Body Image: A Comparative Study across Gender, Place and Culture among Taiwanese and International Students

Abstract

The idea of ”slenderness is beauty” has affected women's self body image in an oppressive way. Most women may not be undergoing a strict weight loss plan, but are more or less controlling and paying attention to what they eat. This research is carried out with the belief that understanding of women's self body image and the attribute factors is important for improving women's health, both mentally and physically.There has been some previous research on women's self body image. However, it has mainly focused on the situation in Western countries such as the US, Canada, and the UK, and has seldom investigated Asian women in similar regards. While Anorexia has long been regarded as a Western issue, the preference for slender bodies has become more and more popular among Asian women. Besides, while most work has been devoted to Anorexia, few have revealed how people without Anorexia are affected in both thinking and behavior in their daily life.For this paper, we surveyed 134 students with an average age of 23, including 79 females and 55 males, through a questionnaire to inquire after their socio-economic characteristics, body weight, attitudes, behaviors and preferences in relation to self body image. We also conducted three focus group interviews of local and international students. Our results show that not only are Asian women more pressured than Western women, but they also have a more negative self body image. Second, we differentiated people with various BMI levels and found that, while people are generally not in agreement with the concept of ”slimness is beauty”, people with lower BMI levels had higher satisfaction toward their bodies in terms of both shape and weight. Third, we compared men's self body image with women's, and found that across cultures, women more often think about their body shape and weight, and are more frequently concerned about losing weight than men. Finally, we found that compared to Western respondents, Asians tend to believe that the beauty standards as shown in advertisements is mostly attainable as long as people use the right products and make enough efforts. Our sample analysis tries to answer our research question only, and it is not meant to give an interpretation of differences between Asian and Western people in general.