Since the early 1970s, psychoanalysts, social scientists, and feminists have argued that women’s desires for slen- der bodies were the cause of their eating disorders (Bruch, 1973; Chernin, 1981; Garner & Garfinkel, 1982; Orbach, 1986). Throughout the 1990s, feminists argued for a broader sociocultural analysis of eating disorders, recog- nizing that women’s role in society, contradictory female expectations, and female oppression were essential forces contributing to women’s food and body pathologies (Bordo, 1993; Fallon, Katzman, & Wooley, 1994; Nasser, 1997). Recently, there has been a movement toward understanding how sociocultural factors that evoke pow- erlessness such as poverty, immigration, heterosexism, and rapid sociocultural change affect women’s risk for eating disorders (Katzman & Lee, 1997; Nasser, Katzman, & Gordon, 2001; Ruggiero, 2003). The evolution of these arguments reflects the growing awareness that eating disorders are spreading across ethnic, cultural, socioeco- nomic, and geographical boundaries, raising questions about the sociocultural risk factors of eating disorders (Le Grange, Louw, Breen, & Katzman, 2004; Lee & Lee, 2000; Pike & Borovoy, 2004)Qualitative Health Research.

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Anorexia nervosa, the most salient eating disorder, has long been considered a culture-bound syndrome “rooted in Western cultural values and conflicts” (Prince, 1985, p. 300) predominantly affecting White, well-educated

women of middle- to upper-class backgrounds living in Western societies (Bruch, 1973). It is well established that eating disorders now afflict women living in Western and non-Western societies, and new research findings suggest that the global rise of eating disorders coincides with economic and social changes associated with accul- turation to Western values, which are believed to heighten women’s vulnerability to eating disturbances. As women around the world retool their identities in the face of glo- balization, eating disorders now affect women from dif- ferent ethnic backgrounds and sociocultural milieus (Becker, Fay, Gilman, & Striegel-Moore, 2007; Lake, Staiger, & Glowinski, 2000; Miller & Pumariega, 2001; Soh, Touyz, & Surgenor, 2006; Tsai, Curbow, & Heinberg, 2003; Wildes, Emery, & Simons, 2001)Qualitative Health Research. Clearly, as eating disorders are diagnosed in places once thought “immune” to these illnesses, their cultural boundedness, salient illness expressions (i.e., fat phobia), and prevalence have been questioned, raising concern over the sociocultural

392592QHR211010.1177/10497323103 92592CheneyQualitative Health Research

1University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA

Corresponding Author: Ann M. Cheney, University of Connecticut, Department of Anthropology, Beach Hall, Unit 2176, 354 Mansfield Dr., Storrs, CT 06269, USA Email: ann.cheney@uconn.edu

“Most Girls Want to be Skinny”: Body (Dis)Satisfaction Among Ethnically Diverse Women

Ann M. Cheney1

Abstract

In this article, I present the findings from an ethnographic study of 18 women college students living in the northeastern United States. I examine how ethnically diverse women dealt with the messages of the dominant White society’s obsession with thinness, and whether it affected their perceptions of an ideal body image. From the analysis of the interviews, I identified and extracted several themes related to ethnicity, aesthetic body ideals, body dissatisfaction, and disturbed eating. Grounded in the women’s narratives, I found that ethnically diverse women coming of age in American society experience anxieties and emotional stress as they related to others in their daily lives. Their stories shed light on how the body is a vehicle for social mobility and is used by women from marginalized identities to strategically negotiate social inequalities embedded in daily social relationships and interactions that more privileged women do not encounter.

Keywords

adolescents / youth; body image; eating disorders; ethnicity; gender

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determinants of eating disorders (see Lee, 1997; van’t Hoft & Nicolson, 1996).

Until recently, it was believed that African American women, Latinas, and minority women in general do not commonly suffer from body dissatisfaction and eating disorders, because their sociocultural statuses make them less likely to develop an obsessive desire to be thin when compared to White women (Silber, 1986). Despite strong arguments against such naïve standpoints (see Thompson, 1992), eating disorders often continued to be conceptual- ized as illnesses predominantly affecting White women (Bruch, 1973; Dolan, 1991; Gordon, Perez, & Joiner, 2002). Since the 1990s, a flurry of clinical studies have demonstrated that there is a relationship between height- ened socioeconomic status and increased vulnerability to eating disorder symptoms (Lee & Lee, 2000; Polivy & Herman, 2002; Rogers, Resnick, Mitchell, & Blum, 1997). However, the findings have been inconsistent, indicating that more work should be done to tease out the complex relationships among gender, eating disorders, and social status.

