BBC - Radio 4 - Woman's Hour -Body shape

Women's attitudes to food and their bodies

Is the shape most women hope to be a healthy one? Where does the pressure to be thin come from? A range of studio guests discuss whether our ideas about the body are inflicted on us by magazines, adverts and even our mothers?

Woman's Hour looks at how British women's bodies have changed shape over the last century to become much larger and have our expectations about our bodies changed accordingly?

Jenni and guests also discuss diets and ask why, when so many people are watching their weight, levels of obesity continue to rise. What's behind this fashion for dieting? Is there more to it than simply a desire to change our body shape? And will this obsession lead to an increase in eating disorders?

On Wednesday 2 February the Woman's Hour phone-in will give you the chance to air your views on women's body shape. Let us know your views.

Guests
Jennifer Cawthron, Editor of Bliss Magazine
Dr Jane Ogden, Professor of Health Psychology, Surrey University
Brigid McKevish, Nutrition Scientist for the British Nutrition Foundation
Lynne Nead, Professor of History of Art, Birkbeck College
Jennifer Bougourd, Size UK
Emma Stiles, nutritionist at the University of Westminster
Mireille Guilano, author of French Women Don't Get Fat
Gina Yashere, British Afro-Caribbean comedian
Shyama Perera, British Asian writer & broadcaster

Useful links...
National Obesity Forum
The Obesity Awareness & Solutions Trust
Eating Disorders Association
British Nutrition Foundation
National Heart Forum
The Size UK study

Women's bodies in art..
Cranach: 'Venus complaining to Cupid',1525
Velazquez: 'The Rokeby Venus', 1647-51
Rubens: 'The Judgement of Paris', 1632-5
Renoir: 'A Nymph by a Stream', 1869
Degas: 'Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando', 1879

Dr Jane Ogden, The Psychology of Eating, Blackwell Publishing

Mireille Guiliano, French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure, Chatto & Windus

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Retired? Downsizing? Moving home to be nearer the kids?