讲堂｜拥有理想身材=拥有健康身体？
(Credit: puregym)
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什么样的身材才称得上理想身材？这个问题的答案受到时代、地区、文化、民族等诸多方面的影响。但是，不论答案如何，更加值得思考的问题在于：拥有理想身材是否等于拥有健康？Nancy N. Chen 就此所做的演讲也许能给你更多启发。
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The Inaccurate Link Between Body Ideals and Health
理想身材与健康的错位联系
Hello and welcome. As visual beings, we rely on images to perceive the world and make meaning. Imagine I ask you to draw a human body. How would you depict this body? Body ideals reflect social meanings about how we dwell in spaces both physical and cultural. We often interpret bodies with categories of gender, race, ethnicity, class and belonging – or not – through modifications such as hair, skin, clothing. As a medical anthropologist, I study cultural concepts about bodies and how these shape both being in the world and health.
大家好，欢迎来听我的演讲。作为视觉生物，我们依靠图像来感知世界、创造含义。假设我让你画一幅人体，你会如何描绘？理想身材反映了这样的社会意义：我们居住的空间不仅是物质的，也是文化的。我们经常通过头发、皮肤、衣服等方面的修饰，以性别、种族、民族、阶级和是否归属某个群体等分类来阐释身材。作为医学人类学家，我研究有关身材的文化概念，以及这些概念如何影响生活和健康。
Curvy bodies have been around for millennia. The limestone figurine, known as the Venus of Willendorf, is considered to reflect two values that were ranked high in the past: reproduction and abundance. Fertility figures with voluptuous curves suggest that body ideals for females have focused on full-figured, curvy bodies, especially in agrarian societies. Low waist-to-hip ratios, or hourglass figures, have long been considered to be more attractive, from an evolutionary perspective, in terms of the ability for childbearing.
曲线型身材已经流行了几千年。人们认为，石灰石雕像“威伦多夫的维纳斯”反映了过去很受重视的两种价值：繁衍和丰腴。生殖能力强的身体丰满而有曲线，反映出当时女性的理想身材集中表现为丰满和凹凸有致，农业社会中尤其如此。在生育能力方面，从进化的角度看，低腰臀比的身材，也就是沙漏型身材，长期以来被认为更有吸引力。
Then something changed. In the past century, body ideals shifted significantly when Western societies increasingly featured thin-bodied female models in mainstream media. The Western body ideal in the 1960s was Marilyn Monroe. By the 1970s, magazines featured Twiggy. That’s a huge shift, and such body ideals continued shrinking. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, the gap between the average size of regular women and the size of models continue to grow. This gap between actual and ideal can impact self-image. Over the past three decades, thinness has come to be associated with dominant portrayals of prestige, in addition to well-being.
后来，情况有所改变。20世纪，西方社会的主流媒体中出现了越来越多苗条的女性模特，理想身材发生了重大转变。20世纪60年代，西方理想身材的代表是玛丽莲·梦露。到20世纪70年代，崔姬，一个以苗条著称的模特，出现在杂志上。这是巨大的转变，理想身材变得越来越纤细。20世纪80年代到90年代期间，普通女性的平均身材与模特身材之间的差距越来越大。这种现实和理想之间的差距会影响自我形象。过去30年，除了幸福之外，身材苗条已经成为了地位的重要象征。
The systemic proliferation of thin body ideals circulates on a global scale. Body dysmorphia, and often accompanying eating disorders, can be found around the world. Thinness has become a matter of achievement through diet regimens, food avoidances, exercise – even surgery. In 1998, the category of orthorexia, the obsessive focus on healthy eating, was coined as a new category of eating disorder. During this pandemic, social media followed the journeys of celebrities documenting weight loss and other transformations. Idealized body types aren’t just about thinness anymore. New forms of thin – lean, muscular bodies – have come to be pursued across gender, age, income and locations with accompanying bias against fat.
