THE WEAKENING OF FEMALE COMMENSALITY UNDER AESTHETIC PRESSURE

Abstract

This article aimed to analyze the importance of commensality for social connection and to understand how the aesthetic pressure imposed on the female body weakens this practice, making the relationship between body and food conflictual. This is an integrative literature review with a qualitative approach, covering interdisciplinary studies from the social sciences, humanities and health published between 2005 and 2025, in Portuguese and English, organized into three thematic axes: commensality, aesthetic pressure, and mental health and strategic management. The results indicate that commensality goes beyond the biological dimension of eating, acting in the creation of bonds, belonging and cultural transmission, but it has been emptied by the individualization of meals, digital mediation and the pandemic. Aesthetic pressure, rooted in political and market interests and intensified by social media, disciplines female bodies and is associated with restrictive diets, binge eating, anxiety, depression and social isolation, especially among fat and midlife women. It is concluded that women's health is fundamental to public health and that it is urgent to restore commensality through food and nutrition education and humanized nutritional care that goes beyond a strictly biological approach.