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“Do Real Women Have Curves?” Paradoxical Body Images among Latinas in New York City

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Abstract

This paper examines Latinas’ assessments of their individual body shape and weight vis-à-vis their beliefs and attitudes regarding mainstream and alternative body images. A mixed method data collection system was used based on individual instruments and focus group guidelines. While individual measures revealed participants’ preference for thinner body types than what they actually considered themselves to be, group data underscore contradictory body paradigms, defined as Latinas’ Paradoxical Body Images (LAPABI). Findings suggest the prevalence of a mainstream stereotype represented by the fit/thin White woman as the ultimate body ideal, along with the Latina curvy shape as its counter-image. The paper further discusses the importance of the media, and of divergent cultural values, in supporting these co-existing body ideals, as well as the need for more studies addressing their combined effect on Latinas’ obesity patterns and their weight-control efforts.

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Acknowledgements

We want to express our sincere gratitude to the study participants who generously shared their time and personal stories with us. We also want to acknowledge Beatrice J. Krauss, the Executive Director of the Hunter College Office of Research and Grant Support (ORGS) for facilitating the editorial support of Robert Kaplan. His invaluable comments, suggestions and detailed proofreading of an earlier version of this piece greatly contributed to the final product. We also want to thank Nancy Sohler and Gerry Oppenheimer, Coordinators of the CUNY Doctoral Research Seminar, and Dr. Nicholas Freudenberg, Director of the CUNY Doctor of Public Health Program, for inviting us to present this study to the CUNY Urban Health Collaborative and Doctor of Public Health Program Faculty Seminar Series on April 15, 2008. We also want to acknowledge the Seminar’s participants for their valuable comments and suggestions to our research work on body image. Finally, we are very grateful to Sana Loue, editor of this Journal, for her ongoing encouragement and generous advice regarding our work on immigration and health. This study was supported in part by two PSC-CUNY grants, # 68770-00 37 and # 68747-00 37 and by the Rousseau Gift.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Immigration and Health Initiative, Urban Public Health Program, Hunter College of the City University of New York, Brookdale Campus, 425 E 25th Street, W 1021, New York, NY, 10010, USA

    Anahí Viladrich

  2. Immigration and Health Initiative, Urban Public Health Program, Hunter College of the City University of New York, Brookdale Campus, 425 E 25th Street, W 1025, New York, NY, 10010, USA

    Ming-Chin Yeh

  3. Immigration and Health Initiative, Urban Public Health Program, Hunter College of the City University of New York, Brookdale Campus, 425 E 25th Street, W 906, New York, NY, 10010, USA

    Nancy Bruning

  4. Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging and Longevity of Hunter College of the City University of New York, 425 East 25th Street, 13th Floor North, New York, NY, 10010-2590, USA

    Rachael Weiss

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  1. Anahí Viladrich
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Correspondence to Anahí Viladrich.

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Viladrich, A., Yeh, MC., Bruning, N. et al. “Do Real Women Have Curves?” Paradoxical Body Images among Latinas in New York City. J Immigrant Minority Health 11, 20–28 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-008-9176-9

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