Healthy appearances – distorted body images? Young adults negotiating body motives

Abstract

Drawing on focus group discussions, this article explores how young, Finnish university students view the cultural ideals of health and appearance. The young adults noted how body practices aiming at health can turn into unhealthy obsessions. As a result, a healthy-looking body may serve to cover an underlying body image distortion. Health and well-being were defined as appropriate motives for engaging in body projects, while appearance as a motive was questioned. I argue that the current promotion of health may cause individuals to experience pressure to outwardly appear healthy at the cost of neglecting the subjective experience of well-being, and that this may especially influence young women.

Keywords

appearance body image gender well-being youth

The body has become a central part of the modern person’s self-identity and an individual project to be worked on. These projects of bodily improvement mostly focus on health and appearance (Shilling, 1993). Health and appearance intertwine in cultural discourses and, consequently, in the motivations of individuals for their body projects (Bordo, 1993; Burns and Gavey, 2004; González et al., 2012; Kwan, 2009). The current cultural body ideal combines the ‘cult of thinness’ (Hesse-Biber, 2007) with the ‘imperative of health’ (Lupton, 1995), and the mass media make this ideal ubiquitous (Hesse-Biber et al., 2006). Moreover, the commercial market and professionals in fields related to health continuously produce more products, knowledge and services to guide individuals in more efficiently ‘taking care’ of their bodily health and appearance (Crawford, 2006; Hesse-Biber et al., 2006; Smith Maguire, 2002).

The current health promotion ideology advances health as an issue of individual responsibility, morality and rationality, locating the problems and solutions of health in the sphere of individual agency (Crawford, 2006; Fullagar, 2002; Lupton, 1995). As a result, health has become a ‘self-project’ (Pond et al., 2010: 736). Marketed as self-care, the body projects of health and appearance gain the status of a moral virtue (Crawford, 2006; Fullagar, 2002; Lupton, 1995), showing that ‘one “cares” about oneself and how one appears to others’ (Bordo, 1993: 195). A body that appears healthy and good looking provides cultural capital to the individual (Bourdieu, 1984; Shilling, 1993), while a body that deviates from the cultural ideal, being, for example, overweight, brings with it social sanctions, such as prejudice and discrimination (Kwan, 2009; Puhl and Brownell, 2001).

Health, appearance and gender

Societal discussion and media attention focus on the health risks of being overweight, but the health risks of being underweight are rarely discussed (Campos et al., 2006). A fat female body is especially culturally unacceptable (Murray, 2008; Rice, 2007). For many fat women, this causes eating problems and an avoidance of ‘healthy’ practices, such as physical activity, due to shame (Rice, 2007), and for women in general, a constant need to monitor their body weight and appearance, resulting in anxiety (Fredrickson and Roberts, 1997). Some amount of body dissatisfaction that can even start in childhood has become normative for women in the Western world (Grogan, 2008; Oksanen, 2005). Body dissatisfaction is especially strong in young women (Grogan, 2008; Hesse-Biber, 2007) and often continues over a woman’s lifespan (Johnston et al., 2004; Tiggemann and Lynch, 2001). Men and boys also report body dissatisfaction, but less often than women (Grogan, 2008; McCabe et al., 2011). The appearance norms encountered by women in daily life are more rigid, homogenous and pervasive and, therefore, more harmful to one’s body image (Buote et al., 2011).

The imperative of health management can give the individual the feeling of ‘continuous self-scrutiny, dissatisfaction and critical evaluation’ of her or his body (Fullagar, 2002: 79). Many women already relate to their body in this way due to the feminine imperative to manage one’s appearance (Fredrickson and Roberts, 1997; Grogan, 2008; Hesse-Biber, 2007). Consequently, the current health management ideology that requires individuals to monitor the body conscientiously may resonate especially well with women (Burns and Gavey, 2004; Moore, 2010). This article suggests that the health management ideology resonates the most with young women, particularly those in higher education.