苗条型的理想身材全面扩散，风靡全球。身体畸形，以及常常与之形影相随的饮食失调，在全球范围都能发现。苗条已经成为一种成就，人们会通过规划饮食、忌口、锻炼甚至手术等手段来实现。1998年，健康食品症，即对健康饮食的强迫性关注，成为一种新的饮食障碍。在这场大流行中，社交媒体追随名人的脚步，记录他们的减肥过程和其他转变。理想身材不再仅仅是苗条。苗条的新形式——精瘦且有肌肉的身材——已经成为跨越性别、年龄、收入和地区的追求，与之相伴的，是对脂肪的偏见。
It's important to note, however, that not all societies and cultures fully embrace thin bodies as ideals. Curves remain significant for many cultures and ethnic groups even today, including Black, Indigenous and Latino communities. Moreover, standards of beauty differ and are not solely based on external features. An earlier study of body ideals in rural Jamaica found that bodies there are reflections of one’s social relations. Whether by shared fluids or food, plump bodies in this rural context are considered to be desirable, healthy and loveable in this measure of well-being. Thin bodies there were interpreted to be antisocial or neglected without social capital or relations to feed or care for them. Similar positive views about ample or thick bodies have been found in ethnographic studies across Africa, the Pacific Islands and the U.S.
然而，有一点很重要，即并不是所有的社会和文化都完全接受以瘦为美。即使在今天，曲线对包括非裔社群、原住民社群和拉丁裔社群在内的许多文化和民族仍然很重要。此外，美的标准千差万别，且不仅仅基于外部特征。此前对牙买加乡村地区理想身材的研究发现，在那里，身材是人的社会关系的体现。在这种乡村背景下，无论共享水还是食物，衡量幸福与否时，丰腴的身材都被认为是令人满意、健康可爱的。身材苗条在那里被解读为不合群、被忽视，缺乏社会资本或社会关系喂养照顾。推崇丰满厚重型身材的类似观点也出现在非洲、太平洋群岛和美国的人种学研究中。
With increased globalization and market reach, body ideals change over time, even in rural and remote areas. Weight stigma, or fat phobia and bias, are increasingly found not only in the Global North, but also the Global South. With increasing obesity around the world, public health campaigns to address overweight and obesity may backfire by reinforcing weight stigma. How is it possible to move beyond these body ideals that may be harmful for esteem or self-care? The problem is that no matter the preference for thick or thin, these universally imposed body ideals miss a key point: there are many different kinds of body shapes, weight and looks.
随着全球化发展和市场范围的扩大，理想身材随着时间的推移而变化，就连农村和偏远地区也是如此。体重羞耻（基于体重的歧视），或者脂肪恐惧、脂肪偏见，不仅在发达国家集中的北半球越来越多，在发展中国家分布广泛的南半球也是如此。随着世界各地肥胖症患者的增加，旨在解决超重和肥胖的公共卫生运动，可能由于强化体重羞耻适得其反。如何才能摆脱这些可能伤自尊、妨碍自我保护的理想身材？问题在于，无论对胖瘦的偏好如何，这些普遍强加于人的理想身材没有抓住要旨：人的体形、体重和长相千差万别。
Yet the conflation of appearance with health often facilitates unhealthy shaming of oneself or others based on outdated ideals. The good news is that body diversity is being recognized as a critical component and reflection of social diversity, equity and inclusion. In calling out standard media portrayals, which feature size-two models while the average American woman may be a size 16, body diverse activists, along with earlier queer and Black activists, have pointed out the harm of body-shaming and they advocate instead for retraining social lenses on systemic ideals. With increasing body positive advocacy, there’s been a shift in national and global ad campaigns that feature more diversity of bodies, skin color, hairstyles and even age.
然而，将外表与健康混为一谈，往往会基于过时的理想身材助长对自己或他人的不健康羞耻。好消息是，身材的多样性正被视为社会多样性、社会平等和社会包容性的关键构成和重要表现。美国标准的媒体形象以2号身材的模特为主，普通美国妇女却可能是16号身材。在挑战媒体形象的过程中，身材多样化活动家，以及早期的酷儿活动家和黑人活动家，已经指出了身材羞耻的危害，主张全面重塑社会镜头下的理想身材。随着对身材的正面倡导越来越多，美国乃至全球的广告活动也发生了变化，开始突出更加多样化的身材、肤色、发型甚至年龄。
Another way to enhance body diversity entails expanding where we look for diverse bodies. For instance, sports events are major stages where bodies are on display. Rather than uniformly thin or lean, different proportions, sizes and abilities can be seen in the bodies of Olympians, Paralympians and other athletes. Beyond athletes, ad campaigns for clothing or cosmetics may also feature a range of ordinary consumers to represent their brand as accessible and inclusive. These approaches are helpful correctives to address the divergence between ideals and actual lived bodies in everyday life. These are important directions addressing narrow body ideals by expanding diversity and inclusion of bodies that become the focus of media, social media and advertising.
