Few things brings this point home more powerfully than traveling to parts of the world where different body types are valued and held to be attractive. It’s hard for us, I think, to really understand that our ideas about attractiveness are not “natural” and inevitable. It’s hard for us to realize that beauty is cultural — until we visit cultures where beauty is very different than it is where we live.

I think that experiencing other cultures, even virtually, is a great way way to start breaking molds.