Every time I come across debates regarding beauty standards, dieting, plastic surgery or fitness culture, I cannot help but wonder, didn’t the Greeks provide a solution to the dilemma of the cult of the body?
Part 1: The Impact of the cult of the body in society
Most people will agree that we live in a body-centered culture in which media glorifies a canon of beauty, and society condemns those who deviate from it. The most vulnerable to cultural influence are, of course, adolescents. We develop our “body image” since childhood as part of the definition of our identity and gender role, but it’s during adolescence when we transit the biological changes associated to appearance of secondary sexual characteristics that the adolescents will self-assess themselves against the promoted canon of beauty, and they receive family, peer or social pressure or criticism about their appearance, affecting their self-image and self-esteem.
The ideals of beauty promoted in film, television and social media are usually the slim figure for women and the more muscular, V-shaped torso for men, which are identified as the dominant traits of physical attractiveness. But despite these canons being part of the cultural dynamic of gender roles, the social pressure to adhere to the beauty standards is more prevalent in women, who present a more negative self-perception about their bodies.
A research study showed that 95% of women overestimate their body weight by 25%, while 40% of women overestimate the size of one of their body parts by at least 50%. [1]
And the problem is that social media has only contributed to exacerbating the generalized feelings of body dysmorphia.
A survey conducted among adolescents and young adults by the Royal Society for Public Health linked the use of highly visual social media (such as Instagram) with worsening body image and mental health. [2]
A study on young women about the consumption of Instagram showed that “exposure to celebrity and peer images increased negative mood and body dissatisfaction,” and concluded that “the exposure to attractive celebrity and peer images can be detrimental to women’s body image.” [3]
Another study analyzing appearance-related comparison on female university students’ photo-based activities on Instagram, concluded that it generated “a drive for thinness and body dissatisfaction” and the suggests that “Instagram use could be potentially harmful to individuals who find themselves frequently engaging in comparisons with others.” [4]
I think it’s undeniable that there is a psychological impact on youth, especially in women, caused by the proliferating culture of beauty, especially with the over-consumption of content in social media platforms, and the normativity of the standards. And is valid to argue if we should challenge the role of the perception of beauty in our culture.
However, on the other side of the spectrum, we have the people who is inspired by beauty of the human being and considers the body as a work of art which needs to be continuously exercised and developed, even beyond functionality, health or aesthetics, but as a way of self-expression and individuation.
The current informal debate surrounds the definition of what is accepted as “normal,” and regarding “normality” in terms of beauty. We usually find two general camps:
The first group pushing for the development of the body, encompassing the cultures of fitness, dieting or bodybuilding, which allege to pursuit health and self-realization goals, but often are blamed of promoting and perpetuating the beauty standards, the objectification and sexualization of individuals, especially women.
And the second camp, fighting to deprecate the imposed beauty standards with movements like “body positivity” and fat acceptance, which push for embracing the body as it is “natural,” in terms of body shapes and sizes, but has been heavily criticized of normalizing obesity, sedentary lifestyles, and other health-compromising behaviors.
Unfortunately, as is often said, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” and truth is that we can examine this situation from multiple perspectives: biological, psychological, anthropological and even philosophical, and we might not come with a definite solution, just by the sheer complexity of the variables involved, considering the value systems and canons of beauty have changed and will continue to develop through time.
But I think there is no better way to untangle a complex topic like this than going back to the beginning, when the first concepts of beauty embed in our social behavior, creating some of the standards and beliefs that would permeate into our modern culture. It’s time to travel back to the cradle of western civilization. To Ancient Greece and dive into the inception of the cult of the body.
Part 2: The Concept of Beauty in Ancient Greece
Researchers have studied the Greeks through the window of art, with the human representations captured by sculptures and paintings, their books and scriptures, with passages highlighting the features deemed as beautiful in their culture, and the recounts of other civilizations which interacted with the Greeks in ancient times.
Thanks to all of this, we have a clear idea of the canon of beauty the Greeks upheld, which for men the ideal body should have a strong and athletic composition, with broad chest and shoulders, strong buttocks, tanned skin, and a face with chiseled features and full-lipped. And for women, the ideal body should be softly pear-shaped, with round buttocks, untanned skin, long, wavy hair, and a face with gentle features.
