?You Can Never Be Too Rich or Too Thin? (or too white): Beauty and Body Image for African American and Chicana/Latinas.

What are the factors that influence or shape women?s body image? How does race and class affect girls? and women?s body image? In this paper I discuss the effects of race and class on women?s body image for African American and Chicana/Latina women. I explore how body image is affected by factors such as skin color, phenotype and socioeconomic status. I argue that as race is socially contructed, body image is gendered social construction of race. As a result, body image for women of color manifest differently than Whites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]