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Running Head: THE EFFECTS OF RACE ON THE BODY IMAGE OF UNDERGRADUATE

WOMEN
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The Effects of Race on the Body Image of Undergraduate Women


Melanie Chwan, Krysta Coleman, & Eric Hilldorfer
Western Michigan University

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The effects of race on the body image of undergraduate women
Among the obstacles faced by women in higher education, body image has received
increasing attention due to the reputation of viral technology and popular culture, both of which
promote certain beauty standards for women via the media. Body image itself is not exclusive to
women in higher education, but rather women everywhere. It has been utilized as a tool of
oppression towards women because it hits home on a very personal level. In many cases, selfconfidence and self-esteem can rely on positive or negative body perception. An individual
womans own perceptions of her body image are shaped by cultural beauty standards, peers, and
for undergraduate women in institutions of higher education, body image can also be affected by
the campus climate they encounter. These factors can contribute to negative attitudes towards a
womans own self-image and place a womans value on her appearance rather than her thoughts,
ideas, and more importantly, her humanity. If anything, this can ultimately lead to the
dehumanization of women.
How do body image issues affect undergraduate women in their experience throughout
higher education? Does the media hold White women and women of color to different
standards? Can culture have an influence that is stronger than the media? Most importantly
what can we, as student affairs professionals, do to combat negative body image stereotypes on
our campuses in order to create a welcoming environment for all female students, regardless of
shape or size? Perhaps there are commonalities between the beauty expectations for White
women and women of color that are surprising. Similarly, there are more than enough variations
that are worth investigating. The prediction of this analysis is that there are different
expectations of beauty for all races, and these expectations have negative effects on
undergraduate women during their experience in higher education.

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Influence of the Media
The media is a powerful world actor in that it can shape, define, and change culture. It is
the source of common information and it is also the source of misperception and filtered
information. It is biased towards particular agendas, both political and cultural. As much as
some people claim that they refuse to trust the media or let it influence their lives, the reality of
its impact is inevitable. Social norms and expectations are sponsored by the media, and in turn,
the media extorts these norms and expectations back to the population. These values that the
media enforce often conflict with what individual people may want to adhere to. An example
would be how many parents may not want their children to gain their knowledge and perceptions
from the media, though it may be unavoidable either way (Lopez-Guimera, Levine, SanchezCarracedo, & Faquet, 2010). Given that media authority is quite pervasive (television,
magazines, internet, music, advertisements, literature, etc.), the negative results from its
consumption have several implications for women and girls and how they perceive themselves as
people.
Lopez-Guimera, et al. (2010) discuss how body image and beauty standards are targeted
towards women from the time they are very young. Images on television show only the ideal
standards while ignoring the diversity of female appearances. For instance, according to
Yamamiya, Cash, Melnyk, Posavac, & Posavac (2004), 94% of female television characters are
thinner than the average American woman. This image has typically been connected to success,
happiness, and satisfaction by advertisers and media figures. Children who watch television a
few hours a day receive these messages subliminally. By the time girls reach adolescence, they
are reading magazines that obsess over their appearance. Such magazines often tell women that
their hair is not good enough until they purchase a certain product, or that their clothes are

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definitely not in style, hence the need for these magazines to educate girls on how they should
be according to media preferences (Lopez-Guimera et al, 2010). Teen magazines not only
enforce unrealistic beauty standards, they also enforce gender roles and the sexual objectification
of girls. Therefore, from a young and impressionable age, women are already being fed biases
and distortions of reality.
Upon entering college after graduating from high school, many young women have
already adapted to the harmful media effects described above. Likewise, young men enter
college with the expectations of what women their age should look like. A very common
example of where media-forced expectations appear is in movies aimed at teenagers and collegeage young adults. Movies such as Road Trip (2000), American Pie 2 (2001), Sorority Boys
(2002), and others that are similar show women primarily as sexual objects and paint a picture of
how normal college life is or should be. Of course, these movies alone do not determine how
men or women behave as undergraduates, but these movies are an extension and representation
of already-existing social expectations for young adults, particularly young women. Moreover,
undergraduate females have frequently been the chosen demographic for research done on body
image, eating disorders, dangerous media influence, and poor self-perception because they are
emerging from an easily impressionable age and time-period in their lives. A study performed
by Heinberg & Thompson (1995) showed that while watching TV commercials, college females
were affected by what they saw. They recognized what is viewed as socially acceptable or
desirable for women in terms of attractiveness. Once they saw these images, they became
dissatisfied with their own physical appearance (Posavac, Posavac, & Posavac 1998). Thus,
while an undergraduate females focus during her college years should be on her academic and

