Beyond the Perfect Body

Abstract

This article examines how fitness magazines address women’s body image distortion (BID). The discussion derives primarily from three articles published in Self, Shape, and The New Weekly . The author briefly outlines how these magazines characterize BID as a common illness and how they advise their readers to improve their “out of whack” body image. From a Foucauldian feminist perspective, the author analyzes why the magazines devote space to counseling women with body image problems but continue to publish images of a narrowly defined body ideal that, as the magazines themselves establish, is one of the major causes for BID. To locate the magazine discourse on BID within a larger societal context, the author continues with a critical look at how the medical discourse treats this condition. The article concludes by drawing a parallel between the medical understanding of health as individual women’s responsibility and the magazines’ notion of image consumption as individual readers’ responsibility.