DBWI: Standards of beauty different

I was pretty aghast the other day to read in the news that an illegal gavage camp had been discovered in Montana, where girls were force-fed to gain weight. It's kind of ridiculous how inured we've gotten to these sorts of discoveries - and yet, it's symptomatic of our destructive culture that values plump women to the form of obesity? But that doesn't have to be true everyone - in Mauritania, being thin is a mark of attractiveness, and I personally think that's far healthier psychologically for young children.

What if being thin was considered attractive in Western culture?
 
Standards of beauty tend to follow class lines. Anything that makes you look wealthier or higher-class ends up as beautiful. That's how you get things like foot-binding in China; anyone who has that done clearly has never done hard labor in their life, and thus is wealthy enough to not have to do that. Fat followed similar lines; those who had some meat on their bones were the ones who could afford enough food to develop fat.

I think you'd need some sort of successful Communist or radical egalitarian movement, something that looked down on the traditional elite and glorified the "common man" or something along those lines. You'd need something to make traditional marks of wealth or power seem out of fashion or something to be looked down on. This was present in a lot of Communist literature OTL; rhetoric about "greedy pigs" makes for good speeches. Propaganda glorifying the "fit, humble working class" could, over time, change beauty standards away from fat.

Now, bringing about a successful Communist movement is something I'm not sure how to do, but it would work.
 
Well, considering art and western culture has pretty much been established this since the early 19th century (or maybe even earlier) I don't see how you can possibly change it. I'm not an expert on cultural tendencies, perhaps someone else can help me out on that.

But I know that without a doubt this world would be a better place. It's not just backwater places like Montana that do this, it's everywhere, especially places like the States, California and Britain. Sure, there's no force-feeding camps, but the entire culture is toxic, and frankly sexist. Millions die every year due to problems related to obesity, and almost all of them are woman.

I feel rather strongly about this because I know people who have been affected by the problem. Just my 2 cents, though
 
OOC: Now that I think about it, when and why did thin become attractive IOTL?
Perhaps it had something to do with the fetishization of the sickly, wan, consumption-ridden woman in the Victorian age? Or for a more modern reasoning, people today that are thin are actually healthier, and being fat betrays a lower socio-economic status often, because they can't afford healthy food/diet/gym memberships. The modeling industry could also have something to do with it. People conflating living clothes-racks with paragons of beauty then leads to the adoration of thin. It could also be due to a shift from fat being seen as something that makes a person seem "young" into a downward spiral that happens after peaking, so fat has a connotation of age and indolence rather than youth and vitality.

EDIT: I feel silly now.
 
Last edited:
OoC: From what I can tell, thinness as attractive is mainly a Western cultural thing (in Mauritania they still do literally have force-feeding camps.)

It's hard to tell, but from my haphazard reading of history, I'd guess sometime around 1920s or 1930s or so. I'd compare to tanning - pale skin was considered attractive as a measure of wealth up until around then as well, when office/factory work became more prevalent and having time to recline outdoors then became the new measure of wealth.
 
I remember reading an article about the history of nutrition a few months ago.
As some older people may know back in the early 20th century people used to drink stuff which was essentially sugar-water packed with chemicals, one 500 ml bottle had as much fat as a good meal, and people drank the stuff like water.
The most famous one was called Cocaine Cola- no doubt tied in with how everyone was on drugs around the turn of the 20th century.
These were largely made illegal along with cigarettes and other such horrific unhealthy crap in the 50s and 60s.
But what if they weren't?
Perhaps if unhealthy crap were the norm then getting fat wouldn't be so tough.

OoC: From what I can tell, thinness as attractive is mainly a Western cultural thing (in Mauritania they still do literally have force-feeding camps.)
OOC- not so much western. In Japan the ideal has always been towards slimness. The west is a weird one in having had its preferences flip.
 
Top