, for example, which were used to weigh crops and livestock and are now a thing of the past, had a whole other purpose. In the late 1500s, those accused of witchcraft were forced to take a “witch test” at the local weighhouse. That conspicuous activity involved a suspected witch being weighed, and if she was lighter than the set weight, she’d be labelled guilty and her weight would be deemed evidence of her supernatural abilities.
Measuring one’s weight started to become the norm by the mid-19th century, when soldiers were examined ahead of joining the military. Measuring their weight, among other vitals, helped streamline the recruitment process. Although this has resulted in a culture obsessed with body shaming and weight loss, back then, the simple goal had been to observe and help enhance life expectancywhat he called “social physics” and a mathematical formula that we now call a body mass index . By measuring height and weight, the formula allows one to deduce just how “fit” they might be. Although Quetelet had seen the formula as being more appropriate for measuring groups or populations, it’s now come to be used by the individual.
By this time, what it means to be “thick” versus “thin” took hold in everyday life, as scales were used for health check-ups at school and in the doctor’s office, and wealthy societies were busy looking for solutions to their rising obesity statistics. Although this has resulted in a culture obsessed with body shaming and weight loss, back then, the simple goal had been to observe and help enhance life expectancy.
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