In a study by Wright et al. (2006), young women understood health in relation to body shape and weight as requiring constant work on the body and a close monitoring of eating and exercising, while for young men, health and fitness signified an embodied capacity for physical action. Tiggemann and Williamson (2000) found a generally positive relationship between exercise and well-being for men of all ages and for older women, but young women’s satisfaction with their bodies and self-esteem actually decreased when their amount of exercise increased. Tiggemann and Williamson (2000) suggest that young women attach other, more problematic meanings to exercise than older women and boys and men. Many women exercise for appearance-related reasons, and this motive increases their body dissatisfaction (Prichard and Tiggemann, 2008; Strelan et al., 2003). Fredrickson and Roberts (1997) argue that highlighting the importance of physical appearance increases the amount of attention women pay to their bodies, and this again leads to increased feelings of dissatisfaction with their appearance. However, among young women whose dissatisfaction with their body is already high, even exercise motivated by health and fitness increased this dissatisfaction (LePage and Crowther, 2010). Thus, it seems that young women can become dissatisfied both with their bodily appearance and with their health.

Young women are the most accustomed to habitually monitor their bodily appearance (Tiggemann and Lynch, 2001). They might therefore easily extend their appearance monitoring practices to include health monitoring. Moreover, as health is especially a middle-class value (Bourdieu, 1984; Crawford, 2006), the health management ideology might resonate especially well with young women in higher education. Higher education provides knowledge and tools for absorbing and applying – but also for criticizing – health information (Autio and Lombardini-Riipinen, 2006). Young women, particularly those in higher education, may be especially aware of the two intertwining ideals that society holds about the body: the physical appearance ideal and the health ideal. In addition, they might have more knowledge and resources for attempting to attain these ideals. Even though the tools for critical thinking provided by higher education enable young women to reflect critically on the ideal of appearance, they still encounter and experience societal and social pressures to comply with it (Liimakka, 2011). Does a young woman’s relation to the health ideal contain similar tensions?

To explore the possible connections between health, appearance and young women in higher education, this article draws from focus group discussions consisting of young Finnish university students, most of whom were young women. Finnish adults in higher education have healthier lifestyles than adults with less education (Helakorpi et al., 2010). Finnish women have healthier lifestyles than men; for example, women are more likely to follow nutritional recommendations, and they smoke less (Helakorpi et al., 2010; Kunttu and Huttunen, 2001). In contrast to this apparent healthiness of young Finnish women in higher education, 8 per cent–9 per cent of Finnish female university students reported symptoms that suggest eating disorders and 36 per cent estimated themselves to be overweight; however, according to their body mass index (BMI), only 13 per cent were overweight, and 12 per cent were actually underweight (Kunttu and Huttunen, 2001). In a study exploring views on health among Finnish university students, only women discussed eating disorders; they also mentioned that they monitor their body weight more often (Autio and Lombardini-Riipinen, 2006).

The young adults in this study were not asked about health or appearance – they themselves brought these themes up in all the focus groups. Moreover, these were the main themes that they discussed in relation to embodiment. This suggests that health and appearance are central aspects of embodiment not just for these particular young adults, but also culturally. I examine health and appearance, and how they intertwine and what kinds of ideals are attached to them in the young adults’ discussions. Moreover, drawing from the idea that accounts of health and illness ‘articulate a person’s situation in the world’ (Radley and Billig, 1996: 221), I explore the young adults’ articulations of a gendered situatedness in relation to the current cultural body ideal, and the possible gendered connections between ‘healthy’ lifestyles and body image distortions.

The concepts of body image and body image distortion arose unpromptedly in the young adults’ talk. By body image, I refer broadly to an individual’s perceptions, feelings and thoughts about her or his body, including evaluations of body weight and appearance (Grogan, 2008; Pruzinsky and Cash, 2002). Body image is found to be related to many health issues and behaviours, such as exercise and eating (Grogan, 2006). By body image distortions, I refer to a broad range of problematic body issues, ranging from distorted perceptions of body weight to severe dissatisfaction with one’s body and eating disorders (Pruzinsky and Cash, 2002). I approach these bodily (dis)orders as experienced, conceptualized and produced in the current societal order of health and beauty imperatives (Malson et al., 2009).

