6 Facts (or Findings) That Rebuke the Myth That Black Women Don't Have Body Image Issues

Strong Correlation Between Obesity and Depression in Black Women The common myth is that Black women rarely struggle with body image issues while white women are more susceptible to feeling insecure about their bodies. A 2009 study by researchers at Emory proved that Black women are just as likely, if not even more likely, to be emotionally impacted by body image issues as anyone else. According to the researchers, there are “disproportionately higher rates of depression … found in AAW (African-American women).” The study also noted that body perception had a strong impact on a Black woman’s motivations to lose weight. Young Black Women Are More Likely Than Their White Counterparts to Be Bulimic Mainstream media would have anyone believe that eating disorders are extremely rare in the Black community. A group of University of Southern California researchers stumbled upon a shocking statistic in 2009. “Girls who are African-American are 50 percent more likely than girls who are white to be bulimic … and girls from families in the lowest income bracket studied are 153 percent more likely to be bulimic than girls from the highest income bracket,” the USC researchers discovered. Proof That Black Women Are Impacted by European Standards of Beauty Despite claims that the European standards of beauty often depicted in mainstream media don’t impact Black women, a study published in Cultural Diversity and Mental Health found the exact opposite to be true. Black women were very likely to experience “self-hate, distorted body image, depression, and eating disorders” when overexposed to European beauty standards that praised more petite frames. Studies Show Black Women Are Influenced by the Media’s Hypersexualized Portrayal of Them For many Black women who shun the mainstream media’s “idealized images of thinness,” there are still other sources of pressure when it comes to body image. A 2010 study by an Oakland University researcher found that Black women who did not compare themselves to white women in media were still likely to compare themselves to popular images of Black women, particularly those with unusually curvaceous figures such as video vixens. The study noted that “curvature is highly desirable within the Black community, specifically the hour-glass figure” and that Black women were likely to battle insecurities if they didn’t have this desirable shape. Black Women Admitted to Feeling Insecure about Being Labeled Plus-Sized There are many Black women who are forced to shop in plus-size sections or at specialty boutiques because their body shapes and “thicker” builds are often not taken into consideration by mainstream designers. The Oakland University researchers found a significant number of women in their study’s population who admitted to feeling pressured to slim down because “well-known apparel brands provide garments only up to a certain size" that don't fit them even though they were within an average, healthy weight range. Butt Augmentations and Other Cosmetic Surgeries Are Growing in Popularity A 2013 report by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons revealed that there has been more than a 5 percent increase in cosmetic surgeries among Black patients from 2012 to 2013 alone. It’s a significant amount of growth for only one year and doesn’t account for the countless illegal procedures that have also grown in popularity. One report by 20/20 revealed that some Black women had previously been satisfied with their figures until obsessions with even bigger butts and even smaller waists encouraged them to turn to butt augmentations that would reduce the size of their waists and increase the size of their “assets.” One doctor admitted that many of his patients already possessed the “ideal” butts, proving the desire for many of the surgeries was driven by a distorted view of their own bodies.

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