What's Wrong with Diet? What's the Role of Aesthetics?

Chapter 4. Losing weight: Thinspiration (thinspo) and Fitspiration (fitspo)

What we are researching: What modern ideals of beauty become the motive for losing weight?

What's new: What is the two-dimensional ideal of beauty and why is it popular?

What we will learn: What will help us give a real assessment of the two-dimensional image of the ideal of beauty?

1. The image of a busty blonde with a thin waist and a pretty face was replaced by an image of an elongated and sharply prominent angularity. This image became the motive for losing weight. With weight loss, femininity disappears in the body, characterized by soft and rounded body contours (Author).

2. The trend towards changing the ideal leads to the creation of a standard of attractiveness that is now two-dimensional: unrealistically thin and fit [muscular, ed. author] (Benton S., Karazia B.T. 2015) [1].

3. Thinspiration * and fitspiration ** are modern online trends designed to inspire viewers to the ideal of thinness or health and fitness, respectively (Tiggemann M., et al. 2018) [2].

* Thinspiration is a modern online appearance-based trend that has proven to be destructive to body image, known as "thinspiration" (a portmanteau of the words "thin" and "inspiration"). Thinspiration consists of text and images designed to inspire and give users tips on how to lose weight to achieve a skinny and bony look (ibid.).

**Fitspiration is a much more widespread trend offered by the Internet on various websites. Fitspiration (a portmanteau of the words "fitness" and "inspiration") consists of text and images designed to motivate people to lead a healthier lifestyle through exercise and nutrition (ibid.).

4. Fundamental weight loss mistake. Research has shown that the "ideal of thinness" and the ideal of "health and fitness" are motivations for losing weight (III fr. 4. 2, 3). The desire to lose weight reveals our mistake, which has two sides. On the one hand, there is a fundamental misunderstanding of what weight loss is.

• One of the most important findings from this study was that the "thin ideal" appears to be pervasive on social media. This ideal can contribute to unhealthy practices such as dieting, increased body dissatisfaction, and disordered relationships with food (italics author) (Aparicio-Martinez P., et al. 2019) [3].

Losing weight is always associated with the formation of a lifestyle focused on controlling food, weight, and body shape through so-called diets (I fr. 8. 1–3). This lifestyle is potentially dangerous to health since it does not take into account the individual physiological and psychological needs of a human (I fr. 29. 4, 12, 18).

5. The other side of the mistake. It manifests itself in a naive attitude towards the influence of the ideal image of the beauty of the body on our unconscious processes (II fr. 14. 5–7). In other words, it is not obvious to us how the created ideal image of beauty has already taken root and begun to change our psyche, as a result of which eating disorders and other disorders associated with health risks arise (I fr. 21. 4– 9).

• Exposure to these sociocultural body ideals on social media can have negative consequences for people's well-being, mental health (eg depression, anxiety, and loneliness), exercise and eating behavior, and body image (italics author) (Jeronimo F, Karrasa E.V. 2022) [4].

An eating disorder and the development of depression against its background have a high risk of suicide, even with specialized treatment (II fr. 14. 8; I fr. 29. 11–13, 15). Let's consider the stages of changes in ideal images of beauty, which were the motive for losing weight among different generations.

6. Busty and thin-waisted. An example of an ideal image of beauty was Jayne Mansfield, an actress in American cinema, theater, and television. In the 50s and early 60s, she was the main sex symbol, and it was not for nothing that she won every beauty pageant in the state of Texas.