Method

This article is based on four focus group discussions. The focus group participants were first-year and second-year students in social sciences, most of them in the field of social psychology, in a large university in southern Finland. Their ages ranged from 19 to 23 years. Two of the focus groups comprised women only (four women in g1 and three women in g3), and two of the groups included one man (four women and one man in g2 and three women and one man in g4). Students of social psychology are mostly women in Finland. Although this division does not allow for strong claims to be made about gender, I will point out some gender-related themes. The focus groups were conducted in 2004 at the students’ university.

This article assumes that even though focus group data are influenced by the social interaction emerging in the group situation (Kitzinger, 1994; Smithson, 2000), it still draws from the participants’ everyday understandings and experiences. A group situation can mobilize the ‘latent identifications and common experiences shared by group members’ (Farnsworth and Boon, 2010: 610). Focus groups provide insights into not only group norms and socially constructed knowledge, but also into the individuals’ perspectives as expressed in the particular situation (Kitzinger, 1994). Tensions and disagreements may prove especially fruitful in the analysis (Kitzinger, 1994; Smithson, 2000).

Before conducting the focus groups, the participants were given a brief description of the research project. They were told that the project focuses on cultural understandings of embodiment and spatiality, exploring perspectives and practices relating to the body and physical space. The participants gave permission to audio-record the proceedings of the group. The group discussions were facilitated by a research assistant, who was a young female student of social sciences. The focus group discussions were transcribed verbatim. In the article, pseudonyms are used. The letter M after a pseudonym indicates a male participant.

All the group discussions followed the same structure: the discussants were given 10 statements, always in the same order, and they were asked to comment on the statements. The statements were chosen as a means to provoke lively discussion and argumentation. Sometimes, the facilitator asked additional questions to stimulate the discussion. The first five statements focused on spatiality (presenting, e.g. arguments about the physical distance between people and about occupying physical space while travelling by public transport), and the five following statements focused on the body. From the five body-focused statements, the first three were more general, while the last two focused on sport, gender and possible gender differences. This article draws from the discussion on the three general body-focused statements. These statements were (in the order of presentation): (1) In Finland, people have a natural and easy relation to their bodies. (2) In Finland, people pay a lot of attention to other people’s bodies. (3) It is important to take care of one’s body. In all the groups, the discussion on these three statements contained many themes that emerged only in the discussion of these statements. Consequently, the discussion on these three statements formed an entity.

My original research interest focused on cultural understandings of body, space and gender. After reading through the entire transcript several times and finding that the discussion on the three general body-focused statements formed a whole, I decided to analyse this part of the discussions separately, as an entity in itself, while using the rest of the discussion as background material to gather information about the group contexts and review the contents of the whole discussion. In analysing the discussion on the three statements, I utilized basic grounded theory techniques, as suggested by Strauss and Corbin (1998). However, instead of creating a theory describing the entirety of the data, as pursued in classical grounded theory methodology, I constructed a model that synthesizes the main themes and their interconnections in the young adults’ talk regarding these three statements. I began by coding sentences and small parts of the text, mostly using expressions that the participants had used. I then proceeded from open coding to selective coding and categorizing, increasing the level of abstraction in the analysis (Strauss and Corbin, 1998). During the analytic process, I wrote notes and drew diagrams in order to relate the constructed codes and categories to each other. Through a process of mapping the codes together into categories, relating codes and categories to each other, and simultaneously rethinking the codes and categories, I came up with a final model. It summarized the young adults’ talk into three main themes: health, appearance and well-being. These were discussed as body ideals and motives.

Findings

The young adults’ talk focused on health, appearance and well-being. Health and appearance were presented as strong cultural ideals, and the young adults tried to define their own relationship to these ideals. Finding a dividing line between healthy and unhealthy seemed to be important to them. In trying to separate healthy and unhealthy body practices, they negotiated between the motives of health, appearance and well-being. I examine these issues in the following. I present some rather lengthy extracts from the discussions to illustrate the students’ evolving perspectives and the contradictions in the participants’ views and between the participants.

