The New York Times reports that anorexia was “all but unheard-of” in Brazil until “the Barbie aesthetic, celebrity models, satellite television and medical makeovers” began to infiltrate the culture: “[U]ntil recently no one here would ever have talked with admiration about having an hourglass figure like Barbie’s, let alone the coat-hanger physiques of the international runways. Instead, the ideal was what is known as ‘um corpo de violão,’ or ‘guitar-shaped body’ … thicker in the waist, hips and fanny.”

The Times notes that only in the English version of the bossa nova hit, “The Girl from Ipanema,” is she “tall and tan and young and lovely.” In the original Portuguese, the lyrics emphasize “the sweet swing” of her hips and rear end as she walks - “more than a poem, the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.”

But an “internationalized” standard of beauty depicted in the media – particularly celebrity and fashion magazines – may be contributing to anorexia among Brazilian girls. One of Brazil’s most successful fashion model, Ana Carolina Reston, was 5’ 8″ tall and just 88 pounds when she died of anorexia-related complications at the age of 21.

So why this emphasis on an unnatural and unfeminine body types on the catwalk? Gay men rule the fashion industry, and it is possible that androgynous models are the only women who do not repulse them.

But what if there was something more sinister behind fashion designers’ efforts to foist anorexic chic as the female archetype: Stop heteros (AKA “breeders“) from having children. Anorexia and infertility go hand in hand. Menarche occurs when a girl’s body fat content hits 17 percent; regular ovulation - fertility - depends on maintaining 22 percent body fat. When a woman’s weight and body fat percentage fall below levels necessary to sustain pregnancy, she stops ovulating.

Fortunately, the ultra-thin standard of beauty in the fashion world does not translate to the real world – in part, because the vast majority of women will not deliberately become anorexic or bulimic to achieve an abnormally underweight physique. Plus Brazilian men are not alone in their appreciation of curvy women. When a well-endowed woman walks down the street, heterosexual men worldwide instinctively swivel their heads to see whether she has a sexy ass, too. No man bothers to turn his head when a flat-chested woman goes by, because her backside is likely to be equally disappointing.

And neither feminists nor fashionistas are ever going to change this basic male instinct.

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