“Don’t worry m’ija, these days you can correct everything with plastic surgery”: Research insights on Body Image and Beauty in Latin America from a leading Mexican Scholar
Written by: Aline Tinoco Marquina, MSc, BSc
“Latinx women have been eroticised through the creation of stereotyped beauty ideals that accept only fragments of some of us and largely leave out features commonly found among Indigenous and Black populations...”
Beauty standards have become an integral part of societal norms, often shaping individuals' perceptions of themselves and others, including their body confidence. This article sheds light on the nuanced dynamics of culture, gender and media in Latin America, from the impact of historical colonisation to modern-day societal pressures, to uncover the multifaceted factors shaping beauty ideals in the region.
The backdrop to understanding body image and beauty in Latin America.
Latin America is the home of over 650 million people, one of the biggest consumer bases for cosmetic procedures, and its beauty ideals are celebrated around the world. It is therefore surprising to see how poorly Latin America has been represented in body image research.
A diverse region with a strong sense of collectivism, Spanish and Portuguese colonisation created a common experience for societies now seen as characteristically Latin American. The mestizaje, meaning the mix of Indigenous, white European and Black people from Africa, created a diverse melting pot of cultures, traditions, identities and knowledge systems. Given that body image research has focused predominantly on the experiences of white women and it is typically measured in academic research with tools made for white women, there is a glaring gap in the research when it comes to theories and frameworks to understand and accurately identify the body image concerns among people of colour. This has undoubtedly contributed to the lack of body image research in Latin American communities.
This gap in knowledge has also widened because of language barriers to academic journals that are predominantly published in English, a lack of validated measures for assessing body image among Latin American populations and, in general, priority has been given to other research topics in this region.
As a native Mexican who studied dietetics in the early 2000s, even I was unaware of the field of body image research until I stumbled upon the concept of mindful eating ten years ago. At this time, I met a handful of psychiatrists, dietitians and psychologists, including Dr Lilia Graue and Lupita Rozanda, who were working on translating and bringing the latest evidence on body image and weight-neutral approaches to the very few health professionals who were interested in the topic in Mexico.
At the time, focusing on positive body image was novel, even within the eating disorders field, where the mainstream clinical approach was (and still is) largely weight centric.
Today, appearance, beauty and the physical self remains highly gendered in Latin America. There are ingrained rules and social norms about how women should look compared to men based on traditional gender roles and stereotypes. People of colour experience an added layer of complexity by having to negotiate cultural appearance ideals of their racialized identities alongside white-specific beauty standards. Researchers who only relatively recently have begun studying body image among people of colour are documenting high levels of body dissatisfaction that are inextricably linked to experiences of racial discrimination and stigma.
How do beauty ideals and ethnicity converge for Latinx women today?
We face a set of unique pressures to meet an ideal standard of beauty that represents a stereotyped Latinx woman, which have been created by and for the dominant Western framework of beauty. This specific ideal, idealised by US and Latin American media, includes Eurocentric features, like small noses and lighter skin tones, combined with very specific features from our African and Indigenous origins including full lips and a curvaceous body shape. Latinx women have been eroticised through the creation of stereotyped beauty ideals, which accept only fragments of some of us and largely leaves out features commonly found among Indigenous and Black populations, like wide waists, flat, wide noses, straight coarse black hair, and darker skin.
Growing up in the 1980s and 1990s there was a clear transition in beauty standards when Latin American pop culture became mainstream globally through growing representation in the US media. By the late 90s, the stereotype of curvy Latinx beauty was cemented. A key example from popular culture is Selena Quintanilla, who was hugely popular in Mexico and the US at the time.
She was heralded as the queen of Tejano music, famous for her voice and style, but also for her toned curvy body, ‘olive’ colour skin, thick lips and dark hair. In the late 90s, Jennifer Lopez became famous when she played Selena in her biopic and was the first Hispanic actress to earn more than US$1 Million in a movie role.
Working as a nutrition counsellor in Mexico, a big barrier for my clients to reject dieting was the struggles they faced with their body shape. The culturally constructed beauty and body ideals imposed on Latinx women are incredibly unattainable. It’s not enough to be thin, you must also have the small waist, big breasts and big bottom of the stereotypical Latinx woman. Cosmetic surgery is widely available and sought after by many middle-class women: lipo-sculpture to reduce waists and plump buttocks, rhinoplasty to ‘fix’ flat and wide noses, and the removal of ribs to accentuate the waist. Paradoxically, when I saw clients with curvaceous bodies, they too suffered body image struggles as they were frequently sexualised because of their body.
Today, the scarce empirical evidence on the body image concerns of Latinx women continues to be apparent.
A few studies in the region have concluded that Colombian, Mexican, Chilean, and Brazilian populations have similar rates of body dissatisfaction to women in Europe and the United States. While some evidence suggests that ethnic identification might provide protection to Latinx women, most Latinx women are now exposed to acculturative stress and the pressures of western beauty and appearance ideals.
This resonates with my experience as a Latinx woman growing up in Mexico City. Within my family, there is high variability of skin colour, facial features, body types - typically representative of our mestizaje. My brother is more European looking, white, with light coloured hair and eyes. I am short and dark. I have vivid memories of being teased by my school mates due to my dark skin and ‘well-intended’ comments from my aunts who lamented I was born dark when my brother was white. “Don’t worry m’ija, these days you can correct everything with plastic surgery”, I was consoled by one aunt.
Opportunities for the future
Elevating the voices of Latin American girls and women is what I am most passionate about. There’s so much work to do to shed light on how Latinx women cope with these unrealistic beauty standards. We need more research, funding and advocacy, to provide them with the knowledge and tools to push back against fetishization and unrealistic and non-inclusive beauty ideals, which reduces them to the expectation of a curvy body and light brown skin.
We also need brands and businesses to take a stand on the need to diversify regional beauty ideals, disrupt appearance stereotypes and represent the rich diversity of women in Latin America.
Collectively, as socially minded researchers, brands, businesses, health professionals and advocates, we can start by:
Understanding where these negative beauty stereotypes come from.
Acknowledging the oppressive role of such stereotypes.
Listening to the voices of those who have not been represented to understand how they’ve been impacted by these stereotypes.
Empowering people to lead on the changes they need.
Meet Aline
“Providing spaces for girls, women and gender diverse people to tell their story is a crucial part of understanding their challenges and empowering them; this is a common thread to all of the work that I do.”
A Mexico City native, Ms Aline Tinoco is a public health expert, academic and dietitian. She is passionate about promoting a holistic approach to girls’ and women’s health and well-being. Alongside consulting, she is a Research Associate at the Centre for Appearance Research, University of the West of England. Her ambition is to create platforms, policies and strategies for girls and women in Mexico and Latin America to help them express their concerns and realise their hopes for a more inclusive society.
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