Mchiza, ZJ

Parker, W

English

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SAJCNISSN 1607-0658      EISSN 2221-1268 © 2020  The Author(s)EDITORIAL3 The page number in the footer is not for bibliographic referencingwww.tandfonline.com/ojcnSouth African Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2020; 33(1):3-4Open Access article distributed under the terms of theCreative Commons License [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0]http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0The term “physical attractiveness” has been defined by Zangwill1 as “the degree to which a person's physical features are considered  aesthetically  pleasing or  beautiful.” Hatfield and Sprecher2 on the other hand defined this term as “that which represents one's conception of the ideal in appearance; that which gives the greatest degree of pleasure to the senses.” While the Merriam-Webster.com dictionary3 and Symons4 long emphasised that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Several researchers have outlined specific physical features to signal an individual’s attractiveness.5-12 Among these features are the individual’s facial features,13 hair thickness,5 and body size (i.e. waist versus hip circumference,14,15 body weight and height 16,17). For instance, Singh14 argued that low female waist to hip ratio (WHR, that is typically centred around 0.70) is attractive because it correlates with better health and fertility outcomes. Swami et al.15 on the other hand argued that Pieter Pauwel Rubens, the Flemish painter famed for his exuberant Baroque style, preferred female models that had WHRs and body weights that were much higher than the esteemed figure of WHR = 0.70. Buss18 further argued that some aspects of physical attractiveness are built within cultures, change with cultural standards, become unlearned at certain points in time, with certain physical features signalling individuals’ health and reproductive potential.In Africa, there appears to be a clustering of body size ideals within geographic, cultural and social networks. While there is a dearth of body size attractiveness data in Africa, data generated in Southern Africa suggests that there is a “tolerance” of high body mass index (BMI) in rural communities and in those communities that experience financial constraints.19-22 In these communities, a higher BMI is perceived as a token of beauty, well-being and marital bliss.16,23 In more affluent communities, a lower BMI is preferred, while a higher BMI is undervalued.21 In these studies, the BMI preferences appear to be shared by members of the same family, with both children and adults holding similar body ideals.24 However, BMI preferences in these communities are differentiated by body size statuses,22 namely individuals who are obese become attracted to thinner body sizes and those who are underweight prefer larger body sizes. The work of Kruger et al.25 published in this edition of the SAJCN builds on this research and highlights that the perceptions of female attractiveness are similar among men and women, irrespective of age. In fact, the observations that the rural less affluent Batswana community gave a higher attractiveness score to a leaner image (with percentage body fat of 19% and WHR of 0.72) and that the perception of attractiveness was similar across different BMI statuses were indeed surprising. More importantly, the scores for attractiveness given by the participants decreased with an increase in the BMI of images shown to them. The expectation was that, because this was a rural, Black and less-affluent community, participants in the study would have given a higher score to larger body sized images. In fact, these outcomes are in total contrast with the studies of the afore-presented African studies. These differences could be, to some extent, explained by the fact that the afore-presented African studies used silhouettes (line image drawings) to measure physical attractiveness, not scanned soft tissue dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) images of female bodies that were used in the study by Kruger et al.25 There is evidence that line drawings may have the potential to alter the true original appearance of a human body, and, therefore, influence people’s perceptions about attractiveness preferences.26,27 However, the outcomes of Kruger et al.25 may also symbolise that Africa is rapidly becoming urbanised.28 Hence, all communities seem to be conforming to the “Western affluent” body size ideals, where leaner body sizes are viewed as attractive.29 Indeed, Tovée et al.30 have argued