What's wrong with the diet? Physiological component of the diet.

Chapter 21. Gender Identity and Individuality

What we explore: How do distorted gender lenses affect behavior?

What's new: What emotions about the body are evoked by distorted lenses of gender?

What we will learn: How does the emotion of interest contribute to harmony in the psyche?

1. "The body is influenced in every possible way so that it corresponds to people's gender-polarizing ideas about themselves" (Bem S. 2004) [1].

2. "The modern ideal of a thin woman interferes with the natural biological tendency of the female body - the formation of adipose tissue (or simply fat) at every stage of development, from puberty, then pregnancy, to menopause" (ibid.).

3. Peculiarities of perception. In her book, Professor Sandra Bem* shows the influence of perverted gender identity on the behavior of men and women. This behavior involves influencing one's body as a woman or man to conform to polar cultural roles. What does it mean? A man or woman perceives his gender not through his morphological, physiological, and biochemical individuality, but through glasses, the distorted lenses of which were "manufactured" by Western culture.

* Sandra Bem (1944–2014) was an American psychologist known for her work in the fields of androgyny and gender studies. She was a professor of psychology and director of the women's studies program at Cornell University until her retirement in 2010. Her research has focused on gender schema theory, sexuality, and clinical psychology. Her 1993 book, The Gender Lens: Transforming Perspectives on Gender Inequality, was named the best psychology book of that year by the Association of American Publishers.

4. Manifestation of perception. Western cultural lenses convey a distorted perception of one's body. It manifests itself in the rejection of one's hereditary dimorphism (the body shape corresponding to a man or a woman), which leads to "correction" of the body through plastic surgery and the use of hormones. Women resort to enlargement or correction of lips, breasts, and buttocks. Men resort to increasing muscle mass with the help of anabolic steroids * and bodybuilding. A particularly strong dislike for one's body manifests itself due to the amount of subcutaneous fat, which is genetically more characteristic of the female constitution than the male one. After all, the greater presence of subcutaneous fat gives the female figure softer outlines due to the rounding of body parts. But modern Western culture has idealized roughness at the expense of the thin female body.

*Anabolic steroids are synthetic derivatives of testosterone. The term "anabolic steroid" is somewhat misleading. "Anabolic androgenic steroid" is a more precise term). The main reason for use is to gain a muscular, bigger, and better appearance [2].

5. Idealization of female thinness. Due to weight loss, the proportion of adipose tissue is significantly reduced not only on the body but also on the face. With a decrease in fat, the shape of the face changes: rounded cheeks are leveled and drawn in, the nose and chin are sharpened, and the forehead, eye sockets, and cheekbones stand out sharply, giving the entire face rigidity and severity. The idealization of female thinness leads to psychopathology in the perception of one's face and body, which is the cause of the serious illness of anorexia * (fr. 7. 14). The difficulty in correcting distorted body image is that gender-polarizing lenses create feelings and emotions that contribute to the division (polarization) of men and women along inherited gender lines.