Abstract
The body, cult or tiranny? Nowadays, there is a paradoxical increase in obesity and also in anorexia and bulimia. One of the main factors to promote the latter is the aesthetic ideal of thinness imposed by society. This article reviews the following aspects: social and psychological factors fomenting obesity; variables related to weight obsession, which are specially affecting women; society's responses to obese people; arguments against the beliefs "the body can be shaped at will" and "obesity is always bad for health and, therefore, thinness is good"; criticism to diet business and review of the main causes of its general failure and, finally, conclusions about how the body is being tyrannized and proposals to prevent eating disorders.