that the perception of physical attraction is “plastic”, i.e. it changes with time and a changing environment. For instance, these authors showed that the preferences of attractiveness by Zulus who had moved to the UK changed from fuller figures to resemble those of Britons, who preferred leaner figures. Similarly, in recent years, the South African younger generation (adolescents, in particular) seems to prefer leaner (especially normal) body sizes and regard these as attractive.31However, there are some concerns about the “Western ideals” in that, individuals who carry a lot of body weight are often body shamed. Lamont32 unpacked the role played by “body shaming” (a self-conscious emotion that results from the perception that one’s body fails to meet cultural body ideals) in the development of a number of negative outcomes Physical attractiveness: beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but it changes with time and changing environment  ZJ Mchiza,a* W Parkerba School of Public Health, University of the Western Cape, South Africab Social Aspects of Public Health (SAPH), Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa*Corresponding author, email: jmchiza@uwc.ac.za 4 The page number in the footer is not for bibliographic referencingwww.tandfonline.com/ojcnPhysical attractivenessincluding poor physical health, especially in women. In fact, Pearl et al.33 and Rakhkovska and Warren34 suggested that individuals who were body shamed tended to make unattainable and unhealthy body size changes. While there seems to be some promising improvements in body size ideals (from larger to leaner body size ideals) in African populations in recent years, the inconclusiveness of outcomes and scarcity of data on the continent regarding the topic of “physical attractiveness” warrants further research. Such research would bring new insights and perhaps new definitions of the term “physical attractiveness” in the African context. In addition, it becomes important that researchers and health providers scale up strategies to stabilise the emotion brought about by body shaming for those individuals who carry a lot of body weight. In fact, workable and practical strategies that promote the adoption of “mindfulness” should be implemented.30 Mindfulness is defined as a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.35 References1. Zangwill N. The Beautiful, the Dainty and the Dumpy.  British Journal of Aesthetics. 1995;35(4):317-29; reprinted slightly modified in Zangwill. 2001; p. 9-23. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjaesthetics/35.4.317. 2. Hatfield E, Sprecher S. Mirror, mirror: The importance of looks in everyday life. Albany: State University of New York Press; 1986.3. Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”   Available from: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/beauty%20is%20in%20the%20eye%20of%20the%20beholder. Accessed 21 March 2020.4. Symons D. Beauty is in the adaptations of the beholder: The evolutionary psychology of human female sexual attractiveness. In: Sexual nature, sexual culture. 1995:80-118.5. Matz DC, Hinsz VB. Women’s hair as a cue to desired relationship and parenting characteristics. J Soc Psychol. 2018 Sep 3;158(5):558-73.6. Swami V, Furnham A, editors. The body beautiful: Evolutionary and sociocultural perspectives. Springer; 2007 Nov 30.7. Smith KL, Cornelissen PL, Tovée MJ. Color 3D bodies and judgements of human female attractiveness. Evol Hum Behav. 2007 Jan 1;28(1):48-54.8. Smith KL, Tovée MJ, Hancock PJ, et al. An analysis of body shape attractiveness based on image statistics: Evidence for a dissociation between expressions of preference and shape discrimination. Vis cogn. 2007 Nov 1;15(8):927-53.9. Tovée MJ, Cornelissen PL. Female and male perceptions of female physical attractiveness in front‐view and profile. Br J Psychol. 2001 May;92(2):391-402.10. Tovée MJ, Hancock PJ, Mahmoodi S, Singleton BR, Cornelissen PL. Human female attractiveness: Waveform analysis of body shape. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences. 2002 Nov 7;269(1506):2205-13.11. Tovée MJ, Maisey DS, Emery JL, Cornelissen PL. Visual cues to female physical attractiveness. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences. 1999 Jan 22;266(1415):211-8.12. Tovée MJ, Reinhardt S, Emery JL, Cornelissen PL. Optimum body-mass index and maximum sexual attractiveness. Lancet. 1998 Aug 15;352(9127):548.13. Cunningham MR. Measuring the physical in physical attractiveness: quasi-experiments on the sociobiology of female facial beauty. