It's not news that our culture is obsessed with being thin. At one time, being thin was a sign of poverty. Peasants had to physically work so hard that they burned off everything they ate, while the wealthy could sit back, eat lots of roasted meat and get soft and squishy. The last thing a man wanted was a thin wife, because she was a visible sign to the community that he wasn't doing his job as a provider.

Of course, in our culture today, it's the opposite, and it all comes down to economics and technology. The physical aspect of work has been replaced by machines, and a top executive and a clerk at a convenience store probably burn about the same number of calories in their average day on the job. If you're thin, you either have the time and money to work out and eat a quality, well-balanced diet or you're the beneficiary of some very lucky genetics (or maybe you just paid someone to suck your fat out through a surgical hose). The single most common physical trait among the working poor today is their higher than average BMIs because the cheapest food is usually pumped full of salt, carbs and fat.

However, you can still find cultures that idolize the overweight woman, usually desert cultures where food is less available or where technology has yet to catch up with their ideals of beauty. For instance, as a plus-sized twentysomething, I was constantly being hit on by Egyptian men while traveling in Europe, to the point that I started to think about visiting Egypt, just to see what it was like to be a sex symbol.

It seems ideal until you find out about the dark side. For instance, in Mauritania, little girls have been forcefed like a foie gras goose, in efforts to make them plump and desirable.

The end results are different between our cultures--in this case it's the thin girls with the body image issues and the fat girls who are worried about losing their status--but it's all the same: us and them, the haves and the have-nots. We both have the same technique, however; little girls are taught that their value is in looking the way that society wants them to look.  One very candid Mauritanian said, "a man's goal is to marry a woman that fills his house. She needs to decorate it like an armoire or a TV set." While this was a very blunt comment, how different is our society's trophy wife? Maybe we should ask Melania Trump?

And who isn't guilty of that? When I see my 9-year-old niece at family functions, the first thing that always pops out of my mouth is "You are just so cute!" It's automatic, this reinforcing of approval on her physical appearance. Despite all of my attempts at breaking down body stereotypes, I am just as guilty of reinforcing the cultural ideal of female beauty as a beauty pageant promoter. Next time, I will save the cute talk for my friends and instead tell her that she is smart or strong or can run fast or tells the greatest jokes or is completely awesome at Guitar Hero. We may not be able to change our culture completely on our own, but it will happen. One girl at a time.