How Understanding the Origins of the Thin Ideal Can Change How You Feel About Your Body

alison489
Feb 4
5 min read

Updated: Feb 19

For many people, the desire to be thin feels deeply personal—something we’ve carried for as long as we can remember. We think of it as an individual goal, tied to health, attractiveness, or self-discipline. But what if that desire wasn’t actually ours to begin with?

What if our obsession with thinness was never about personal health or self-improvement, but about something much bigger—about control, power, and outdated societal values?

When we trace the origins of the thin ideal, we uncover a history steeped in misogyny, racism, and puritanical religious beliefs. Understanding this history is not just an intellectual exercise—it’s a practical tool that can help you detach from toxic beauty standards and reclaim a more compassionate, body-positive perspective.

If you’ve spent years hating your body, longing to be smaller, and feeling like you don’t measure up, here’s how learning the truth about the thin ideal can help you feel differently about yourself and the way you look.

Where Did the Thin Ideal Come From?

To challenge the thin ideal, we first need to understand where it came from. The modern Western obsession with thinness didn’t come out of nowhere—it was shaped by deeply ingrained misogynistic, racist, and puritanical beliefs that continue to influence how we see our bodies today.

1. Misogyny: Controlling Women’s Bodies Through Thinness

The thin ideal is fundamentally a tool of control over women’s bodies. Throughout history, a woman’s worth has been tied to her appearance, and society has dictated how she should look to be considered desirable, respectable, or valuable.

In the past, larger bodies were seen as symbols of fertility, wealth, and beauty. But by the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the narrative shifted. As women gained more social and political power—demanding the right to vote, work, and control their own lives—new beauty standards emerged that encouraged them to take up less space.

The message was clear: A woman who is physically small is also easier to control.

Thinness became associated with femininity, discipline, and self-restraint, while larger bodies were demonised as excessive, lazy, or even immoral.

How can this help you feel differently about yourself? When you realise that your desire to be thin has never truly been about health or beauty, but about a society that benefits from keeping women preoccupied with their bodies, it loses some of its power. You start to see that your worth was never meant to be defined by your size—and that rejecting the thin ideal is an act of self-liberation.

2. Racism: The Thin Ideal as a Colonial Invention

The pursuit of thinness is also deeply rooted in racist and colonialist ideology.

Historically, Western beauty standards were shaped by white, Eurocentric ideals, which positioned thin, delicate, and controlled bodies as superior. In contrast, Black, Indigenous, and other non-European body types were often portrayed as excessive, unruly, and even inferior.

Sociologist Sabrina Strings, in her book Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia, explains how fatphobia was deliberately used to create social hierarchies. In the 18th and 19th centuries, white elites began associating thinness with "civilised" behaviour, while portraying larger bodies—particularly those of Black women—as symbols of laziness, gluttony, and a lack of self-control.

These racist ideas became deeply embedded in Western culture and continue to shape our modern obsession with thinness. The diet industry, fashion industry, and even medical field have all perpetuated the idea that smaller bodies are superior—often without questioning where these ideas actually come from.

How can this change the way you see yourself? When you realise that fatphobia isn’t just about health, but about maintaining racial and social hierarchies, it becomes easier to reject it. You start to see that the thin ideal isn’t universal, objective, or even valid—it’s a construct designed to uphold outdated systems of oppression.

By rejecting the thin ideal, you’re not just freeing yourself from body shame—you’re actively dismantling a form of systemic discrimination.

3. Puritanical Religion: The Moralisation of Thinness

The thin ideal is also deeply tied to religious morality, particularly Puritanical and Protestant values that equate self-denial with virtue.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Protestant religious leaders promoted the idea that controlling the body—through fasting, restraint, and self-discipline—was a sign of moral superiority. Over time, this belief evolved into the idea that thinness equals self-control, while fatness represents indulgence and sin.

Even today, we see these ideas everywhere:

People who are thin are praised for their "discipline" and "willpower."
Larger bodies are viewed as the result of moral failings—lack of self-control, laziness, or greed.
The entire fitness and diet industry sells the idea that controlling your body is a sign of personal success.

This deeply ingrained belief system means that when people struggle with their weight, they often feel not just unhealthy, but guilty or ashamed—as if they’ve failed morally.

How can this shift your perspective? When you understand that diet culture is based on centuries-old religious dogma, you can see it for what it is—a belief system, not a fact. Thinness is not a moral virtue. Your body size says nothing about your worth, your strength, or your goodness as a person.

Letting go of body shame means rejecting the idea that you need to constantly "improve" yourself to be worthy of love, respect, or acceptance.

How This Knowledge Helps You Feel Differently About Your Body

Learning about the origins of the thin ideal isn’t just an academic exercise—it’s a practical tool for breaking free from body shame. When you understand that your desire to be thin isn’t natural, personal, or even necessary, it becomes easier to:

Stop blaming yourself for not living up to impossible beauty standards.
Recognise that your body is not the problem—society’s expectations are.
Detach your self-worth from your size, knowing that thinness is not a measure of health, morality, or success.
Challenge fatphobia and body discrimination in yourself and in the world around you.
Move towards body acceptance with the knowledge that rejecting diet culture is an act of personal and social liberation.

Most importantly, it allows you to reclaim your body as your own—not something to be judged, controlled, or shrunk, but something to be lived in, nourished, and respected.

Final Thoughts: Reclaiming Your Body from the Thin Ideal

The pursuit of thinness is not about health—it’s about control. It is a legacy of misogyny, racism, and outdated religious morality that has shaped the way we see our bodies for centuries. But once you understand where these ideas come from, you have the power to reject them.

You don’t have to shrink yourself to be worthy. You don’t have to spend your life chasing an ideal that was never meant to serve you. Your body is not a problem to be fixed. It is yours to own, celebrate, and live in—exactly as it is.