America's and Africa's "ideal body"

I definitely agree with Susan Bordo's idea that the body is a "metaphor for culture" or in other words I take the position that the shaping and conditioning of our bodies is influenced by our own culture's "ideal body image". There is living, breathing proof of this occurring in our world today. For example, everyone knows that in our culture, the ideal body is Victoria's Secret model thin with big breast. In other cultures, though, this sought after body type is often considered not beautiful and undesirable. In some parts of Southern Africa, for example, a thin girl is considered to be sickly and ugly, while a heavy set girl is considered to be beautiful and is envied by other girls (Sorry Gisele but Southern Africa is just not the place for you). Just from these two examples alone you can see how some cultures perceive beauty very differently from others and that this perception can cause changes in the physical appearance of women. For example I think that if I was living in Africa now I would probably be much heavier than what I weigh in America because I would want to be considered beautiful in that culture.

Now to be honest the first thing that came to my mind when I found out that in Africa to be heavy is to be beautiful, was to hop on a jet to Africa and to indulge myself in chocolate. Unfortunately though, even if women, including me, did have the urge to fly to Africa, we would still be hounded with insecurities about our body weight. For example, in Africa, women will often force themselves to over eat or their parents will force them to over eat so that they will become more heavier and therefore more beautiful (I think both over eating and starving yourself to have an ideal body is not only depressing and wrong but very unhealthy). It goes to show you that no matter what the culture or the "ideal body image" is, women will contain "docile bodies" and will go to unhealthy and extreme lengths to obtain their culture's "ideal body".
This is also obvious in the fact that more and more girls are now trying to get thinner in America, while in Africa women's clothing sizes are becoming larger. Now the important question, when will size medium be accepted?