Standards of female beauty have been the topic of literature and art for centuries. In our contemporary society, to be a female and to possess a body that is lean and toned, with skin not too light and not too dark, sporting long hair and a youthful appearance is to win the cultural lottery. Those who deviate from the accepted norm are either, at best, invisible to men, or, at worst, ridiculed. Men and women are both complicit in the reinforcement of societal standards of beauty. While the exact ideal body type varies by culture and time period, with a predilection for small or large breasts, narrow or curvy hips, strong or delicate body, light or tanned skin, long hair or short, advertisers and media keep us informed on the latest trends in female body shape and colour and suggest how to change our bodies to fit the ideal.

We also live in a society that, at the moment, is obsessed with thinness. The ‘diet industry’ makes large sums of money telling us how to eat, what to eat, how much to eat, how often to eat, whether one should eat more carbs or fewer, go low-fat or full-fat, whether we should eat ‘clean’ or concentrate on eating diet foods; keeping up with the latest trends can be about as confusing as keeping up with what our body should be like at any given time.