William Sheldon (1898-1979) did spend a lifetime observing the human body. From his observations, he developed three major categories into which the human body fits, based upon physical body types. These three body types are: Mesomorph, ectomorph and endomorph. The major classification are based upon musculature, skeletal structure and how the body produces and stores fatty tissue. All people fall into one category or a combination of them.
1. The Mesomorph
This is evident in those athletic looking men and women with wedge-shaped bodies (men) or hourglass figures (women).These body types have larger bones with prominent muscles. Their facial features are usually defined and muscular with noticeable cheek bones and heavy jaws.
Individuals of this body type have thicker skin and their hair is heavy in texture. Their legs and arms are well-developed and their fingers and hands are muscular. The most common traits of mesomorphs are good posture, ease of muscle gaining and muscle mass.Most body building champions are mesomorphs.
2. The Ectomorph
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“They are normally lightly muscled by nature and have trouble in developing muscle tissue. They appear fragile. Their physical strength often does not equate to muscle size. They have well defined, often sharp, facial features and their faces tend to be narrow or triangular shaped. Their hair is generally fine though often unruly and grows quickly. Due to their thin skin, they lack body fat. They tend to be more affected by temperatures for example extreme heat or cold. Some ectomorphs have been able to gain muscle size and strength but they struggle to make big gains without a lot of hard work and high-protein
Susie Orbach, a British psycho-therapist wrote an article called “Losing Bodies”, in which she focused on body shapes and how it had changed over the years. Simple terms such as hourglass, pear, straight and apple can be used as descriptive words, but it can also be the name of the four body shapes categories. These body shapes were generally used to differentiate the different shapes and sizes, however, nowadays women take it a lot more seriously. Women are losing confidence in themselves due to the heavily influence by the mass media and the widespread of Western cultures.
People tend to views an image based on how society say it should be they tend to interpret the image on those assumption, but never their own assumptions. Susan Bordo and John Berger writes’ an argumentative essay in relation to how viewing images have an effect on the way we interpret images. Moreover, these arguments come into union to show what society plants into our minds acts itself out when viewing pictures. Both Susan Bordo and John Berger shows that based on assumptions this is what causes us to perceive an image in a certain way. Learning assumption plays into our everyday lives and both authors bring them into reality.
As David Hufford said, in Beings Without Bodies, much of folk belief about spirits is found to be reasonable. This account is reported under his experience-centered theory. Hufford said much of the belief of spirits is reasonable as it is established on logical understanding from a person’s own experience. However, Hufford said not all beliefs are backed up by experience or even evidence. Some beliefs are made purely on faith. (Hufford p.11)
Human characteristics have evolved all throughout history and have been manipulated on a global scale through the use of science and technology. Genetic modification is one such process in which contemporary biotechnology techniques are employed to develop specific human characteristics. Despite this, there are a countless number of negative issues related with genetic modification including discrimination, ethical issues and corruption. Hence, genetic modification should not be used to enhance human characteristics.
Feder and Park present a list of traits that are used by paleoanthropologists to distinguish the appearance of skeletal features and characterize these changes over time. Th...
The reading assigned titled “The Socially Constructed Body” by Judith Lorber and Yancey Martin dives into the sociology of gender with a specific focus on how the male and female body is compromised by social ideals in the Western culture. She introduces the phenomenon of body ideals pressed on men and women by introducing the shift in cosmetic surgery toward body modifications.
Katz states that “physical size and strength for many men have become increasingly important to proving manhood” (Katz 3). He blames mainstream media for creating stereotypes of what men should look like and how they should act if they want to be a manly man. Action films starring, buff, male actors is one example he uses that portrays a tough guy image. He goes on to say that men are challenged by woman in education and in profession so the belief to have the advantage of being stronger and bigger in build result proving how important physical appearance is to man (Katz 2). The way he explains it is that men are to be seen as violent and more powerful or they won’t be seen as a manly man. Katz stresses on the idea of stereotypical images of men and the expectations that are put on men because of how much it can affect them at a young
with the mind of a child, a shapeless face, big pale eyes, sloping shoulders, and big feet
The physical category of my model includes three subgroups. The first of these includes the period of prenatal development, birth, and the continuous development afterward. The second subgroup discusses the genetic and environmental factors of child physical development. The last subgroup mentions the role of nature and nurture in physical development.
shown unrealistically thin and men with muscles larger than life. The idea that these unrealistic bodies are
In general, she said, people have distinct subconscious reactions to different body types. For instance: For a man, skinny says less-than-manly and gay, two qualities that clash with our Americanized vision of a leader: tall, strong and emotionally unmoved.
...body was ideal for reasons such as running faster, swimming better, and excelling at sports such as football; All of the examples listed pertaining to physical performance. They also desired to be tall in order to gain independence from their parents, and be able to do more things on their own. The boys also claimed that being tall would be useful in dangerous situations; For example, some desired a big and tall body to fight and others wanted a skinny and tall body to be able to run away from the danger. Although there was a distinction between the bigger bodies desired, and the overweight bodies, to which they gave perceived negatively. This study helps to explain the key difference between boys and girls in reguards to body image; The girls wanted to be thin in order to be beautiful, yet the boys wanted to be big and tall for reasons related to physical ability.
Up until the early 1900’s, being of a thicker stature was desirable as it was a sign of wealth, value, and beauty. Women were encouraged to be full-figured in order to deal with pregnancies and the rearing of their children ...
A man is supposed to be more masculine, have a more defined jawline, and have tough skin from a social media perspective. For the picture portraying the female I also chose the left, that’s because of how social media portrays the perfect woman, soft, thin, and less masculine. There was a test done surveying 200 men and women (ages 18-25). Before the test was conducted, there was a survey to see who had Internet access, or any type of social media access.