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professional advancement, these pressures from her peer groups and the media are distractions
that ultimately place barriers as she goes through life in college and onwards.
The very limited nature of beauty standards has its own suggestions for women who do
not fit the ideal. It is worth noting that advertisers and media outlets have conventionally upheld
the image of White beauty in contrast to women of color. Until recently, campaigns that
celebrated women of all backgrounds were not widespread. Webb, Warren-Findlow, Ying-Yi, &
Adams (2013) illustrate that negative body image has become a growing problem for African
American women who, for the most part throughout history, have expressed positive body
image. The assumption is that media obsession with thinness and the White ideal has created
more internalized pressure for African American women. The White ideal is, more or less, the
perfect woman who is very thin yet with an hourglass figure, possibly blonde-haired (or lighthaired), and blue-eyed with European features. This ideal has made it harder for African
American women to appreciate their body image because they are excluded. Furthermore,
because of this maintenance of the White ideal, many more African American men have
articulated a preference for women who are awfully thin and women who are closer to the White
model (Webb et al, 2013). Societal glorification of the White ideal appears to have had
progressively harmful effects on the body image of African American women.
Overall, the research shows that the media has a harmful influence on womens body
perceptions (Lopez-Guimera et al., 2010; Yamamiya et al., 2004; Webb et al., 2013). In fact, it is
so insidious that seeing an image of the overly thin beauty ideal for five minutes or more causes
negative feelings to manifest themselves as opposed to seeing an image of a neutral object
(Yamamiya et al., 2004). Additionally, the media itself has become so omnipresent that it is the
main source of validation that women look to when comparing themselves. It is the primary

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factor that pushes the beauty ideal that is in reality, very unrealistic. It is unrealistic because it
reflects what the dominant race wants, and yet at the same time, very few people of the dominant
race can fit the image and even fewer women of color can fit the image. The media itself has
characteristically ignored the value of women as individual human beings and it has ignored
racial differences in beauty and appreciation. It has not provided or shown any recognition of the
diversity of women in large numbers. Instead, it has created a toxic environment for women
regardless of their race.
Definition of Beauty
Definitions of beauty vary in many ways. A painting can be described as beautiful, a
sunset, even the perfect night out on the town can be described as beautiful, but what is beauty?
Is it in the eye of the beholder or is it a social construction? Is beauty uniform or does it differ
by race or gender? According to Websters Dictionary the definition of beauty is, An
assemblage of graces or properties pleasing to the eye, the ear, the intellect, the aesthetic faculty
or moral sense (Beauty, n.d.). Beauty can appeal to a number of the senses, but how do women
describe beauty? Women of Western society experience strong social pressures to reach cultural
ideals of perfection in their appearance (Jefferson & Stake, 2009).
Jefferson and Stake (2009) conducted a study and found that African American (AA) and
European American (EA) women found they both have varying definitions of beauty and this
weighs heavily on their self-body image. EA, or White, women rely on describing the definition
of beauty by what the mainstream media and society has described as beautiful. They view these
as their norms and focus on their physical appearance and weight as a way to judge beauty
(Jefferson & Stake, 2009; Mintz & Kashubeck, 1999). White women tend to have lower body
satisfaction than African American women. African American women tend to put less judgment

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on their physical features and more on their character, personality, and their abilities. Jefferson
and Stake (2009) also found African American women tend to reject White beauty standards that
are portrayed in the media. Overall they have a higher body satisfaction than their White
counterparts and display more confidence in everyday life (Jefferson & Stake, 2009). Another
factor that comes into play is that African American women are more likely to describe
themselves with masculine or androgynous traits. (Molloy & Herzberger, 1998). African
American and White women view their bodies differently, but does the opposite sex view them
differently as well?
It is a Mans World
Researchers have documented that women in the Western culture are objectified to a
greater degree than men. Womens bodies are looked at, evaluated and sexualized to a much
larger degree with a greater frequency than men (Wiederman, 2000). Some authors have
proposed that the cultural objectification of womens bodies leads to a heightened awareness of
the appearance of their own body (Wiederman, 2000). Women feel pressured to have the ideal
body or figure, particularly based on what the men of their race express as being the ideal body
image for women. Molloy & Herzberger (1998) studied collegiate women at community
colleges, predicting that African American women would exhibit higher self-esteem and better
perceptions of their own body image as compared to their White female counterparts. The study
did affirm the researchers original hypotheses, confirming that African American women had a
higher self-esteem and better perception of their own bodies than their White counterparts.
However, this was mostly attributed to the ideals expressed by the men of their respective races
and their perceptions of what the ideal female body looks like for their race. This type of
oppression is alive and well on college campuses across the nation and creates a toxic

