Never in 50 years have women found themselves so overweight, even when they are not. And the physical complex that almost all of them share, you may not have identified yet.
What woman hasn’t already wanted to lose a few pounds? If weight has been a source of female concern for a very long time, this problem has worsened over the years. Thus, French women have never been so severe towards themselves according to an Ifop study published on June 25. Carried out among 3,004 people, it reveals that 61% of French women today consider themselves “too fat”, compared to 41% in 2001 and 36% in 1997. In the space of a quarter of a century, the proportion has almost doubled. And this figure goes well beyond the real increase in weight observed in France over the same period.
What is most striking in these results is that this feeling of being “too fat” has largely detached itself from the actual weight. A third of women with a weight considered normal are still overweight. 18% of women considered thin share this same feeling. Same observation regarding diets: almost one in two French women wishing to lose weight before the holidays (46%) have, according to the usual weight criteria, no kilos to lose.
Women know exactly where this physical complex is located. It is still (and still) the belly that concentrates the most dissatisfaction: 78% of women want to lose it, compared to 28% 50 years ago. This aspiration crosses all ages and all body types – including 68% of normal weight women. It is also the first zone which “masculinizes” the body complex: 72% of men share this same wish. On the other hand, the other areas – buttocks, thighs, hips – remain an overwhelmingly feminine complex: 33% of women would like to slim down their buttocks, compared to 10% of men.
The arrival of summer amplifies all of this. The “swimsuit” effect is twice as strong today (40% of French people go on “slimming alert” as summer approaches) than fifty years ago (22% in 1979), and it weighs more on women (47%) than on men (33%). To answer this, French women now favor “eating healthier” (85%) and sport (71%) rather than a strict diet – even if almost one in two (47%) are still considering a strict diet this summer.
Body positivism has not changed much in reality. If 52% of French people support it – and up to 74% of 18-34 year olds – this support does not translate into behavior: women supporters of the movement want to lose weight before summer in the same proportions (45%) as those who are opposed to it (46%). In other words, we can celebrate all bodies on the networks and continue, in the mirror, to find ours too big. If the desire to slim down your stomach is almost universal, let’s remember that a stomach that changes with age, pregnancy or simply life is nothing abnormal – and that before any diet, medical advice remains the best starting point.
