From www.sex-info.info

The Perfect Body

Different cultures tend to glamorize different body types. Filipino culture values fatness as a symbol of wealth and strength. Renaissance culture valued pale skin so much that women used lead-based white makeup on their faces. Sometimes the body types which are admired can seem extremely trivial and strange. For example, two African factions – the Tutsi and the Hutus – started a war (which turned into a genocide) based on the sizes of their noses.

Western culture glamorizes thinness in women and strength in men. The media strengthens and influences these ideals by portraying thinner and skinnier women as fashion models or actresses. A study done on Playboy shows that women featured in that magazine have gotten skinnier over the years, as demonstrated by this graph of a Playboy models body mass index. Similarly, men featured in magazines such as Playgirl have gotten more muscular over the years. Here are some examples of how society’s standard of beauty has become more demanding:

The incredibly thin body image found in most magazines and advertisements tend to be so far below the average weight that they may be unobtainable to the majority of the population even through diet and exercise. The extremely buff features of men are nearly impossible for most men to attain without using steroids. On top of this, these difficult-to-achieve bodies are enhanced with lighting, makeup, airbrushing and various digital tricks. Despite how different these images are from the average person, both men and women tend to feel inferior when they compare themselves to these “perfect” standards. We would like to encourage you to keep a realistic body image, and to avoid measuring yourself to these nearly impossible bodies.

The pictures in the sections titled “women” and “men” were picked because they are beautiful pieces of art, just like the human body. They show that bodies do not have to be very thin or very muscular to be beautiful and desirable.

Women

Many women are dissatisfied with their physical appearance and wish they could change they way they look. We would like to encourage you to love your body the way it is. Focusing on perceived negative aspects of your body can be destructive to your emotional and sexual health. A woman who feels she needs to constantly improve her body is at risk for depression and eating disorders. Women who are dissatisfied with their bodies are also worried that their partners may “find out” their physical flaws, especially when they are engaging in sex. She may become so worried about the flaws she sees in her body that she is unable to enjoy what should be a wonderful experience of love and happiness.

Many women are also concerned with the size of their breasts. We would like to point out that many times men will not concern themselves with the size or shape of your breasts during sex. Large breasts do not add to a man’s sexual experience very much. However, both partners being comfortable, having good communication, and engaging in occasional experimentation will make a great sexual experience.

For the entire article: http://www.soc.ucsb.edu/sexinfo/

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