Size Zero Culture Dating back to Ancient Rome

A fascinating letter to the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry reveals a unique insight in ancient Rome:

"Terence (Publius Terentius Afer) (c. 190–159 BC) was a Roman comic poet. His 6 surviving comedies are Greek in origin but describe the contemporary Roman society. Eunuchus was probably presented in 161 BC. In this comedy, a young man named Chaerea declares his love for a 16-year-old girl whom he depicts as looking different from other girls and he protests against the contemporary emphasis on thinness: “haud similis uirgost uirginum nostrarum quas matres student demissis umeris esse, uincto pectore, ut gracilae sient. si quaest habitior paullo, pugilem esse aiunt, deducunt cibum; tam etsi bonast natura, reddunt curatura iunceam. itaque ergo amantur.” (She is a girl who doesn’t look like the girls of our day whose mothers strive to make them have sloping shoulders, a squeezed chest so that they look slim. If one is a little plumper, they say she is a boxer and they reduce her diet. Though she is well endowed by nature, this treatment makes her as thin as a bulrush. And men love them for that!)"

I have certainly believed that modern culture was responsible for the influenza of dieting and slimness obsession. Now that we can see such a phenomena existed over 1 000 years ago, it makes one question the origins of such superficial standards. In contemporary times, its easy to see how this subideology is propagated, an overweight woman would never be able to land front page of a magazine, let alone establish a media personality.

It seems even without the pressures of mainstream media, significant cultural pressures still exerted enough influence to cause women to pursue an ideal body image. Sadly, insecurities surpass cultural limits.