This article adds to a growing body of literature show- ing how and why educated young women from various ethnicities suffer from body dissatisfaction and exhibit eating disorder symptoms. By examining women’s narra- tives about the social meanings of their body, the findings from this study contribute to our understanding of how ethnically diverse women conceptualize beauty and inter- act with mainstream body ideals. Through a detailed anal- ysis of ethnically, culturally, and socially diverse women’s experiences with body image (dis)satisfaction and dietary restraint, I elucidate how the body is used as a site to enhance social mobility and contest certain ethnic valua- tions of a gendered body.

The Symbolic Power of the Slender Body Recent cross-cultural research shows that “body image and weight concerns as well as dietary patterns have highly contextualized and locally variable meanings” (Becker, 2004, p. 536)Qualitative Health Research. For instance, psychologist and medical anthropologist Anne Becker’s work among young women living in rural Fiji sheds light on the mean- ing attached to the slender body. Becker, Burwell, Gilman, Herzog, and Hamburg (2002) found that rapid social change and exposure to Western television programs cor- responded with the adoption of a slender body image ideal and a significant increase in body dissatisfaction, disordered eating patterns, and eating disorders among young Fijian women. An in-depth analysis of 30 qualita- tive interviews revealed that Fijian women with eating disorders attempted to become socially and economically successful like the women they watched on television

programs (Becker, 2004). Becker’s findings suggested that the increase in disordered eating among Fijian women should be understood as a strategy to acquire power rather than an attempt to be thin. For Becker, Fijian women afflicted with eating disorders reshaped their self-image in the hopes of greater economic pros- perity, gender equity, and independence. To a similar degree, in Curaçao, a postcolonial island in the Caribbean, Katzman, Hermans, van Hoeken, and Hoek (2004) illus- trated how anorexia was common among mixed-ethnicity women of high socioeconomic status who had lived abroad. In their narratives, mixed-race, educated women with experiences traveling and living abroad spoke of their struggles to fit into a higher social class of pre- dominantly White people. They perceived that being thin was one of the ways by which they could gain accep- tance. It is increasingly apparent that social, cultural, and historical factors are likely to mediate women’s body (dis)satisfaction and eating behaviors.

This point is well illustrated in research conducted among ethnic minority women living in the United States. Scholars have grappled over whether ethnic minority women’s idealization of a larger body size is associated with greater body satisfaction (see Miller & Pumariega, 2001). The debate might have much to do with differing definitions of beauty ideals and concepts of self among ethnically diverse populations. For instance, following their study of body aesthetics among Black and Latina women, Rubin, Fitts, and Becker (2003) suggested that definitions of beauty move beyond the physical body to encompass embodied ways of being and acting. An in-depth analysis of a focus group with 18 college- educated African American and Latina women indicated that they defined beauty as body ethics, or “values and beliefs regarding care and appreciation of diverse body types” (p. 55). These women had an attitude of “self- acceptance and body nurturance.” By rejecting main- stream representations of beauty, one is able to stay “true to oneself,” upholding individual cultural values and ide- als, reinforcing positive attitudes toward good health and well-being (p. 70). As these and other authors—including Nichter (2000) and Parker et al. (1995)—have demon- strated, Latina and African American women express and embody beauty in ways that boldly challenge and move beyond rigid physical descriptions of the aesthetically appealing body to include attitude, style, and presentation of self.

In this article I build on these earlier studies, and explore the social meaning of the body and how it is used as a vehicle for social mobility. The analysis is grounded in the works of Pierre Bourdieu (1984), who eloquently pointed out that the body is a symbolic marker of class, and signifies social distinction. Bourdieu discussed the social processes and everyday practices that define

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individual persons and social distinction, which is accomplished through the accumulation of symbolic capital (e.g., money, education, and social networks). The body, in a Bourdieuian framework, thus acts as a commodity or medium through which certain kinds of capital are acquired. Bourdieu wrote:

The body is the most indisputable materialization of class tastes, which it manifests in several ways. It does this first in the seemingly most natural fea- tures of the body, the dimensions (volume, height, weight) and shapes (round or square, stiff or sup- ple, straight or curved) of its visible forms, which express in countless ways a whole relation to the body, i.e., a way of treating it, caring for it, feeding it, maintaining it, which reveals the deepest dispo- sitions of the habitus. (1984, p. 190)

According to Bourdieu, the body acts as a commodity or medium through which certain kinds of capital and power are articulated, and where esteemed cultural values are encoded. The women’s narratives presented in this article illuminate how attaining a slender body—a form of power—is a means by which women of diverse ethnici- ties and social classes can overcome inequalities in every- day social relationships and interactions. Focusing on the mundane and ordinary—the social reality most taken for granted—these women’s narratives offer rich insight into the complexities of the ways that being thin is a mecha- nism that women utilize to gain a sense of belonging and acceptance in American society.

Methods In this study, I employed a feminist methodological framework and collected life histories from 18 college- educated women. The interviews were guided by a semi- structured interview protocol, with several questions intended to bring out descriptions of the women’s life experiences related to the social meaning of the body. I asked the young women to talk about their family life; the communities in which they grew up; their adoles- cence, education, and social interactions; and involve- ment with peers. In addition, I asked women who immigrated to the United States and women who were born into ethnically diverse families to further explain their experiences of being exposed to more than one cul- ture (i.e., their parents’ native cultures and American culture, or their own native culture and American cul- ture). I also gathered what I refer to as “body narratives,” which encouraged women to talk about their relationship to food and their bodies, and elicited information on women’s perceived beauty ideals as well as dieting prac- tices. This technique permitted an in-depth exploration of

how media imagery and mainstream ideas about beauty influence women’s dietary choices and relationships to their bodies. In the process of collecting body narratives, several women recounted their history with food-related troubles. These women’s narratives tell how they saw the thin body as a way to gain social acceptance and eventu- ally to improve their relations with others. During the interviews I did not use a voice recorder, but maintained the integrity of women’s narratives by transcribing the field notes as soon as possible after the interview and immediately expanding on the notes.1 As the women spoke, I recorded as much detail as possible, including descriptions of the women—facial expressions, tones, unspoken communication, demeanor—and verbatim quotes. Additionally, I recorded my impressions and interpretation of the emotional condition of the young women before, during, and after the interview (Dewalt & Dewalt, 2002).

As a White, educated woman, I recognized that a criti- cal and reflective approach to the research process was crucial in the study of ethnic minority women. As Adamson and Donovan (2002) stated, “The production of reflexive accounts is essential in all qualitative research projects but particularly in research involving ethnic minorities or ‘other’ groups” (p. 823). Utilizing a femi- nist framework allowed me to examine how my own sub- jectivity influenced the interview process and later my interpretation of the results. Feminist psychological researchers Tolman and Szalacha (1999) addressed this approach in their work: “This psychological approach to data analysis is accomplished in part because this method is explicitly relational, in that the researcher brings her self-knowledge into the process of listening by using clinical methods of empathy to contribute to her under- standing of what a girl is saying” (p. 14). This approach placed the young woman as the focus of the inquiries, actively allowing her to construct her story. At the same time, it made me critically aware of how my own life his- tory and subjective biases influence the research process. This methodological approach moved away from homog- enizing women, and highlighted their lived experiences.

The young women in this study were chosen based on their ethnicity and educational status. I used purposive sampling (nonrandomized selection), as well as snowball sampling, a technique that involves referrals by other par- ticipants, to recruit ethnically diverse women (Bernard, 2002). All the young women in the study were under- graduate university students between the ages of 18 and 24 attending the same public, 4-year institution located in the northeastern United States. Three of the women in the study were current students of mine. To overcome the power differences embedded in the student–teacher rela- tionship, which can influence the results by creating com- munication barriers, I conducted interviews with these

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students near the end of the semester, or after the completion of the term (see Geiger, 1990). Other young women were recruited through a variety of student organizations including, but not limited to, the Puerto Rican/Latin American Cultural Center, Asian American Cultural Center, Black Students Association, and West Indian Student Awareness Organization. The research was not limited to women who self-identified or who were clini- cally diagnosed as having or having had an eating disor- der. The study was reviewed and received full ethical approval from the University of Connecticut Institutional Review Board prior to the start of the research. At the beginning of each interview, I informed each young woman of my reasons for conducting the research. All women were informed that the information they shared was anonymous and confidential. Additionally, each woman was aware that she could withdraw from the interview process at any point without providing an explanation. Consent was obtained prior to the start of the interview. Pseudonyms are used throughout the article to protect women’s identities and maintain confidentiality.