另一种强化身材多样性的方式是扩大寻找的平台。例如，体育赛事是展示身材的主要舞台。奥运会运动员、残奥会运动员和其他运动员有不同的比例、体型和体能，而不是单一的纤细或精瘦。除运动员之外，服装或化妆品的广告也能以许多普通消费者为主角，以示他们的品牌并非高不可攀，而是具有包容性的。这些方法都是有效的纠正措施，可以解决日常生活中理想身材和现实身材之间存在差距的问题。这些重要引导促进了身材多样性，强化了身材包容性，解决了传统媒体、社交媒体和广告中理想身材片面化的问题。
Nonetheless, these images keep our views, often subjective, on outer body features as opposed to objectively thinking about health. If we are concerned about health and well-being, then we need to go beyond body standards or ideals. We need to consider how healthy bodies are based on what’s going on inside, rather than focusing on externalities. Medical anthropology, the history of medicine and comparative knowledge, offers insights on how to examine bodies in different ways.
尽管如此，这些图像往往使我们将观点（往往是主观的）停留在身体的外部特征上，而不是客观地思考健康问题。如果我们关注健康与幸福，那么就需要超越标准身材或者理想身材。与其关注外在，我们不如考虑身体健康是如何以身体内部情况为基础的。医学人类学是有关医学和比较知识的历史，提出了用不同方式检查身体的见解。
All the classical systems of medicine – Ayurveda, Chinese, Greco-Islamic, as well as Indigenous healing knowledge, understood bodies through one’s life force and the energy in connection to natural and social environment. Energetic qualities of bodies such as dosha, chi or vital essences such as blood, are much more significant than external features. The outside body was a reflection of one’s interior to understand what was happening inside for health and balance. Well-being meant being able to harmonize one’s body in relation to dynamic relations between vital substances, human organs and one’s environment to live as long as possible.
所有的古典医学体系——阿育吠陀、中国、希腊—伊斯兰，以及原住民的治疗知识——都将人的生命力和能量与自然和社会环境相联系，以此理解身体。体质，例如督夏、气或生命精华（如血液），比外部特征更重要。外在的身材是对内在的反映，人可以据此了解身体的内部情况，从而达到健康和平衡。健康意味着能够在生命物质、人体器官和环境的动态关系中调和自己的身体，尽可能延长寿命。
The immune system and microbiome are contemporary examples. They help to understand human bodies in relation to entities such as bacteria, microbes or pathogens. These offer key opportunities to reframe body ideals that engage vitality from within, such as metabolic health, rather than focus solely on externalities or ideal representations.
免疫系统和微生物群落是当代的例子。它们有助于人们理解人体与细菌、微生物或病原体等实体之间的关系。这些都提供了关键的机遇，可以由内部激发活力重构理想的身体，如新陈代谢的健康，而不是仅仅关注外在或理想的表现。
We are in dire need of healthy bodies, societies and environments. We come in all shapes and features that are desirable and beautiful. By caring for healthy bodies, placing more value on internal vitality, which takes into account living in relation to our environment and each other, we might be able to experience better health and collective well-being in this century. We can begin to heal by looking within ourselves. We can thrive by seeing vitality together.
我们渴望健康的身体、社会和环境。我们生来身材不同、相貌各异，却都是令人向往的、美丽的。关注身体健康，更加重视内部活力，思考生存与环境和人彼此之间的联系，本世纪，我们也许能够更加健康，共同体验幸福。关注自身内在，逐步恢复健康。共同见证活力，迈向身强体壮。
Thank you.
谢谢大家。
英文来源：TED官网
大连外国语大学高级翻译学院实习生
祁玥 整理翻译
王少爽 审订
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