Ideals of health and beauty

The issues of health and appearance continuously intertwined in the young adults’ talk, presenting two coexistent perspectives on bodily practices. Appearance was presented as a strong cultural value, whose influence the participants themselves wished to resist in their talk. Health was mostly given a positive value – something that was healthy or done for health reasons meant something that was good. This echoes the idea that health has become a symbol of a good life (Crawford, 2006; Radley, 1994). Sometimes, health was used in its adjective form to describe something positive, such as referring to the Finnish cultural context as promoting a ‘healthier general body image’ than some other countries.

The young adults also portrayed health as a controversial issue, and the ideal of a healthy life and the motives behind advocating it were questioned. They discussed the current dominant Western ideal of a healthy, beautiful and thin body, often explicitly referring to a ‘Western body ideal’. This ideal was seen to lead to a problematic body image and behaviour, such as eating disorders. The conception of the Western ideal body was described as something that is ‘fed’ to people:

Outi:

… quite a lot I think … this Western way of relating to one’s body, and appearance, is greatly dominant here as well, and of course, there is always differences and such, but …

Enni:

Well it has come through the media [Outi: Yes] here as well. (g4)

Even though body weight and dieting were not mentioned in the statements presented to the groups, the young adults mentioned these topics many times. For example, in discussing the attention given to other people’s bodies, all the groups agreed that it is the exceptions from the general mass that are noted, giving exceptional body weight – mostly referring to individuals who are overweight – as an example. The young adults seemed to be well aware of the current Western thin body ideal. However, only one participant expressed the opinion that being overweight is unhealthy. Some of the young adults noted how the current cultural discourse on health is related to the dominant Western body ideal and how this can eventually lead to unhealthy practices. Below, Alisa describes how the conception of health is used to further aims other than health:

Alisa: … these distortions about one’s body image or body have been increasing everywhere, that, how much all kinds of, for example, eating disorders have been increasing and are increasing all the time, and, and … But that too is just because it is being fed from everywhere, this conception of what kind is the ideal and what should be the ideal and into what, into what everybody should be aiming at, for these and these reasons. And, then kind of, it too is being furthered then with that, kind of, health as the main issue, even though that can lead into a totally different direction … (g1)

Alisa associates problematic body practices and attitudes towards the body, such as eating disorders and body image disturbances, to the current Western ideal body. She further argues that this body ideal is marketed through the health ideal, and that aiming for this ideal can lead to unhealthy outcomes. Consequently, something that appears healthy, that is advertised as healthy and that initially increases one’s health and well-being can lead to a less healthy direction. For example, exercise, a healthy practice in itself, can become excessive (White and Halliwell, 2010). This contradictory conception of health might be one reason why some of the participants resisted the ideal of a healthy life. They stated that the disciplined following of health instructions required too much control and inhibited one from enjoying life. A few emphasized that they do not take care of their health or their body. This point seems to be a response to the normative expectation of caring for one’s body. For example, Veera exhibits a position of a ‘health rebel’ by first stating what one should do in order to be healthy and then declaring how she has never engaged in these healthy habits:

Veera: … but, but, maybe you should live in that kind of way that you don’t, you don’t, eat junk food or smoke cigarettes, drink a lot of alcohol or use drugs and all these kinds of things, that [Iina: Mm], that, that, I don’t, I have not, I have never, I have never been thinking about my body, and I have never, been on a diet for example, I have never even been thinking about dieting or what to eat or drink or how much to smoke [laughs shortly] … (g3)

Studies show that people prefer to present themselves as healthy, yet as resisting health ideals (Autio and Lombardini-Riipinen, 2006; Crossley, 2003; Madden and Chamberlain, 2010). In a culture that values individualism and independence and beautiful, healthy bodies, a morally good individual has a healthy and beautiful body, but also shows the required independence in relation to the cultural expectations of health and beauty (Crossley, 2003; Liimakka, 2008). A group context might further emphasize the need to present resistance to these ideals (Liimakka, 2008). In accounting for health and illness, people are also making claims about social identity and individual worth (Crawford, 2006; Radley and Billig, 1996).

