Why do women spend so much time ‘sucking in’ their stomachs?

If I were to make an educated guess, I’ve probably spent a decade of my life ‘sucking in’ my stomach. It started at school, around the age of thirteen, a time where diet culture was King and had fully got its sharp claws into me, taking control of my brain like a puppet master. 

WeightWatchers was everywhere, Special K replaced two meals a day, size ten women were being hailed ‘whales’ by the tabloids. All of this made me hyper aware about how other girls looked, and my focus was specifically on their stomachs. 

We had different names for it – ‘Muffin top’, ‘paunch’, ‘beer belly’ – but one thing was always clear, if your stomach wasn’t flat, you were wrong. My school skirt, a grey marl colour in thick wool, was highwaisted, tight around the stomach, before dropping into loose pleats. Basically, a teenage girls’ worst nightmare in sartorial form. I became fixated on how my stomach bumped slightly, when some of my friends looked completely flat. I spent evenings practicing how to make it disappear, by holding my breath and contorting myself. 

I’m not sure where I learnt to ‘suck in’, but it was always common vernacular; you’d see women, trying on clothes in bright shop mirrors, doing it. Models on America’s Next Top Model did it constantly. 

From thirteen to my early twenties, every time I wore something tight, I reflexively held my stomach in. Like a core strength workout, but for hours and hours at a time. I’d sigh with relief if a table was high enough for me to sit behind, and breathe out, without others seeing. I’d walk through the door of my flat after a long day, and instantly breathe out, letting my vital organs sit where they should naturally; a feeling akin to taking off your bra. 

As I began to unlearn diet culture, with the spread of the Body Positive movement educating me, I stopped ‘sucking in’. It took a long time, and was a conscious act: sometimes, I find myself still doing it, as I pose in my bedroom mirror before going out. For me, the stomach is such a pressure point because it’s a core difference a lot of cis women have from cis men: people with uteruses look different from people without. Women store fat differently to men. It’s easier for men to achieve a flat stomach through exercise than it is for women. We live in a patriarchal society, and thus, our beauty standards are inherently patriarchal. 

Anji Gopal, an osteopath and founder of the BackCare Foundation, told me that a lot of patients have come to her over the years, asking if sucking in their stomach has had a lasting impact on their health. “What is the stomach for? It’s for holding in your organs, for supporting your lower body (including your back), for adding structure. It’s not flat – in women in particular it is rounded, curved, a sign of womanhood. It’s also designed to MOVE and not be static,” says Anji. 

Continuing to tell me that “when we hold our tummy in, we affect the abdominal organs (they are held ‘tight’) and we restrict our ability to breathe well. Try taking a deep breath whilst holding in your gut – it’s impossible!  When the organs don’t benefit from the natural movement of the breath, they miss the ability to slide and glide each time you breathe. The thoracic diaphragm doesn’t get full range of motion and you don’t use your lungs fully.”