Beauty and Anorexia in Brazil

As just about anybody knows, Brazilians, and particularly Brazilian women, are renowned worldwide for their beauty. Brazilian supermodels, most notably Gisele, are frequent figures in the global supermodel scene. While this beauty is sometimes "natural," Brazil also has the highest per capita rate of plastic surgery, increasing the "beauty complex" here (something which has spread to the states, where Brazilians are unfortunately creating and participating in the fatal "basement liposuction" industry, which has led to the deaths of some women).

Unfortunately, it isn't just plastic surgery. Recently, there has been an "anorexica epidemic," as six women have died over the last few months from the effects of anorexia. This made news here in the first case when a young, up-and-coming model who had already broken into the international scene died at 23. Brazilians were shocked. The media was inundated with stories and reports on the effects of anorexia, with news reports and magazine cover stories that lamented the loss of young girls everywhere who fell victim to this mental disease and/or the social pressures of being thin.

Unfortunately, to my knowledge, that was it in terms of reporting. I had heard vaguely of the second of these six deaths, but recently, I haven't seen anything on the news reporting these latter four deaths. It may have been there, and I just missed it. However, I doubt I've missed all four other reports. What seems more likely is that the media hit upon the sensational sadness of a famous model, but hasn't paid attention to the other cases for reasons I do not know (perhaps they simply weren't as famous; I don't want to be too cynical, but perhaps the other victims were not as famous as the model, and the story had already been told, so they were sacrificed for better profit-stories).

And before we be too quick to blame the notion of an American sense of beauty that emphasizes women's weight, we should perhaps look to Argentina, as well. Certainly, many of the images of beauty and thinness come from north of the equator, as one doctor comments, and thus have their role. But, as should come as no surprise, Brazil and Argentina are influential on each other in a number of ways, and the beauty standard may be crossing boundaries. Argentina has the highest per capita rate of cases of anorexia in the world, and buying clothes there can be a subtle insult in and of itself (oftentimes, the "largest" pant size or shirt size only fits women who are too small already).

I don't want it to seem like I'm blaming Argentina solely, or the U.S. solely, or even Brazil solely. Doubtless, there are many influences triggering this recent phenomenon here in Brazil. But, as it would be anywhere else, ultimately it is up to Brazilians themselves to combat such notions of beauty and to accept women as they are. Let us hope that the lessons of these six tragic cases begins to sink into society.