There is something about body image and culture that is innately fascinating. The idea that culture somehow shapes who we are and how we think about ourselves is appealing; it promises a solution to millions of women who suffer from problems related to their identification with their body, to the exclusion of a more healthy identification with their personalities, or their 'true selves', as Mary Pipher puts it.

A lot of people will argue that our culture, which promotes the beauty myth, was created and is perpetuated by women. As for perpetuation, the ideas and ideals with which most people have grown up with are considered 'natural' and 'obvious'. These ideas are sometimes known as preconceptions, and if you don't know that you have them, how can you question them? These preconceptions evolved from previous views of previous cultures; they are neither eternal nor obvious.

I hold the feminist view that there is a problem regarding beauty image in our culture. I see it in my friends, who worry about their weight, or who join self-esteem groups to try and deal with the fact that they are seen as fat. I see it in the writings of psychologists who deal with troubled teenaged girls and young adult women. I see it in advertisements everywhere, where women with dead eyes and no smiles parade around in clothes that display their protruding collarbones or hip bones until I want to scream at them "Go eat something, for heaven's sake!"

In our culture, fat is seen as something you can control absolutely. People who are overweight (a definition that is getting lower all of the time) are considered people who are unable to keep control. They have lost the battle; they can't hack it; they are unable to control a fundamental aspect of their lives. They can't hold to a diet or even eat healthy.

But hold on a minute. What happens if we turn that around? I am just shy of 5'9" and weigh between 145-150 pounds. I am generally considered thin; most people, when asked to guess my weight, have underestimated by up to 30 pounds. By the standards above, I must eat healthy or diet successfully.

Nothing could be further from the truth. I try to eat healthy because I was raised with good healthy food� lots of salad (with buttermilk dressing), lots of vegetables fresh from the garden, meat and potatoes, a good balanced diet. But I'm a college student. I keep odd hours, I don't have a garden, I don't even have a well-stocked kitchen. So, a lot of the time, I eat fast food. I eat a lot of fast food. A typical trip to Taco Bell will see me eat a couple of Gorditas and several Taco Supremes with the regular style sour cream. If I go to McDonald's, I need at least a Big Mac and a couple of hamburgers just to keep me going. I could eat comparably sized meals three times a day with no side effects other than not being hungry during some of my ill-timed classes.

So by the above standards, I'm failing. I'm not even trying to keep to a diet. On a regular basis, I consume more calories per day than is the recommended daily allowance. It's full of grease and fat and I still look like a starving student. (Though, by the way, I weigh far more than typical models of my height.) So there's obviously something else at work here.

There is something at work in our culture to keep women identified with their bodies to the exclusion of all else. This is not the result of a conspiracy, as many anti-feminists would have you believe is our belief; this is the result of years of preconceptions piled on top of misconceptions on top of a few publications made by people whose own preconceptions are not known to them. This is not a direct result of 'men' trying to keep 'women' down (which men? which women?); this is something that is being perpetuated by our culture as a whole, men and women.

Our culture promotes its values so thoroughly that we do not question why dancers must be far below healthy weight to perform and not be called fat. We find it unusual to have a 'fat' lawyer on the television show "The Practice." We find it perfectly acceptable to make jokes about a person's weight. Fat jokes are the only discriminatory form of humor that is still widely accepted in this country.

Why do I find this topic important? I have several beautiful friends who cannot see themselves as such. One of them dances ballet and is in better shape than I could hope to be after years of practice. She is my height, weighs perhaps fifteen pounds more than me at the most, and has trouble accepting that she can have a beautiful body. (Eating disorders in ballet are incredibly prominent.) Another is an actress who is considering moving out of the country so that she can get decent roles. I have heard, far too many times, phrases such as "I feel like a cow."

Too many women in this country feel that the only way they can be happy is to lose weight. The ideal is for a size six body, which is not only impossible in many cases but entirely unrealistic. Beyond that, clothes are simply not designed to fit on most female bodies. As someone who is generally considered thin, I wear jeans of at least size 10, but I have to wear a belt to keep them up. Jeans are not designed for women with hips, which, surprise surprise, most women have. Many other clothes have similar problems; I have to look for different sizes depending on which piece of clothing it is, whether the sleeves are long or short, whether it involves my hips, waist, bust, or shoulders, or a thousand different things that I shouldn't have to worry about.

It's enough to make me want to be rich just so I can get tailored clothes.

These things are important to know about. Preconceptions control you unless you are aware of their existence. Once you realize they are there, you can challenge them or reinstate them as you desire. (Not all preconceptions are evil.) If we understand the underlying assumptions about beauty that our culture holds, why those assumptions exist and how they are perpetuated, we can move toward an image of beauty that is truer and less dangerous.

Beauty shouldn't be unattainable. Beauty shouldn't be controlling. Beauty shouldn't be the ultimate goal.

And most of all, beauty shouldn't be deadly.