It sounded as if I was describing the sculptures of Aphrodite and Apollo, the most beautiful deities in the Greek Pantheon, and which were the beauty ideals that Greeks aspired to, similar to how, in contemporary times, people look for models and celebrities. It has been considered that these sculptures were exaggerated by the Greeks to enhance the attributes they considered beautiful, and that these physiques were unachievable, attributing the muscular representations to their knowledge of physiology rather than the prowess of their athletes. Falling into the same trap of idealization of unattainable beauty standards as we do in our modern culture.
However, it has been proved that several statues were cast from real individuals, meaning they indeed looked like that. And it’s not too difficult to believe it, considering Greeks were the inventors of the gymnasium and the Olympics, and for Greek citizens, daily exercising was considered a civil duty and could be even enforced by law at war times.
But it’s true, Greeks venerated beauty, projecting those characteristics into their gods and encouraging their population to strive to embody the heroic figure, like Heracles or Hercules as it’s better known, depicted countless times across Greek mythology. We could argue that this pursuit of vanity and body perfection led the Greeks to invent the beauty pageants, or “kallisteia”, which usually happened during the Olympics, but contrary to the modern custom, participants were mostly men.
Having all this in mind, can we consider that the Greeks created a cult surrounding the body, even going to the extent of Pythagoras developing a geometric formula, or Golden Ratio as it’s known, to measure the balance and symmetry in beauty, and all these standards decanted into the standards of beauty our culture venerates today?
I would say, mostly, because even if, as I mentioned earlier, the canons of beauty have changed through time, the “classic” or Greco-Roman canon has always remained latent after millennia, being brought back by cultural movements like the Renaissance.
Should we then blame the Greeks for the anxiety and psychological pain we experience today about our physique?
Not really, and that’s because there was an element closely tied to beauty which was not forgotten, but I would say, culturally dissociated through time from the perception of beauty the Greeks had.
And that is, believe it or not, the philosophic aspect.
Part 3: The role of Philosophy
It turns out that in ancient Greece, there was not a division between physical and internal beauties, both were correlated and intertwined. Greeks referred to this as “kalokagathos,” which derives from “kalos” meaning “beautiful” and “agathos” meaning “good” or “virtuous.”
Plato believed that “kalokagathia” (plural of kalokagathos) embodies the belief that genuine beauty encompasses not only physical attractiveness but also moral virtue. [5]
And in his book Phaedrus, which is a dialogue between Socrates and Phaedrus, they state the concept of beauty as a heavenly and radiating aspect we were familiar with before being incarnated in our corporeal beings. And now, in this physical world, beholding the imperfect beauties through our sense of vision, we can “glimpse” into higher truths that help our soul to “remember” and reconnect with the divine.
But he forewarns: “Some have not been recently initiated and mistake this reminder for beauty itself and only pursue desires of the flesh. This pursuit of pleasure, then, even when manifested in the love of beautiful bodies, is not ‘divine’ madness, but rather just having lost one’s head. The recent initiates, on the other hand, are overcome when they see a bodily form that has captured true beauty well.” [6]
Then, for the Greeks, this pursuit of kalokagathia became an aspirational ideal, motivating them to strive for a balanced and virtuous life. And this harmony between the aesthetics and the moral virtue was linked to the achievement of “Eudaimonia,” which is a Greek term often translated as “happiness,” but really denotes a state of “human flourishing” or “well-being” or “prosperity”. And this “flourishing” requires a balance and integration of three aspects: physical, mental, and social well-being.
Aristotle said that the eudaimonic life is one of “virtuous activity in accordance with reason.”
Which leads to the final concept I want to visit with you, which is “virtue.”
The first historic concept of virtue comes to us form the Ancient Egypt from the goddess “Maat” or “Ma’at”, who personified “truth, balance, order, law, morality and justice”, and the word started being used to name what personified those values.
Later in Greece, the word “Arete” or “Areté” is the concept that embodied virtue, referring to “excellence” in the context of “moral virtue” or “full realization of the potential.”
What finally brings us back to Plato and his four classic cardinal virtues, which are:
Prudence, or wisdom, used to discern the way of action in a situation.
Fortitude or courage, which is the ability to confront our fear and the uncertainties in life.
Justice, used to identify what is right.
And finally, Temperance, which was the most important of the virtues according to Plato and it’s about the practice of self-control, moderation and dealing with the tempering of temptations.
And now you might wonder, why did I take you through all this historic detour, to cover something that might not be related to the cult of the body and the impact on our culture? But precisely, we needed to reach to this point to understand the role that a “virtue” or being “virtuous” plays in what should be pursued in terms of beauty in our culture.