Throughout this article I use the term ethnically diverse women to encompass the varied ways that these women self-identified, which included White (7 parti- cipants), Hispanic (3 participants), Persian, Filipino, Jamaican, Vietnamese, Peruvian, Black Puerto Rican, Indian Italian, and Asian Indian. The women from ethnic minorities were either born into an immigrant family or had immigrated to the United States during their child- hood or adolescence with their families; in one case, a young woman immigrated by herself. Six of the 11 ethnic minority women were not born in the United States, and an additional 5 indicated that their parents were foreign- born and had immigrated to the United States prior to the informant’s birth. Ethnic minority women who said that they or their parents had lived in another country prior to living in the United States discussed their affiliation with their country of origin; they maintained varying degrees of connection with the home country. One woman was born in the United States to American-born parents (the mother grew up in Brazil), yet immediately after her birth moved to Costa Rica, where she lived until she was five. This woman described herself as possessing a Latin American rather than Euro-American heritage. The six participants who had exposure to two different countries indicated that they maintained connections to their coun- try of origin through visits and interactions with family members living there. It is important to indicate the length of time these immigrant women had spent in American society. I did this by differentiating between women who were first-generation immigrants to the United States and women who were second-generation immigrants born to immigrant families in the United States. All seven of the White women in the study were born and raised in the

United States. The women’s ages ranged from 18 to 23, and the mean age was 20. Social class was self-assessed and ranged from working class (1 participant) to upper- middle class (2 participants), with the other 15 partici- pants identifying as middle class. The heterogeneity of the group allowed for a wide range of perspectives and experiences.

The findings are structured using an analysis of the contradictions, conflicts, and struggles that were present in women’s lives, enabling underlying patterns and theo- retical concepts to arise from women’s narratives (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). I developed a codebook to highlight patterns and ideas that emerged from the themes. In cod- ing the interviews I sought theoretical saturation, which means that neither new cultural data nor new relation- ships between variables emerged from within the wom- en’s narrations (Bernard, 2002, p. 471). In the case of nonsaturation, I conducted subsequent interviews so that theoretical saturation was reached and no new themes were discovered.

Findings Ethnically diverse women talked about the struggles, ten- sions, and conflicting expectations they faced growing up and entering American society. An in-depth exploration of women’s lives indicated that body (dis)satisfaction was intricately connected to feelings of belonging and accep- tance. The thread linking many of the women’s narratives was the symbolic power that the slender body engendered, an image that women tended to either desire or reject.

Feminist scholar Susan Bordo (1993) wrote that in contemporary consumer culture, cultural beauty ideals perpetuate the image of the slender body as the epitome of ideal femininity. The slender body is encoded with images of control, achievement, and success—culturally esteemed values specific to womanhood in consumer societies. Bordo contended that the slender body is homogenized, depicting a dominant gender, class, and ethnic type. In line with Bordo’s work, the women in the present study reproduced images that reinforced the notion that the het- erosexual, middle- to upper-class White woman is the cul- tural prototype of ideal feminine beauty in American society. Regardless of their ethnic, socioeconomic, and cultural backgrounds, women in the study expressed their conflicts dealing with messages promulgated by the media and endorsed by American society, in which thinness and whiteness symbolize beauty and ideal femininity.

Accepting or Rejecting the Slender “White” Body Ideal Bordo’s (1993) depiction of femininity was echoed in several women’s narratives, reinforcing that the slender

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White body was a pervasive image in these women’s daily lives. Some women explicitly expressed their own desires for this body image, using references to Hollywood movie stars and other celebrities who possessed desirable physical characteristics and who, by extension, embodied power and prestige. For instance, ethnically diverse women reproduced an anglicized image of beauty in which the ideal woman possessed a light skin color (white, tan, or “not too dark”), light eyes (blue, green, or hazel), and light-colored (blonde or light brown) straight hair. Consider the description of an ideal woman given by Lisa, a young White woman of middle- to upper-class background. She excitedly talked about Jessica Simpson2 as her ideal:

Her chest is medium sized, and her body in general is really nice. . . . Her hair color [blonde] is really great, but you know it’s impossible to get. Jessica’s hair is actually darker, like dirty blonde, but she treats it so often, and it’s really expensive. They [a cable television station] said she takes extrava- gant lengths to get her hair that color, and that it really isn’t pure blonde.

