Abstract

NASCIMENTO, Ellany Gurgel Cosme do; SENA, Patrícia Rakel de Castro; JACOB, Lia Maristela da Silva  and  MAIA, Eulália Maria Chaves. The social construction of body as the pursuit of the ideal of beauty has influenced health concepts in contemporary Brazilian society. Mudanças [online]. 2019, vol.27, n.1, pp. 53-61. ISSN 0104-3269.

The present narrative review aimed to rescue the historical and social construction of the body, evidencing in this process the ideal of beauty pursued over the years by diverse cultures and their repercussions on the conception of health produced in contemporary Brazilian society. For this purpose the discursive corpus was structured in four topics, namely: Discovering Beauty: the institution of an ideal body image in classical antiquity; Covering Beauty: the body as a place of atonement and scientific speculation; Reinventing Beauty: how the media guides new demands on body image building; and, Satisfaction with body image as a health predictor. It is perceived that although beauty was one of the great occupations and preoccupations of man, no effort is made to define it, appearing as an aspect of body image, with relative divine attributes, since individuals are encouraged to pursue and hit it.

Keywords : body image; beauty; history of medicine; medical sociology.

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