Lots of Americans are struggling with their weight these days, from toddlers to the elderly, and even though we're currently a country of large people, there's still a raging stigma against those who are considered obese.
It used to be that we could just chalk the intense stigma up to our narrow-minded, Westernized idea of beauty – the 5'9" model who weights 120 pounds – but a startling number of countries around the world have begun to agree with America's obsession with thinness, making it difficult to be large no matter where you go.
An anthropological study that began in the 1980's on the island of Fiji noticeably illustrates the trend; before Westernized TV hit the island in 1995, fatter figures were celebrated, but by 1998, "15 percent of girls surveyed said they'd induced vomiting to control their weight," and in more recent years, 74 percent believe they're too big.
Other countries that typically celebrate fuller figures, such as Puerto Rica and American Samoa, are also beginning to bend to America's thinness obsession, which makes a person wonder – what exactly are we all striving for? A world full of tall, thin, robotic models who only eat salad?
Sounds horrifying.
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