Body ideals are culturally manufactured through deliberate childhood practices

Evidence

15. “Hottentot women, in whom steatopygia is neither as developed nor as consistent as in Bushman women, think this body type is aesthetically pleasing and starting in childhood massage their daughters’ buttocks to develop them. Likewise, the artificial fattening of women, a real stuffing by two means, immobility and abundant ingestion of specific foods, especially milk, is found in various regions of Africa. It is still practiced by rich Arab and Jewish city dwellers in Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco” (Luquet, “Vénus des cavernes,” Journal de Psychologie, 1934). — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 429

Categorization

• XREF: Direct supporting evidence for Beauvoir’s anti-essentialism: flesh is shaped by culture rather than nature, parallel to current body-modification scholarship. — connects to: Racialized childhood exclusion shapes later beauty and body-care practices; Racist depiction of minorities as ugly and uncool shapes later self-conscious bodily practices — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2833; Racial habits form early in childhood through environmental cues. (+1 more)
• CANDY: The detail that mothers massage daughters’ buttocks to promote steatopygia is a striking, shareable counterexample to ‘natural’ body ideals.

Broader Connections

• Racialized childhood exclusion shapes later beauty and body-care practices #expands (0.85)
• Racist depiction of minorities as ugly and uncool shapes later self-conscious bodily practices #exemplifies (0.82) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2833
• Racial habits form early in childhood through environmental cues. #expands (0.78)
• Racial habits are learned dispositions passed from parent to child #expands (0.78) — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 232