasn’t for me, and that left me lost. For two years, I struggled to stay in a program for more than a semester, taking me through courses in English, Classics, religion, psychology, astrophysics… a little bit of everything. I was introduced to so many new ideas and perspectives of the world, all of them conflicting and muddling up my simple world of science.

These conflicting ideas gave me a lot to consider, and frankly, they confused me. It was hard to accept that the concept of only one right answer didn’t transfer beyond scientific understanding. I looked for the ‘right’ answers and came up with nothing.

So, in this world of many sides to the truth, I ask you to keep your mind open to new possibilities. You may not fully agree with what I’m presenting, but that’s not the point. Hell, I’m probably not going to agree with everything I’m writing. The point is to try to see something from a new perspective and perhaps learn to view your own world of truths in a different way. If you do, tell me what differences you see, and if not, tell me what you think is right.

This is an open learning experience for whoever wants to participate.