Body Size Physical Attractiveness And Body Image

Body Size, Physical Attractiveness, And Body Image Essay, Research Paper

Body Size, Physical Attractiveness, and Body Image among Young Adult Women: Relationships to Sexual Experience and Sexual Esteem.

Introduction:

It is hardly necessary to conduct a formal scientific study in order to determine that a woman s physical appearance is an important factor in her ability to attract members of the opposite sex. This idea is nothing new to us. Although the cultural standards of attractiveness have continued to change over the years (Marilyn Monroe vs. Twiggy vs. Cindy Crawford), the basic notion that beauty is essential to one s romantic success has remained. Little girls grow up playing with Barbie and know that they must look like Barbie if they want to find a Ken.

So why is it so important for a researcher to conduct a study of this nature, when the outcome is so utterly predictable. Firstly, we must ask ourselves, Does life imitate art, or does art imitate life, or does art simply create its own idealized conception of how life should be. Just because Seventeen Magazine, with its waif thin models and pages of hair and make-up tips, or Baywatch, with its well-endowed lifeguards sprinting down the beach, tell us one thing about the nature of physical appearance and sexual appeal, it doesn t mean that all people agree with or pay attention to the standards set forth by these media. Many studies have actually indicated that men prefer women to be slightly heavier than the ideal weight most women assume men to desire. So, do physical appearance and body size actually play the enormous role that we, as a culture, believe them to in determining a woman s ability to attract men, or are other issues, such as self-perceived attractiveness and body image, more important. These are the questions which Michael W. Wiederman and Shannon R. Hurst sought to answer through their 1998 study entitled, Body Size, Physical Attractiveness, and Body Image among Young Adult Women: Relationships to Sexual Experience and Sexual Esteem.

Summary of the Article:

This article documents Wiederman and Hurst s 1998 survey of 192 heterosexual female college students ranging from ages 18-21. Its primary goal was to determine the relationship between body size, as measured by the BMI, physical attractiveness, as determined by impartial judges, and self-perceived overall attractiveness, as rated by the participants themselves, to self-reported sexual experience and sexual confidence. The researchers gave each woman a series of questionnaires and surveys each determining a certain aspect of her sexuality, self-perception, and sexual attitudes in which the researchers were interested. These included sexual experience, sexual esteem, sexual attitudes, experimenter-rated facial attractiveness, body size, body dissatisfaction, self-rated attractiveness, self-rated bodily attractiveness, appearance orientation, and social avoidance due to concerns about appearance. Each participant was then weighed and had her height taken.

The results were calculated by dividing the participants into several subgroups, such as Virgins vs. Had Intercourse and comparing the mean scores (based on assigned numerical rating scales) between the two groups. In comparing those participants who were currently involved in a relationship with those who were not, Wiederman and Hurst found that the only statistically significant differences appeared in regard to BMI, experimenter-rated facial attractiveness, and self-related bodily attractiveness. Women who were currently involved tended to be thinner, objectively more attractive, and viewed their bodies as being more attractive. In the comparison of virgins and non-virgins, findings were much the same, with those who had not yet engaged in sexual intercourse averaging a higher body mass and a lower experimenter-rated score in regard to facial attractiveness. However, in examining the differences between girls who had performed fellatio and those that had not, the body-image factor to provide a statistically significant difference was experimenter-rated attractiveness. Furthermore, in regard to cunnilingus, two body-image variables were found to be significant: BMI and self-rated bodily attractiveness. So, women who had performed oral sex on a male tended to be more objectively attractive, and women who had received oral sex tended to be relatively thinner and had more positive self-perceptions of their bodies. Wiederman and Hurst found little evidence of a relationship between attractiveness and body image with sexual attitudes. They determined, however, that sexual esteem scores were positively correlated to self-rated facial and body attractiveness and negatively correlated to social avoidance due to appearance concerns. Women with high sexual esteem also believed themselves to be attractive and were less likely to avoid social situations where their appearance might be scrutinized.

Given these results, Wiederman and Hurst attempt to answer the many questions raised by them: Are these general relationships between body size and attractiveness and sexual experience due to a lack of opportunity, differential attitudes, or inhibition due to self-consciousness on the part of larger women. As they found no significant relationship between BMI and negative sexual attitudes, it would not appear that lack of sexual experience among heavier wo