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environment for our undergraduate female students. This focus on appearance takes away from
the academic component of the college experience, setting women up for lesser opportunities.
Despite this negative climate, women are entering fields that were traditionally reserved
for men, such as engineering, law, mathematics, and science, at a much higher rate. Sometimes
they are the only one in their place of business who is a woman and they feel that there is great
pressure on them, to not only succeed, but to look good while doing it (Kiefer, Sekaquaptewa, &
Barcyzk, 2006). Being the lone woman in the office also has a negative effect on verbal and
visual performances. One study showed that womens performance on the written portion of a
math test was consistent with, or even better than, that of their male colleagues. However, when
women were asked to present the same information verbally, they scored lower because of the
societal expectation that women should not excel in math. Many of the women were paralyzed
by this stereotype, and thus their performance suffered significantly (Kiefer et al., 2006).
Eating disorders
For women there is pressure to perform, be successful, and maintain an ideal body image.
One of those ways of achieving the ideal body image is changing eating habits and dieting. To
maintain the ideal body it has almost become a norm that a womans eating habits are viewed
more as dieting habits; this can lead to the development of a severe eating disorder, such as
bulimia or anorexia nervosa. Eating disorders have a tendency to be associated with White
women, generally from the middle to upper class. This may be attributed to the fact that African
American womens perception of beauty is more flexible and fluid than Caucasian womens,
especially in the college environment (Molloy & Herzberger, 1998).
Research has shown that this is not entirely accurate. ONeill (2003) conducted a metaanalysis of 16 studies that focused on eating disorders amongst African American and White

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collegiate women. The purpose of their research was to shed more light on African American
women with eating disorders and to show there is not that much difference between White and
African American women. Even though White women were more likely to develop an eating
disorder race did not have as much effect on whether or not a woman developed an eating
disorder as was previously hypothesized. The fact that African American women had a lower
percentage of eating disturbances or disorders may be attributed to their different ideals
surrounding body image.
Identity Development
When examining Phinneys (1990) model of ethnic identity development one might be
able to shed more light on the reason why African American women are less susceptible to the
negative messages surrounding body image. Within the second stage of the ethnic identity
search/moratorium of Phinneys (1990) model the student becomes increasingly aware of
identity issues as they face situations that force them to explore their ethnic identity (Evans,
Forney, Guido, Patton, & Renn, 2010). At this stage the student might be identifying body
image and seeing what the ideal body image is, as defined by their race, and how it reflects
their own. As stated previously African American women have a more flexible definition of a
healthy body type and maybe it is at this stage when they start to develop that notion.
At the third and final stage of this model is when the student has a healthy understanding
of identity (Evans et al., 2010). This development of confidence in their image allows women to
reject the White standards of beauty set forth by the media and the culture they encounter on
their campuses. The intense emotions that stem from the previous stage help enlighten the
students to have a more confident understanding and meaning of their identity (Evans et al.,
2010).

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A feminist approach to positive body image
Body image has long played a role in feminism as well. As women fight for equal pay
and opportunities that are comparable to their male counterparts, body image has continued to be
part of that fight. The standards that men and the media have set for women havent changed
much over time women have been expected to be thin and pulled together at all times. Each
wave of feminism has taken on the battle of challenging these impossible bodily norms for
women.
In the first wave of feminism, White women took notes from Iroquois women as they
began their struggle for rights that they had been long denied. These women fought for womens
suffrage, and womens rights to their property in the case of divorce (Pasque & Errington,
Nicholson, 2011). In addition, this group fought against the idea that women should wear corsets
in order to appear thin. As a result, this group of feminists were often shamed as being
unfeminine, pretentious, and homely, as they did not buy into the ideals that society laid out for
women in that time period (Richards, 2012).
The second wave of feminism took on the rights of women to maintain control of their bodies,
and to express themselves as women outside of the societal norms. In the 1970s women made
major gains with the passage of Title IX and the courts decision in Roe v. Wade; these ground
breaking milestones in the law gave women the rights they needed to be respected in education,
and also in making choices about their own bodies. For the first time, women fought for the
right to be protected from sexual harassment in the workplace and the classroom as they battled
the stereotypes that feminists in this time were anti-sex, humorless, and ugly. In this new type of
environment, women fought to be defined by what they thought and what they could accomplish
as opposed to what they looked like in a swimsuit (Richards, 2012).

