Body Image Stereotypes may being in the High Chair

[heyitsmonk]

Original Article:  http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/516812

Newswise - Parents of toddlers may be serving up stereotypes about

Comments

[gaelfarce]

"Parents are buying into the media ideal of thinness for girls and perceiving that their daughters may not be thin enough, even at this young age," Joiner said.
"They also have stereotypes about male culture that boys should be big and strong and physical."I don't think thinness is necessarily a media ideal any more than obesity is the natural ideal for bodytypes. Especially in a world where looking healthy (not stick thin as this article seems to imply) has definitive cultural payoff in terms of employment, success, and mental health. The other statement that boys should be 'big and strong' has been the hoped for result for boys as that is their natural body type. What parent hopes for a small and weak child? Does this mean that two parents of average height are thinking their son is going to be huge? Of course not, but that child should be a big strong average of both parents which is just a subjective definition at any rate

[goaskyourmother]

I always imagined that it would be the other way round! My mother is obsessed with food and dieting and amazingly my brother and I have no eating disorders.

[sollersuk]

Huh. When I was that age, food rationing was still going on. My mother was unusual in that she did not expect me to clear my plate as a matter of course, which was the norm at that time, for boys and girls alike.