For the Greeks and especially for the Stoics, morality was conceived as a spectrum and the “virtue” stands in the middle of two “vices”. And to explain this, I’ll use a few modern examples previously mentioned.
About dieting: Having a balanced, structured diet in accord with our lifestyle is beneficial to our health. This is a virtue, because it helps us to realize our true potential from a biological aspect. The two extremes, or vices, on one side, giving free rein to our food temptations will lead us to obesity, which is unhealthy, and will prevent us from finding balance and fulfilment. On the other side, we have extreme dieting, like keto dieting, or extended intermittent fasting, or other similar practices that often disguise anorexic tendencies. I want to be emphatic here that this type of dieting relies mostly on “autophagy” or “cannibalism” of your own body, but the same weight loss effect and perceived health benefits can be achieved through more efficient and healthy methods, like weightlifting training, for example.
About exercising. Having regular sessions of exercises that combine cardiovascular exercise and weightlifting to a degree is a requirement for a species like ours, considering that most of our internal systems rely on movement, and we are constantly fighting external forces like gravity. Then, having a functional or athletic body which could effectively perform the activities that our daily life demands, it can be considered a virtue. The extremes would be on one side, a sedentary lifestyle, which could lead to obesity, diabetes or cardiac diseases, or degradation of our muscular or osseous systems that would prevent us from being functional when we reach senescence. And on the other side, we could have people like body builders or athletes relying on performance-enhancing drugs to achieve a result their body can’t naturally achieve nor sustain. I want to emphasize here that being overweight, even if we are speaking of muscles, taxes our organs drastically, so being a 350-pound bodybuilder could be as unhealthy as being obese.
With body shapes and features, we have a set of genetic characteristics inherited from our parents and forebears like body types (either endomorph, mesomorph, or ectomorph), metabolism, and other predispositions, that we can consider our baseline, and from there, we improve to “realize our true potential.” We could say that accepting our own physical limitations and then pushing ourselves to become our best versions, the discipline required to accomplish it, can be considered a virtue. But the vice would be to neglect our body, not from the nihilist perspective, but from failing to accept our corporality, because our body is the only way that we have to experience life. And our experience of life will depend on the condition of our body.
If we go to the extreme of exercise to decrease our body fat to a point it becomes dangerous, it doesn’t matter how cool you can look lean and ripped, there are side effects associated with it, from experiencing anxiety and other mood disorders, to even to low libido or halting menstruation entirely. Plastic surgery, practiced mostly by women, has multiple risks associated to the surgical interventions, and the physical alteration doesn’t fix any psychological issues, only making them addicted to the sensation of “constant improvement” and perpetuates the feelings of dissatisfaction.
Part 4: My reflection on the topic.
I think I’ve conveyed my point about understanding what type of behavior can be regarded as a “virtuous” and those that can be categorized as a vice. And the primary driver to differentiate between the two is most of the times the “effort” associated with the behavior. If you strive to attain a certain physique through hard work and dieting, you will not only shape your body, but also your character. You will need to develop your focus, discipline, perseverance and many other skills which will aid you in other aspects of your life. That’s the reason practicing sports is recommended for kids. Because, just like the Greeks understood, it was a crucial aspect to get a balance in our lives, science and psychology have proven the benefits as well. That’s the virtuous path, the effort, not the results. The results should be considered, as the Stoics said, “a preferred indifference.”
However, in our short-termism culture, we are constantly looking for the “life hacks” and “shortcuts” and will literally try everything that is sold to us to avoid doing the hard work. That’s why many men joining a gym will start taking steroids within the first months, even before they can put to test the natural limits of their bodies or women will subject themselves to surgery without first committing to do exercising and dieting. And both are missing the teachings the long road offered.
In our culture, we put much more emphasis on the result rather than the effort.
And that’s why our standards of beauty have become toxic in modern times, because we have dissociated them from its respective virtues.
We could argue that some people come to this world with privileged genetics adhering to the canons of beauty, but in the same way, others are born with skills or easiness to stand out in a different field. And for that I would quote, US President Theodore Roosevelt, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” The only valid and productive comparison should be against our past selves. And yes, we can admire the figures that inspire us, like Hercules inspired the Greeks. But they didn’t idolize Hercules because of his divine ancestry as a demigod or his chiseled body. The Greeks were marveled at his character. As recounted in the parable of the crossroads, when the gods offered Hercules the choice between vice and virtue, between the path of a life of pleasure or of a life of hardship and honor, he chose virtue.