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Most recently, the third wave of feminism has focused around the idea of reclaiming
femininity. However, one of the biggest struggles with this third wave of feminism has been the
eclectic compilation of what reclaiming femininity means, and how positive body image should
be portrayed in the feminist arena. Body image has been thought to be the battle that third wave
feminists will be able to unite under, as women in the first two waves united under suffrage and
gaining the same rights as their male counterparts. However, it seems that even this has been a
struggle as women have been unable to agree on a definition of what it means to promote
positive body image. Richards (200?) explains that You are likely to find women who are tired
of the pressure to act and look "perfect." Others pack their feminist toolkits with lipstick and nail
polish, forgetting that while lipstick and nail polish aren't feminist concerns, the right to choose
or not choosethem is (p. 197).
These polar definitions make it difficult for feminists to unite under one cause when it
comes to body image. Some societal movements have been made to promote a more positive
body image amongst women, including commitments to not photoshopping models by Aerie, and
an overall increase in the number of plus size women who have publicly voiced their pride in
their bodies and self-esteem. While these movements seem to be few and far between, especially
in between attacks from large corporations like Abercrombie & Fitch, who refuse to produce
anything larger than a large t-shirt, these actions provide hope that perhaps body image will in
fact be the battle in which all third wave feminists can engage.
As collegiate women become more engaged in this conversation, we as student affairs
professionals must help them to develop their own ideas about femininity, and how they can feel
positively about their bodies, no matter their shape or size. Perhaps reclaiming femininity is less
about choosing whether or not to wear make-up and more about creating a community that

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supports women in defining their personal femininity day after day in their actions, thoughts, and
self-image.
Implications for Practice
While the issues of promoting positive body image in women spans generations,
lifestyles, and a variety of identities, there are some things that student affairs professionals can
do to promote positive body image amongst collegiate women. This task involves working with
the women through body image programs, promoting positive body image in womens
organizations, and also working with male students to help them understand the importance of
promoting positive body image with their female classmates.
Facilitating conversations amongst female students is the first step towards promoting
positive body image among female college students. A study executed amongst several
Canadian universities identifies several strategies for working with female students in order to
prevent eating disorders by promoting life skills such as decision making and stress management
(McVey, G.L., Kirsh, G., Maker, D., Walker, K.S., Mullane, J., Laliberte, M., Ellis-Claypool, J.,
Vorderbrugge, J., Burnett, A., Cheung, L., Banks, L., 2010). Ultimately, this study achieved the
outcomes it hoped to attain by increasing body satisfaction and decreasing the internalization of
the thin ideal amongst students. Programs like this can be duplicated by working with oncampus health clinics and counseling centers in order to prevent negative thoughts about body
image and the development of eating disorders in collegiate women. These programs may be
further enhanced by including all-female organizations or even male peers who are dedicated to
the enhancement of womens self-esteem on college campuses.
Aside from educational forums, programming can be an effective way for college student
personnel to combat negative body image in undergraduate women. Many colleges and

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universities have student groups dedicated specifically to this cause and still more have sororities
and womens groups who have made it their missions to promote positive body image amongst
their members. For example, Delta Phi Epsilon International Sorority works with the
Association for Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD) as one of their national
philanthropies in order to promote positive body image amongst their sisters. Through
supporting programming hosted by student organizations, student affairs offices can help these
groups spread their message about the promotion of positive body image to even more
undergraduate women. Outside of working with student organizations, student affairs
professionals may opt to program an entire week dedicated to positive body image. Common
events in these types of programs may include lecture about the harmfulness about the thin ideal
and body shaming, as well as various workshops on healthy eating and lifestyle choices. Again,
buy in for these programs by womens organizations as well as male student allies can help to
spread the message about healthy body image to even more undergraduate women across
campuses nationwide.
Conclusion
All in all, given the research, a strong case can be made that media-forced body image
perceptions do have negative consequences for females in higher education. Whats more, there
are some differences among White women and women of color that need consideration. The
beauty ideal has generally been based on White characteristics and traits while excluding the
features of women of color. African American women have traditionally not paid as much
attention to these standards compared to White women. However that has changed because the
more intrusive the media has become with its obsession of the White ideal, the more pressure has
been put on African American women to fit into that mold. Knowing this information, it has

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been a challenge for feminists and even student affairs professionals to tackle the harmful effects
and occurrences of eating disorders and other negative side effects of poor body image. Student
affairs professionals in some universities have made attempts to alleviate the body image
negativity that surrounds undergraduate females of all races and ethnicities through various
programs. Within these programs, women are able to discuss among each other the pressures
they face in society. It is critical for student affairs professionals and female students to work
together on eliminating the dangerous influence of media-forced ideals. Body-image
dissatisfaction, body-shaming, and eating disorders have been an ongoing problem for young
women as more pressure and unrealistic expectations are put on their shoulders. Their value is
consistently reduced to their appearance and sexuality. Unfortunately, these ideals and unfair
demands serve nothing but to distract and twist reality for men and women alike. Nonetheless,
the mission is to enable undergraduate women to put these problems behind them and focus on
what truly matters- their education, independence, and betterment.

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