Lisa was enthusiastic when she spoke of her idealized image of beauty. She shared her knowledge of the prac- tices Jessica Simpson engaged in to become beautiful. Lisa also had blonde hair, which she frequently had treated at a hair salon. Her subtle comparison of herself to Jessica Simpson reinforced that the slender, anglicized body was the ideal that she strove for; yet, Lisa was aware that this body is nearly impossible to achieve, because it is expensive and individuals must engage in “extravagant” beauty practices to achieve the desired results. Despite the impossibility of attaining this ideal, she dyed her hair, strictly monitored her diet, and exercised. Lisa was able to engage in these beauty regimes and self-disciplinary practices because she had access to the resources neces- sary to cultivate the highly desirable yet decidedly rare body image. She had the financial resources, leisure time, and knowledge of the practices that she must engage in to achieve this ideal. By embodying the slender White body, Lisa possessed social capital, which was visible in the contours of her body as well as in the ways in which she adorned her body. Near the end of our discussion, Lisa stated with an air of confidence, “I buy designer clothes. You get a better fit, and your clothes aren’t the same as everyone else’s.” Through daily food, body, and con- sumer practices, Lisa was able to elevate her social status and prestige by molding her body into an image that encodes dominant gender ideology and embodies social distinction. Qualitative Health Research

Abby, a Black Puerto Rican woman who grew up in a “snobby,” upper-middle-class neighborhood, similarly

emphasized whiteness in descriptions of ideal feminine beauty. Her narrative echoed Lisa’s, and adds to under- standing of the complexity with which thinness and whiteness are embedded in women’s definitions of beauty and experiences of their bodies. When Abby was asked to discuss her image of the ideal woman, she responded, “She should have a natural tan, not too dark and not too light; green or hazel eyes; and straight hair.” She contin- ued to state, “I hate curly hair, because I have curly hair.” Abby idealized lighter shades and hues of beauty. She was not alone, as many women in the study talked about lighter-skinned women who had long, straight, light- colored hair, light eyes, and a glistening tan as the epit- ome of beauty. Frizzy, kinky, or curly hair (nonstraight hair) deviates from White standards of beauty, which can become, for some women, a source of conflict and anxi- ety (Patton, 2006). The desire for long, flowing, straight, and preferably blonde (or lighter) hair—which, as Lisa pointed out, requires time and money—pervades women’s depictions of beauty in American society (see Nicther, 2000; Nichter & Vuckovic, 1994). Desiring beauty based on the standards of the so-called ideal White woman was a theme connecting many of the young women’s voices, and was not specifically linked to ethnicity and/or social class. This begs the question: What do lighter shades of skin; soft, smooth, and sleek hair; and a svelte figure offer ethnically diverse women? Does the slender body engen- der social distinction, and by extension, wealth and power?

Jessica, a White woman from a lower-middle-class background, provided insight into the complexities of desiring the White, slender body. As she explained, the “skinny girl” possesses valued personality characteris- tics: “Skinny girls . . . are always portrayed as the sexy, intelligent, successful, and in-control women.” The oppo- site of the skinny girl is the chubby or fat girl who, as Jessica explained, is “fat, funny, and clumsy.” Most note- worthy is that Jessica conflated slenderness with social, sexual, intellectual, personal, and economic success, so that being slender raised one’s social status. She was well aware that the fat body does not offer the same level of prestige. This point was clarified when Jessica stated, “If someone calls me fat, I get upset.” In American society, the fat body is seen as possessing an “incorrect attitude,” symbolizes a body out of control, and is situated at the bottom of the hierarchy of valued body ideals (Bordo, 1993, p. 203). Lisa’s comments align with Becker’s (2004) findings that the slender female body embodies positive attributes, and that cultivating a culturally valued aesthetic body ideal is a method to experience social rewards and improved social positioning. Desiring slen- der bodies because of the esteem they embody is prob- lematic, however. As Lisa articulated, a young woman’s self-worth is inexorably linked to the size and shape of

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her body. In line with Jessica, many other women associ- ated the “skinny girl” with positive characteristics, expressing their desires to mold their bodies and selves into the images that pervade their daily lives. As the women discussed above illustrate, in American society, “The current standard of beauty is a White, young, slim, tall, and upper class woman” (Patton, 2006 p. 30), an image that unfortunately marginalizes other forms of femininity and female beauty.

