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make money by remedying patients. But disgust with fat bodies was created by the people, not doctors. People, and, well, the U.S. economy.
    One former president of the American Academy of Medicine named Woods Hutchinson bemoaned this flighty shift in support of the skinny ideal. In a 1926 edition of the Saturday Evening Post he said, “Fashion has apparently the backing of grave physicians, of food reformers and physical trainers, and even of great insurance companies, all chanting in unison the new commandment of fashion: ‘Thou shalt be thin!’” 3
    There are still countries where the fat woman or an “atypical” body is the traditional ideal, but we, the United States of America, aremost certainly not one of them. We are a country that obsesses about dieting and weight in a phenomenal way, and it’s directly because of our history.
    Laura Fraser clarifies: “Thinness is, at its heart, a peculiarly American preoccupation. Europeans admire slenderness, but without our Puritanism they have more relaxed and moderate attitudes about food, eating, and body size (the British are most like us in both being heavy and fixating on weight loss schemes).”
    Reading homework? The Fat Studies Reader , edited by Esther Rothblum and Sondra Solovay. 4
    Part 3: Perfection as an Economic Life Raft

    We now live in a world where it is acceptable for women to vote, own land, make decisions about reproductive health, start a company, choose a single lifestyle, have copious amounts of sex, and run for prolific positions in government. But there is still one thing that is heavily contested by most communities, government, the medical field, and the media: women who have a body that lies outside our mandated thin, young, white, able bodied, and, consequently, “pretty” standard.
    Beauty ideals have existed as long as patriarchy, and every generation has had to fight its own version (cold creams and cosmetics to imitate film stars popped up long before World War II and were sold to young ladies with money to spend), but there was a point in history when the standard of beauty became an insidious political weapon used to hinder the advancement of women no matter their age or status. This particular segment is directly related to World War II.
    As men were drafted, their absence created a large labor need, and the country encouraged (middle-class, white) women to fill it. These women took over jobs in factories and there learned that they were capable of much more than they ever knew. When the men returned, three million women then left the workforce and returned to the home with a new shift in consciousness.
    In order to divert the female attention away from their previous work success, the concept of the “feminine mystique” was sold to every soon-to-be “June Cleaver” in America. The feminine mystique was the idea that a woman had just three roles in life: to be a good wife, a good mother, and a good homemaker. This relegated women to one area of life, keeping them preoccupied and entrenched in their newfound purpose. Magazines were influential and targeted women, capitalizing on “guilt over hidden dirt,” and yes, various cosmetics to assist in becoming the “hot wife” their husband “deserved.” Marketers made out like bandits by selling products to every female desperate to become the perfect domestic goddess. (A note: this “feminine mystique” or focus on women in the home was prominently sold to white females, as women from non-white backgrounds and ethnicities had almost all been working-class up until that point.)
    Not surprisingly, many women who subscribed to the domestic trend eventually found themselves miserable while trying to exist within these limited identity confines, and the lure of employment started to glisten in the distance. When these women started to leave vacuuming, cooking dinner, and helping with homework for office work,