Like many South African women, Bongi Tsuene is worried about her weight.
The difference is that Tsuene, featured in a television advertisement promoting a dieting formula, is black.
Experts say more black women like Tsuene are shunning the traditional African reverence for the fuller figure as they adapt to the pressures of post-apartheid South Africa, raising fears they could become vulnerable to eating disorders.
Ads like Tsuene’s show there is a growing demand for such products among black women, analysts say.
“The markets have seen a gap, so it must be there and they will now go for it with all guns blazing,” says Marjanne Senekal of the University of Stellenbosch’s Department of Consumer Science.
Shown in a plush, well-furnished home and sporting a meticulous coiffure, Tsuene fits the profile of emerging middle-class black women who are becoming more weight conscious.
While a decade of democracy has opened up a world of careers and new-found prosperity for women like her, it has come at a price.
“Empowerment brings with it a new set of problems for women. For many young women, the words 'You can be whatever you want to be' are read as 'You have to be everything you can be and you must be the best at it,”’ psychologist Dr Christopher Szabo told Fair Lady magazine in an article on the issue.
The value of thinness
South African black women have powered their way into boardrooms once dominated by white males. Thanks to the government’s affirmative action drive, the country also has one of the world’s highest number of women members of parliament — mostly black.
Not to mention one of the continent’s most powerful woman politicians in Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the first woman in South African history to occupy this position.
But all these achievements have only added to the pressure to be the best, said Szabo.
“At a time when women are experiencing such a high level of empowerment, there’s a very low level of self-acceptance,” said Szabo, a leading expert on eating disorders.
There are few studies on eating disorders among black women, but one conducted among black female students at South Africa’s University of the North found enough evidence to hint at a future trend.
The survey of 180 students said most were happier with their bodies than their white counterparts but there were signs of weight issues starting to creep in, especially among urban black women.
Eleven percent of the students had “significant concerns about their body shape” or were identified as “possible cases of (the eating disorder) bulimia nervosa.”
“These data indicate that there are signs of more realism concerning weight status among black female students. However, there are also signs of assimilation of Western cultural norms concerning body shape, eating attitudes and weight management,” says the 1999 study, published two years later in the South African Journal of Psychology.
Similar trends have been noticed in the United States, where improved living standards have also come with psychological baggage, said Karen Charlton, a researcher at the Medical Research Council.
“In the United States the increase in eating disorders amongst Afro-Americans has been attributed to a rise in affluence and social status,” said Charlton.
Product of globalization
Many non-Western societies have traditionally been immune to the diet-obsession of the rich world, viewing bigger bodies as a sign of prosperity.
But, as more of these women become exposed to Western culture in an ever-globalizing world, researchers have seen a shift in attitudes.
“Worldwide media exposure, which focuses on mainstream cultural values, has been implicated as a powerful force in shaping public perceptions regarding the value of thinness and hence contributory to the rise in eating disorders in non-Westernized populations,” said Charlton.
The desire to be thin may be new among black women, but analysts say it is inevitable as more black South Africans flock to cities and face the same marketing onslaught that white women have succumbed to for decades.
The University of the North study found that 74.6 percent of urban students were “restrained eaters,” meaning they deliberately cut back on food, compared to 56.9 percent of those from rural areas.
Black women have historically been plagued by obesity and associated health problems like hypertension and heart disease, but analysts say while healthy living should be encouraged, they should not be made to live up to an “unrealistic” ideal.
“The very message that can be used to address one issue can create a problem of eating disorders ... Black models like Naomi Campbell and movie stars like Halle Berry follow the Western ideal. They are depicted as rich, successful, et cetera — so a good model to follow in any young girl’s eyes,” Senekal said.
“Black or white, we all hear the same messages and eventually the cultural tolerance of having a larger body is not strong enough any more to counteract the 'brainwashing.”’