Katrena Foltz looks great, even in warm-up sweats. Her curly blond locks frame a radiant smile. When she moves, she projects the casual confidence of an athlete.
By some standards -- 17th-century Baroque, for instance -- the Salk Middle School fitness and health instructor could be described as skinny.
Fate, though, landed Foltz in a culture where her 5-foot-11-inch, 165-pound body is 50 pounds heavier than the typical model's.
Like most 38-year-olds, Foltz must work to keep her weight stable. But unlike some of her friends -- and many of her 12- and 13-year-old students -- Foltz doesn't envy those wispy types who populate magazine covers.
"I'm a big-boned German-heritage woman," she explains, "so I'm fighting genetics to a certain point. But I have no desire to be pencil-thin.
"I've been there before. In college, I dropped 25 pounds in two months to be in my best friend's wedding," says Foltz. "I wanted to go back home looking good. Now I see those pictures and realize how gaunt I was. It's ugly."
Ugly, or ideal? Who sets the standards?
A century ago, American culture valued "good works." Today we value "good looks." And the bodies we worship are the most difficult to obtain -- shapes achieved through starvation, steroids, strenuous workouts and plastic surgery.
Consider this:
� In 1998, 22,000 American teen-agers underwent cosmetic surgery -- a 95 percent jump from 1992. Among the most popular procedures were liposuction, rhinoplasty and breast implants.
� If the GI Joe Extreme action figure were as tall as a typical male, its biceps would measure 26 inches -- 7 inches bigger than slugger Mark McGwire's, and just 2 inches shy of Arnold Schwarzenegger's massive thighs.
� Eating disorders used to be associated with women. During the past decade, though, more than 1 million American men have been diagnosed with them. According to one recent study, 36 percent of third-grade boys have tried to lose weight.
� In 1972, 23 percent of American women said they were dissatisfied with their overall appearance. By 1997, the number had jumped to 56 percent of women, along with 43 percent of men. A Psychology Today body-image survey revealed that 24 percent of women and 17 percent of men would trade more than three years of their lives to achieve their desired weight.
Preoccupation with the human body is nothing new. As Eastern Washington University art historian Barbara Miller points out, Greeks created sculptures 2,500 years ago celebrating beauty, health, fitness and competition.
Yet the idealized human shape, as portrayed in art, has varied widely over the millennia. Ancient Egyptians favored the geometry of long necks, broad shoulders and tiny waists, while the Dutch masters preferred heavy forms that exemplified abundance and prosperity.
For centuries, most cultures considered bigger better, according to author and historian Joan Jacobs Brumberg. That began to change during the Industrial Revolution, when U.S. and British women saw thinness as a way of differentiating themselves from the lower classes.
Nineteenth-century Impressionists brought a sense of reality to art, portraying ordinary people of all shapes in their paintings.
Twentieth-century pop artists upped the ante, introducing cultural icons -- Marilyn Monroe, bodybuilders and even cartoon characters -- into serious art.
But one hardly need visit a museum to be bombarded by images of idealized beauty. Just drop by the nearest supermarket.
"It's really hard to stand in a grocery store line facing all those magazine covers and not be horrified," says Vivienne Dutzar, a clinical dietitian at Sacred Heart Medical Center. "They equate thinness with happiness, fulfillment, contentment. If you're not thin, there's something wrong with you; you're a loser."
Dutzar works with mental health therapist Stacey Mainer helping clients put weight and shape in perspective.
Says Mainer: "People come to us thinking their problem is body image, but it's the underlying causes we need to get at -- self-esteem, conflict avoidance, family issues, perfectionist tendencies."
Dr. Jim States, a Spokane adolescent medicine specialist, has witnessed a dramatic attitude shift during his 22 years in practice.
"Instead of just seeing anorexia in older teens, now we see it clear down to 8-and 9-year-olds," he says. "And we're seeing younger and younger kids pursuing dangerous behaviors to achieve weight loss -- laxatives, diet pills, diuretics."
Like most experts, States blames movies, television and magazines for encouraging unrealistic standards.
Harvard Medical School psychiatrist Anne Becker's research would seem to back States up. Becker was in Fiji in 1995 when the government announced it would introduce television, including Western programs.
At the time Becker wrote, "Fijians revere a body that is sturdy, tall and large -- features that show that the body is strong, hard-working and healthy." Thinness and sudden weight loss were seen as signs of neglect.
Three years later, Becker returned to Fiji and discovered 29 percent of the girls showing symptoms of eating disorders.
Asked about television's role in their lives, "More than 80 percent said that watching TV affected the way they felt about their bodies," Becker reported. "They said things such as, `I watched the women on TV. They have jobs. I want to be like them, so I am working on my weight now."'
Peer pressure also contributes significantly to body-image problems, States says.
"There's a lot of cruelty among kids -- fat jokes -- that comes from adult society," he says. "The disrespect kids show each other is a microcosm of the rudeness and disrespect displayed in the media and politics."
Dutzar agrees.
"We don't tolerate racist and sexist jokes as much as we used to. The same should go for fat jokes," says the dietitian. "They're so damaging."
Fitness instructor Foltz realizes her middle-school students are particularly vulnerable to cruel humor, media overload, awkward home situations and all the other influences that shape self-esteem.
"Kids are under a lot of pressure today," she says, "so they focus on what they're eating because that's the one thing they can control. Everything else is so wacko.
"What I try to do is get them to focus on the basic components of fitness," says Foltz, "things like strength, flexibility and endurance. Then if later in life they start getting too thin or too heavy, they can assess what's right for them and know if they're fit and healthy versus model-perfect."
One of the most important components of a healthy body image is learning to feel attractive in the shape we have. A fashion designer, of all people, perhaps put it best.
Observed the late Perry Ellis: "Looking good is feeling good, and feeling good is being at peace with yourself."
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