Defining the boundary between healthy and distorted: Motives

The young adults made a point of separating healthy and unhealthy from each other:

Leo/M:

… well of course there is a dividing line between what is a healthy body image and that, and not so healthy … (g4)

…

Outi:

… there is a difference then, which goes in my opinion already to the side of unnormal and unhealthy … (g4)

Yet finding the dividing line between healthy and unhealthy seemed to be a challenge. The group discussions revealed a contradiction: someone who looks healthy and acts healthy (e.g. exercises, eats healthy foods and has a fit body) might not be healthy after all. In other words, a healthy-looking body can mask an unhealthy individual with a distorted body image. Since health cannot be judged from a person’s outward appearance, the young adults attributed the motive behind one’s body practices as the main determination of whether the practice is healthy or unhealthy.

One statement, the argument that ‘it is important to take care of one’s body’ particularly encouraged the discussion of motivation. The young adults discussed various ways of taking care of one’s body, ranging from healthy eating habits and listening to one’s self and body to exercise and plastic surgery. This variation indicates how the marketed idea of body care carries numerous cultural meanings (Smith Maguire, 2002). The young adults agreed that taking care of one’s body is important if it is done for health or functional reasons, such as to ‘keep one’s hands and legs in condition’. However, they noted the possibility of excessive care – the body can become an obsession:

Alisa:

Well of course it [taking care of one’s body] is important as such [somebody else starts to talk], that, if you value health, then, your mind doesn’t feel well unless your body feels well, that … There, but no extremes, that is then again … it is kind of maybe … excessive care, which just turns against itself.

Milla:

If you cannot think about anything else.

Alisa:

Yes … And that too, in my opinion, emphasizes only that, that it is kind of, you can say that well I just take care of my health, but is it, anyway, that what is the point in it, is it just that, appearance, or … or, is it health at all anymore (g1).

In the extract above, the young women discuss health as a value in itself, as possibly leading to excessive body care and as intertwined with appearance-based motives. In her last comment, Alisa attempts to maintain health as a ‘pure’ and ‘good’ motive, in comparison to the problematic motive of appearance. Overall, appearance was presented as a problematic and less appropriate motive in the group discussions. However, some of the participants noted that separating health and appearance from each other is difficult, since many body practices aiming at health also improve one’s appearance.

The desired separation that the participants wanted between health and appearance was further complicated by a third motivation: well-being. The motivation of well-being offered a strategy for maintaining individual agency and autonomy in relation to body practices motivated by the beauty imperative (Woolhouse et al., 2012). Below, Neea describes how body projects are often motivated by both health and appearance. She ‘defends’ the motive of appearance by emphasizing the subjective experience of well-being brought about by having a more beautiful body:

Neea: … it would be hypocritical at the least to say, that just, I just think about the health aspect. There is kind of, that kind of body, as well, besides being healthy, that one enjoys being in it …. In my opinion, I don’t criticize people who, even though they would be quite healthy, want to lose a couple of kilos because then they somehow feel [Someone: Yes, somehow] themselves to be more beautiful and they feel, that they have kind of a mentally better feeling … (g2)

The motives of health and appearance were described as partly rising from the current cultural body ideals. In contrast, the motivation of well-being is described as rising from the self: an individual engages in a particular body practice because it gives a subjectively ‘better feeling’. The young adults emphasized that it is important to do things that make one feel good about oneself:

Outi:

… in my opinion just that, that you aim at feeling good, with yourself, that, hey, I do this and that and that and it feels good and somehow, but that, but it is, of course, a good thing (g4).

…

Aada:

I see such that, one needs to listen to oneself [Kira: Yes], that how one feels good. That if some, that kind of health stuff, all those kinds of instructions, that, I don’t follow those much. But if I start to feel that, I have been eating too heavily, well, then, I just eat something else … (g2)

Overall, health, appearance and well-being formed a moral triangle of body motives. The metaphor of a triangle is useful in emphasizing the interdependence and simultaneous coexistence of these motivations. The importance and the difficulty of separating and defining these motivations evoked intense debate in one group:

Outi:

… it is then important, as well, that, what is the reason why I want to take care of my body. That, we mean exercise here, that, then if you do it to be something that, what you should be and what I see in Cosmopolitan magazine, then there is in my opinion wrong reasons for it. But because I want to feel good and absolutely just that, well-being, and not possibly, then, anything excessive. Of course partly there is also that, well of course I also look good because I feel good and exercise and such but that [Tuija: Mm], sometimes I think you see in the gym really people who just about cry and exercise and ride a bicycle and they are there every day. Somehow I feel like, that, oh, you don’t have to, but that, I think it is really sad.

