The importance of physical appearance and actual body figure of women in Serbia in the contemporary sociocultural environment

Abstract

In a social environment that emphasizes the importance of physical appearance and women is valued based on body appearance and sexuality, it raises the question of the relationship it establishes towards its own body. The work was intended to determine the attitude of respondents towards the importance attached to the physical appearance of the female body in the modern socio-cultural context and the degree of (dis)satisfaction with its own body. The questionnaire consists of a Scala attitude towards ?good? physical appearance (DFI scale), a seven-point Liqueur-type scale, and the Photography Figure Rating Scale (PFRS), which contains ten figures with different body mass index (BMI), from skinny to obese female bodies, filled out is by 462 respondents. The attitude towards physical appearance was not directly reflected in body dissatisfaction (there is no connection between these two constructs), but social ideals of beauty (thin ideal), which are transmitted through numerous sociocultural channels, are internalized. Respondents show a tendency to choose a figure (ideal) from BMI categories with insufficient weight. In general, the results show that the importance attached to the physical appearance of a woman?s body is largely determined by the value and psychological component, and that respondents have internalized to some extent social standards that promote slender and thin bodies.