Part 5: Personal Story
Thank you for listening, but before we go, I know some of you think I don’t have the moral grounds to speak about the psychological impact of the standards of beauty looking like this.
But that’s precisely the reason this topic is very personal to me, and I wanted to make this video because I’ve experienced firsthand the negative impact cultural and peer pressure can have on us.
I was a scrawny kid with a bulging belly, unnaturally large for my complexion to the point that my mother took me to the doctor. So, basically, I came to this world with the worst genetic possible: narrow shoulders, thin limbs, which made it very difficult for me to pack muscle, and with a very high predisposition to store body fat in my abdomen. And this was difficult for me considering I grew up in the hype of the muscular heroes in Hollywood during the 80s and 90s. Obviously, I wanted to achieve the incredible physiques of Schwarzenegger and Stallone, but the image I observed every time I looked myself into the mirror only harbored feelings of insecurity and body shaming, fueled by the bullying I received.
But the real problem was not my unfair comparison against an “unattainable standard of beauty” but that back then I failed to recognize I was asking for something I’ve done nothing to deserve. I lived a sedentary lifestyle, practicing no sport, mostly staying at home watching movies and playing video games, and with high-carb diet, but in my mind, I truly believed my body would get in shape as a side effect of growing. As if I would become muscular by an act of magic. But with my genetics and habits, that never happened.
I could not change my genetics, but I could change my habits, and by doing so, influence my genetics. And so, I did. And persevering during years of training, little by little, I molded my physique closer to the one that I’ve envisioned. But the inertia of genetics is difficult to overcome, and my body has kept the tendency to store the body fat mainly in my abdomen. I need to adhere to a strict regimen of diet and exercise and decrease my percentage of body fat well below into the single digit for my stomach rolls to disappear.
One day a gym partner, who was a plastic surgeon, after seeing me struggling with my belly fat despite my hard work in the gym, recommended me to subject myself to a liposuction, arguing that once the fat is removed, there is a high probability of not returning to that specific area and is stored somewhere else instead. And without asking for it, it was presented before me. The solution I needed.
But like Hercules at the crossroad, I had to choose between the simple path of liposuction for the sake of beauty or a life of constant struggle against my genetics.
And this situation truly made reflect on what was more important for me, and for my inner child who dreamed about having an impressive physique. And it was the fact that I wanted to achieve it all by myself, with sweat and struggle, even if it was only once. Because even if now my belly grows after a week of relaxation in diet and exercise, it’s not a motive of shame for me anymore, but of pride, acting as a reminder of an enemy I once defeated. A battle I’d won, and I can win again.
Then I freed myself from the need to conform with a standard of beauty, by understanding that the goal is not having an amazing physique, but the virtues you get while striving for it.
I know I’ll never be a Mr. Olympia or a fitness influencer on Instagram, and that’s ok for me, if achieving such goals implies the usage of drugs, hormones or surgeries, because I always have and will prioritize my wellbeing over an aesthetic. And that is a virtue.
And this is precisely the message I want to transmit with this video, and I hope it can reach especially kids and adolescents struggling with their perception of beauty as I did. Because I know that back then would have meant the world to me if somebody had explained it to me.
So, please, don’t suffer because of beauty. Strive for your wellbeing instead.
M. Ch. Landa
Sources:
[1] Myers N, Biocca A. The elastic body image: the effect of television advertising and programming on body image distortions in young women. J Communication. 1992;42(3):108-33.
[2] Status of Mind, Young Health Movement, Royal Society for Public Health, 2017.
[3] Brown, Zoe & Tiggemann, Marika. (2016). Attractive celebrity and peer images on Instagram: Effect on women’s mood and body image. Body image. 19. 37-43.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307885749_Attractive_celebrity_and_peer_images_on_Instagram_Effect_on_women’s_mood_and_body_image
[4] Hendrickse, J., Arpan, L. M., Clayton, R. B., & Ridgway, J. L. (2017). Instagram and college women’s body image: Investigating the roles of appearance-related comparisons and intrasexual competition. Computers in Human Behavior, 74, 92–100.
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-25545-012
[5] Plato. (1925). Timaeus (W. R. M. Lamb, Trans.). In Plato in twelve volumes (Vol. 9). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[6] Plato. (2011). Plato: Phaedrus (Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics) (H. Yunis, Ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
