Acculturation

Acculturation, as I just learned, is "the process of adopting the cultural traits or social patterns of another group."

I read an article about body image perceptions among different ethnic groups and it made me think a lot about acculturation and how it's prevalent in every area of life. As a Western country it is easy to think that our view of beautiful (tall and skinny) is the norm.

The article talked about white women being much less satisfied with their bodies than African American women. At first thought I am both impressed by this because it means they aren't consumed with being skinny and beautiful; my second thought is "but why not?". Then I read... "the standard measurements of body image may be culturally biased, failing to take into account the culturally different standards of beauty that women hold." It's not that other women don't care about being beautiful... they just have a completely different view of beauty!

Back to acculturation...

The article suggests that "the extent to which African American women identify with the dominant White culture may make them more vulnerable to body image distortions and eating disorders." This is ethnic acculturation. There is not a science to what African American women think is beauty...they don't all think that curves and shape is ideal, nor do they all strive to be thin. It all depends on how much they have let this "dominant White culture" affect them. This acculturation idea goes for all cultures and nations. The more they are overtaken with western ideas, images, and culture, the closet they get to adopting these beliefs.

This is so intersting to me. There are no norms about what beauty is. There are not even norms about what different cultures think beauty is. There is just infiltration of one culture into another. The sad thing is that when it comes to beauty, I think the results are only getting worse.