Introduction
The 21st century is marked by the rise of social constructivism in psychology, sociology, and feminist disciplines. Social constructivism explains many aspects of our lives through the prism of stereotypes enforced by a dominant culture. It has become popular among many modern researchers and has helped refresh the views on many societal issues and problems previously analyzed in the context of biological and historical perspectives.
One of the problems frequently observed in social constructivism is the relationship between gender, size discrimination, and fatphobia. Although it affects both genders, women are more likely to develop fatphobia and be discriminated against for their size than men. The issue of fatphobia, fat-shaming, and the societal perceptions of excessive weight is covered in “Size 6: The Western Woman’s Harem” by Fatema Mernissi and “Ideal Weight/Ideal Women: Society Constructs the Female” by Nita Mary McKinley. Although both articles address the issue of size discrimination as a gendered form of social and sexual control, the perspective of social constructivism ignores biological perceptions of excessive weight stigma and presents a narrow view of the subject.
Review of the Articles
The article, “Size 6: The Western Woman’s Harem”, by Fatema Mernissi connects the issue of fat-shaming, fatphobia, and societal enforcement of beauty norms as social constructs enforced by the male-dominated fashion industry. The author spends half of the article telling a story from her personal experience in a clothing shop to illustrate the problem, before making historical parallels with the fashion industry in ancient China, where women purposefully mutilated their feet to adhere to the male notion of beauty. She selects a book by Pierre Bourdieu, entitled La Domination Masculine, as the perfect explanation of the phenomenon, claiming that existing perceptions of beauty are products of symbolic violence and stereotypes that help men dominate and control women (Mernissi 75).
McKinley, in her article, “Ideal Weight/Ideal Women: Society Constructs the Female”, examines the issue of fat-shaming, fatphobia, and cultural control by analyzing three key factors that are used to support existing social constructs (McKinley 109):
- Fatness is unhealthy;
- Fatness is not beautiful;
- Fatness is sexually unattractive.
Although the author acknowledges that excessive weight is scientifically associated with unhealthiness, she claims that the concept of health is a social construct as well, just as beauty and sex appeal are. The final part of her research is dedicated to the efforts that are already being made and those that could be additionally made to challenge the connection between the virtues of health, beauty, and sexual attraction, and fatness.
The conclusion reflects on the usefulness of social constructivism to demonstrate how fatphobia and fat-shaming are tools of social control. The author suggests that a dedicated effort would be required to challenge the cultural norms of the existing dominant culture (McKinley 111).
Critical Analysis
While both articles manage to connect the male-dominated fashion industry with social control, the framework of social constructivism fails to address numerous aspects of fat acceptance, fatphobia, and fat-shaming. “Size 6: The Western Woman’s Harem” is written in a newspaper style. It uses anecdotal evidence and mentions only one source of peer-reviewed literature, which was cherry-picked to fit the narrative, as the author admits with the following line: “Of all possible explanations, I like that of the French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu, the best” (Mernissi 75).
She does not investigate the possibility of fatphobia and fat intolerance being motivated by factors other than male-dominated control over the standards of beauty. Darwin’s theory of sexual selection provides an alternative perspective on the mechanisms of beauty and size ideals without portraying these notions as social constructs.
“Ideal Weight/Ideal Women: Society Constructs the Female” provides plenty of academic sources to support its claims. However, the author’s attempts to undermine the logic behind fatphobia and fat-shaming largely fail due to the shortcomings of the social constructivism model. While McKinley dismisses health as a social construct, empirical data from numerous medical research studies suggests that alterations from the “ideal size” and excessive body weight are associated with numerous diseases, such as diabetes, congestive heart failure, and hypertension. The idea that beauty and sexuality are evolutionary constructs rather than social constructs is not addressed. The article lacks any sources that provide opposing theoretical and philosophical views.
Conclusions
Size discrimination and fatphobia about gender is a complex matter that cannot be fully described within the scope of one particular framework. This paper examined the views on these issues through the prism of social constructivism. Although the theory is useful when finding the connection between size discrimination, fatphobia, and the fashion industry (which is a social construct), the attempts to explain other facets of the issue, such as size discrimination about health and sex, were unsuccessful. The author did not provide enough evidence to prove that health and sex are solely social constructs. Biological and evolutionary theories offer much better explanations.
Social constructivism is naturally attractive to some feminist researchers as it supports the agenda of all troubles and phobias of women being caused purely by social constructs used to control women and their behavior. Thus, social constructivism theory, when not used in conjunction with other theories, such as the natural selection theory, obfuscates the truth and prevents the development of effective measures for counteracting discrimination and phobia.
Works Cited
McKinley, Nita Mary. “Ideal Weight/Ideal Women: Society Constructs the Female.” Weighty Issues: Fatness and Thinness as Social Problems, edited by James Sobal et al., 1991, pp. 97-115.
Mernissi, Fatema. Scheherazade Goes West. DIANE, 2005.