Leo/M:

But it is then also that, what people want out of life. If somebody wants to be a top athlete and continue that even if every day is in the gym, then I don’t think there is anything wrong with it.

Outi:

No, no, but now I meant actually more like, maybe more, well of course these days also men, but that, that you should look like, your body should look like a certain type, a certain, that is maybe more what I meant. That world class sports, yes, why not, but that that …

Leo/M:

That as well is a goal, to develop a good-looking body, and, I don’t, I don’t understand that there would be anything wrong as such with that either, that …

Outi:

Yes no but …

Leo/M:

Maybe more …

Enni:

As long as one doesn’t become too narcissistic or start to obsess (g4).

In the debate, the young man, Leo, talks about the freedom of individuals to set any desired goal for themselves, while the young woman, Outi, defines the normative cultural body ideal as not worth pursuing. Another young woman, Enni, offers the idea of narcissism as a solution to their argument, presenting the pursuit of a certain kind of body as problematic if one starts to overtly monitor one’s body. The extract can be interpreted as presenting individual differences in opinions, but it can also be read from a gender perspective. The pursuit of the cultural ideal body is especially expected of women, causing women to experience more pressures than men to attain the ideal and more anxiety if the ideal is found to be unattainable (Bordo, 1993; Fredrickson and Roberts, 1997; Hesse-Biber, 2007). Consequently, the idea of excessively and anxiously working on one’ body is more readily available to women. Moreover, since women are targeted more heavily with pressure to attain a morally ‘good’ body, they might also more readily evaluate the body practices of others according to moral standards. It seems as if Outi is trying to explain her position as partly stemming from a gendered cultural context, when she shortly refers to ‘also men’ as experiencing pressures ‘these days’.

Overall, the focus groups mostly discussed the female body. Furthermore, the two young men referred mostly to women in their talk about the body. This gender specificity formed the implicit logic of the young adults’ talk. However, one young woman explicitly argued that women face stronger pressures about their bodily appearance than men. Yet the young women mutually agreed that the body can become an obsession, and that an unhappy relationship with one’s body is common.

The discussion of motivation focused on exercise. While many of the participants expressed feeling a physical need to exercise and described their good feelings during and after exercise, they also acknowledged that they have had a guilty conscience about not exercising. However, only one young woman openly shared that she had personally experienced pressure and stress in relation to exercise. The other participants might not have had similar experiences. Alternatively, they might have wanted to present themselves as having a ‘healthy’ body relation and the ‘right’ motives.

The intertwining motivations revealed in the discussions imply a dynamic model: something that might initially be done for the ‘right’ and ‘good’ motives, and that increases one’s well-being, might end up being done for the ‘wrong’ and ‘bad’ motives, and/or lessens one’s well-being. Consequently, one can move on a continuum from moderate healthy practices to unhealthy extremes. This continuum might resonate especially well with young women’s experience of their bodies. However, the cultural ideology of individual choice, autonomy and responsibility obscures the gendered logic of body dissatisfaction and body image distortions and makes these gendering processes unspeakable (Ronkainen, 2001; Woolhouse et al., 2012). Moreover, it may create pressures to present oneself as relating to one’s body in the ‘correct’ way (Liimakka, 2008).

Concluding comments

In the young adults’ talk, health and appearance intertwined as cultural discourses and individual motivations; a similar intertwining has been found in other studies (Burns and Gavey, 2004; González et al., 2012; Kwan, 2009; Wright et al., 2006). In the moral triangle of body motives, health and well-being appeared as ‘good’ motives, while appearance as a motive was questioned. Moreover, it was noted that advocating health can lead to unhealthy body practices, such as excessive exercise or eating disorders. Finding a dividing line between healthy and unhealthy seemed to be an important and continuous task, as was the positioning of oneself – or even one’s own country – on the healthy side of the continuum, apart from the unhealthy ‘other’ (Crawford, 1994; Willig, 2009). As in other studies (Autio and Lombardini-Riipinen, 2006; Crossley, 2003; Madden and Chamberlain, 2010), the moral ideal was to appear healthy enough but not too healthy, in other words, to both competently apply and autonomously challenge health knowledge.