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1986 May;50(5):925.14. Singh D. Adaptive significance of female physical attractiveness: role of waist-to-hip ratio. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1993 Aug;65(2):293.15. Swami V, Gray M, Furnham A. The female nude in Rubens: Disconfirmatory evidence of the waist-to-hip ratio hypothesis of female physical attractiveness. Imagin Cogn Pers. 2006 Sep;26(1):139-47.16. Puoane T, Fourie JM, Shapiro M, Rosling L, Tshaka NC, Oelefse A. 'Big is beautiful'-an exploration with urban black community health workers in a South African township. South Afr J Clin Nutr. 2005;18(1):6-15.17. Mvo Z, Dick J, Steyn K. Perceptions of overweight African women about acceptable body size of women and children. Curationis. 1999;22:27-31.18. Buss DM. The evolution of desire: Strategies of human mating. Basic Books. 2016 Dec 27.19. Wittenberg M. The weight of success: The body mass index and economic well-being in South Africa. A Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit Working Paper Number 65. Cape Town: SALDRU, University of Cape Town. 2011. Available from: http://opensaldru.uct.ac.za/bitstream/handle/11090/78/2011_65.pdf?sequence=1.20. Shisana O, Labadarios D, Rehle T, et al. SANHANES-1 Team (2013). South African National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (SANHANES-1). 2014.21. Mchiza ZJ, Parker WA, Makoae M, et al. Body image and weight control in South Africans 15 years or older: SANHANES-1. BMC Public Health. 2015 Dec 1;15(1):992.22. Mchiza ZJ, Parker WA, Sewpaul R, Onagbiye SO, Labadarios D. Body image and the double burden of nutrition among South Africans from diverse sociodemographic backgrounds: SANHANES-1. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Jan;17(3):887.23. Puoane T, Matwa P, Hughes G, Bradley HA. Socio-cultural factors influencing food consumption patterns in the black African population in an urban township in South Africa. Human Ecology Special Issue. 2006;14:89-93.24. Mchiza ZJ, Goedecke JH, Lambert EV. Intra-familial and ethnic effects on attitudinal and perceptual body image: a cohort of South African mother-daughter dyads. BMC Public Health. 2011 Dec;11(1):433.25. Kruger HS, Seru T, Mchiza ZJ, Speakman JR. The relationship between female adiposity and physical attractiveness amongst adults in rural Ranaka village, Botswana. South Afr J Clin Nutr. 2020;33(1):17-22.26. Streeter SA, McBurney DH. Waist–hip ratio and attractiveness: new evidence and a critique of “a critical test”. Evol Hum Behav. 2003;24(2):88-98. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1090-5138(02)00121-6. 27. Swami V, Tovée MJ. The relative contribution of profile body shape and weight to judgements of women’s physical attractiveness in Britain and Malaysia. Body Image. 2007;4(4):391-6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. bodyim.2007.07.002.28. Abrahams Z, Mchiza Z, Steyn NP. Diet and mortality rates in Sub-Saharan Africa: stages in the nutrition transition. BMC Public Health. 2011 Dec;11(1):801.29. Sheldon P. Pressure to be perfect: Influences on college students' body esteem. South Commun J. 2010 Jun 29;75(3):277-98.30. Tovée MJ, Swami V, Furnham A, Mangalparsad R. Changing perceptions of attractiveness as observers are exposed to a different culture. Evol Hum Behav. 2006 Nov 1;27(6):443-56.31. Pedro TM, Micklesfield LK, Kahn K, et al. Body Image Satisfaction, Eating Attitudes and Perceptions of Female Body Silhouettes in Rural South African Adolescents. PLoS ONE. 2016 11(5): e0154784. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0154784.32. Lamont JM. The relationship of mindfulness to body shame, body responsiveness, and health outcomes. Mindfulness. 2019 Apr 15;10(4):639-49.33. Pearl RL, White MA, Grilo CM. Weight bias internalization, depression, and self‐reported health among overweight binge eating disorder patients. Obesity. 2014 May;22(5):e142-8.34. Rakhkovskaya LM, Warren CS. Ethnic identity, thin-ideal internalization, and eating pathology in ethnically diverse college women. Body Image. 2014 Sep 1;11(4):438-45.35. Oxford dictionary of English. 3rd ed. Oxford University Press. ISBN-13: 9780199571123. Available from: https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199571123.001.0001/acref-9780199571123.

Physical attractiveness: beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but it changes with time and changing environment

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Physical attractiveness: beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but it changes with time and changing environment

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