Not all women idealize the White, slender body. Several women contested the uncritical consumption of media images that promote thinness as the feminine ideal. Kantha, who is Jamaican, mocked the image of the slen- der White girl. She said, “The skinny White girl has the attitude of ‘I’m perfect.’” Kantha lived in Jamaica until early adolescence, and then moved to a low-income Puerto Rican community. As a first generation immigrant woman, she rejected such oppressive images of the “White girl,” and talked about how beauty is fluid and encompasses both inner and outer beauty. Kantha out- lined her culture’s notions of beauty, comparing Jamaican women’s beauty ideals and American models of beauty: in the United States, the emphasis is rigidly limited to types of physical beauty, and there is little emphasis on inner beauty. In America, Kantha explained, “[t]he White girl is tall and skinny and blond”; she is also “perfect.” In addition, Kantha elaborated that White girls “have a firmer body, and a flat stomach.” Regarding Jamaican culture, she said,

We are into appearance, but there are different kinds of outer beauty. In the States it’s about being skinny, and there is more of an emphasis on outer physical beauty, and we don’t emphasize it as much. It’s different—a more curvaceous body type. Ideally, the female is curvy, has a big butt, big boobs [breasts], everything is big. . . . Black girls might want a flat stomach, but they don’t want to be too skinny. . . . Just because you’re thinner doesn’t mean you are good on the inside.

Similarly, Adriana, who was born in Peru and moved to the United States at the age of 13, expressed a comparable definition of beauty. For her, beauty extended beyond the body: “Appearance is important, but it’s about style.” She described that there are “Black” clothes, “like ghetto style,” and “White” clothes.3 Adriana named the “high- end” stores where “White” clothes could be bought. For her and many other non-White women, beauty depended on style and what they decide to put on their body—not the size and shape of their body.

Adriana, a first-generation immigrant woman, rejected outright the White beauty codes. She explained why: When she entered American society as an adolescent she

immediately recognized her already devalued position as an ethnic minority, and refused to be further denigrated. She continued to idealize a voluptuous body image that coincided with her notions of beauty, and contested hege- monic Western beauty codes. The value Adriana placed on her ethno-specific body ideal was revealed in the fol- lowing comment: “Minorities are much more accepting of bigger bodies. Blacks and Hispanics want big butts, hips, a different body type altogether.” According to Andriana, White girls “are like clones,” and they succumb to pres- sures of the media. She indicated that the media cause many White women to develop anorexia. As a woman of minority status who had to overcome oppressive racial, ethnic, and cultural barriers living in American society, she asserted, “I have my own personality. I live up to my own expectations. I don’t conform to society, because we’ve done it for so long.” Adriana openly criticized White women and their “weakness,” suggesting that they do not have the strength of personality to reject dominant and oppressive images of beauty. It is their weakness that also contributes to their body dissatisfaction and eating pathologies. Often, African American and ethnic minority women are pitted against the dominant cultural standard of beauty, contributing to oppression and marginalization (Patton, 2006). Adriana’s words echoed other ethnic minority women who asserted their agency by challenging mainstream beauty norms. Several women rejected the slender body and refused to comply with constraints imposed by the dominant White culture, ultimately exhib- iting their social power through their identification with ethno-specific body images that embraced diverse notions of beauty. Qualitative Health Research

Women of African, Latina, and Philippino cultural backgrounds not only talked about the curvaceous body as beautiful, but also how a woman presents herself through her hair style, attitude, and fashion to reveal her overall beauty. This is consistent with Nichter’s (2000) and Rubin et al.’s (2003) findings that body size is not the sole indi- cator of beauty, but taking care of the body and presenting themselves positively frames some women’s definitions of beauty. Similar to body ethics, the term employed by the women of color in the study by Rubin et al., these women’s notion of beauty rejected “the dominant cultural ethos that encourages women to reshape their bodies to emulate the cultural ideal” (p. 70). Several women in my study proudly identified with their minority status, assert- ing that their ideas of beauty differ from mainstream rep- resentations of the “White girl,” and promote a more extensive and expressive notion of female beauty Qualitative Health Research.