The young adults discussed the motivations for and the intensity of engaging in a body practice as a way of defining the healthiness or distortedness of that practice. Drawing a line between healthy moderate practices and unhealthy excess required continuous negotiation. Besides drawing from the values placed by society on health, the young adults’ emphasis on the dichotomy between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ motives might also be their attempt to make sense of their own and others’ body practices in a society with excessive expectations about the body. In this sense-making, ‘good’ motives become associated with an inner sense of feeling good, while ‘bad’ motives become symbols of being manipulated by outward pressures to look good. The discussion of motivation focused almost exclusively on exercise. Similarly, recent studies on women’s body image and exercise have also focused on motivation and have drawn similar conclusions about the harmfulness of appearance as a motive (Prichard and Tiggemann, 2008; Strelan et al., 2003). However, the focus on motivation places the problem and the solution of health on the individual level and ignores the influence of societal structures (Crawford, 2006; Lupton, 1995).

The recurrent emergence of issues of body image distortions and body dissatisfaction in the young adults’ talk highlights the centrality and visibility of body image disorders in our current cultural understanding, but also possibly in their own social surroundings and their individual relationships to their bodies. The discussions on excessive care for one’s body and the body becoming an obsession were mostly initiated by the young women. Overall, the discussions mostly focused on the female body. This gendered frame for the young adults’ talk was at the same time self-evident and unspoken. The constant demarcation between what is healthy and what is distorted might resonate especially well with young women’s views on their bodies.

In separating health as a ‘pure’ motivation for taking care of one’s body, the young adults were able to maintain the idea of health as a symbol of a good life (Crawford, 2006; Radley, 1994). However, in questioning the healthiness of health advertising, health instructions and ‘healthy’ body practices assumed to be healthy such as exercise and healthy nutrition, they extended the definition of health beyond the body’s physical boundaries and outward measures of bodily health. From this perspective, a person with an ‘overweight’ body, a person with an ‘underweight’ body and a person with a ‘normal weight’ body might all be equally healthy or unhealthy. Overall, the Finnish university students in this study, as well as in a study by Autio and Lombardini-Riipinen (2006), seemed to be critically health conscious.

The present article suggests that the ideology of health management resonates especially with highly educated young women. Despite their critical attitude towards the promotion of good health, young women who are already socialized into habitually monitoring their bodily appearance might more readily ‘slip’ into monitoring their bodily health (Moore, 2010). Higher education provides young women with the knowledge and tools to understand health information (Autio and Lombardini-Riipinen, 2006). This may not only lead to young women in higher education adopting a healthy lifestyle that betters their health, but also to them experiencing pressures to attain both the ideals of health and beauty, sometimes in unhealthy ways (Burns and Gavey, 2004; Vander Wal, 2011), and to anxiety about the unattainability of these ideals (Crawford, 2006; Fredrickson and Roberts, 1997).

Based on this study, I argue that instead of bettering individuals’ health, the current promotion of health might contribute to pressure to appear healthy being placed on individuals. However, the appearance of health is not necessarily congruent with an experience of health and well-being (Burns and Gavey, 2004). Trying to achieve a healthy outward appearance may result in creating and masking a body image distortion beneath the seemingly healthy surface. The commonness of dissatisfaction with one’s body could partly result from this lack of balance between the outer and the inner: focusing on the outward performance of bodily health and appearance can distance an individual from her or his inner feelings, making the desired state of subjectively experienced well-being more difficult to reach. Consequently, the intertwining dynamics of the moral triangle of body motives might make the personal and cultural ideals of health, beauty and well-being equally unattainable.

Footnotes

Funding

This research was supported by the Ella and Georg Ehrnrooth Foundation and the University of Helsinki.

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