In contrast to the many women who fret about conforming to society's perfect body image, Michelle Mitchell wishes she could pack on a few more pounds. Mitchell, a senior criminal justice major, isn't all skin and bones like supermodel Kate Moss, but she carries her trim, 5 foot 7 inch, 125-pound frame well.

"I'm pretty happy with the way I am, but I would like my legs to be a little bigger," Mitchell says. Mitchell, like many other college-aged, African-American women, has a positive self-body image ­ at least more so than many Caucasian women within the same age group. In fact, during the past 25 years, studies have shown that African-American women have more positive body images, and the rate of eating disorders is markedly lower.

Historically, African-American women have taken pride in healthy, voluptuous body types, which some people in today's American culture mistakenly view as overweight, says Diedre Badejo, a Kent State professor of African world and cultural history.

In a 1991 study by the College of William and Mary and Hampton University medical and psychological researchers, 71 percent of Caucasian woman possessed an intense drive to achieve thinness, compared with 33 percent of African-American women. Caucasian females also had a higher rate of body-dissatisfaction - 86 percent - compared with 56 percent of the surveyed African-American females.

The study, published in Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, revealed that instances of eating disorders, such as anorexia, the refusal to eat or fear of becoming obese while usually emaciated, and bulimia nervosa, the binging then purging of the body using laxatives, diuretics, and fasting, in African-American college-aged females are fewer than instances in Caucasian college-aged females. But these are only a few numbers gathered from surveys. The question why still remains.

"It's part of our (the African) cultural legacy," says Badejo, who discusses with her students the different perceptions that African-American and Caucasian females have about their bodies. "There is an emphasis on health - one's health is much more important than anything. But a full-bodied woman is culturally beautiful in many African cultures."

The term "obese" varies from culture to culture, she says. A body many Caucasian females view as obese may actually be a healthy body, according to height-weight tables. These are medical tables used as a guideline in determining how much a person should weigh according to height and body frame, Badejo says.

"In the African-American culture, in terms of body perception, people are not expected to all be built to look alike," she says. "A full, yet healthy, body has represented strength and power in the African culture throughout history."

Some black women even purposely accumulate fat in the buttocks, thighs and legs, says Pan-African Studies assistant professor Alene Barnes. This is a practice known as stereopodgia. "This accumulation of fat in the buttocks and big thighs is considered beautiful," Barnes says. "These women have what society would call cellulite - but they do it on purpose. It's considered what black men desire."

Often, body shape is a sign of status, says Vivian Meehan, director and founder of the Highland Park, Ill.,-based National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders. "In Africa, some tribal women put a rolled towel around their hips to make them larger because it was a sign of a healthy body," Meehan says.

Molly Merryman, director of Kent State Women's Movement Network, agreed with Badejo's analysis. "I think it's important to connect body image with history," she says. "What is deemed to be attractive and healthy always has had ebbs and flows. The positive body ideals embraced by the African-American culture are the notion of the powerful, black woman. But this has been used against them."

Merryman says historically, African Americans have performed laborious tasks, whether voluntarily or because of slavery. This led to the development of a more muscular, voluptuous and physically strong body, and a more positive image.

The lack of negative body image in the African-American culture also has to with family, Merryman says, and Mitchell is an example. Despite the quest to thicken her legs, Mitchell says she was never taught to focus on being thin while growing up, but just being healthy. "I just try to stay away from greasy foods and be healthy, but I don't really think about my weight," she says. "I just wish I had a little more ­ just sometimes."

Men also influence why African-American women are more accepting of their bodies. Typically, in the Euro-American culture, many men view larger women as undesirable. "But African-American men like big women," she says. "They don't necessarily want them fat, but they like them a little thicker."

Beyond the influence of family, pop culture icons contribute to an emphasis away from weight and body image for black women, Merryman says. "There are some extremely racist implications of how the bodies of women of color have been depicted ­ it depicts classism and racism in our culture.

"The idealized body is one that doesn't work, that doesn't do any labor. This racial discrimination has excluded black woman from being an icon, resulting in a certain freedom in imagery of the body," she says.

The perfect female has typically been seen as white, and the ideal of beauty is still determined by a white woman's features, Merryman says.

"(The supermodel) Iman has dark skin but her features are structurally more European. Even with Asian models it's not usually a traditional Asian face. The white, Aryan face and has been what is idealized."

The advantage of this idealization has resulted in less of an impact of body obsession on young, black women, she says. "It has given them a realistic view of the body."

Jennifer Jones, a Kent State sophomore, says she remembers when growing up, African-American women were portrayed a certain way on TV and in music videos. "They're thick," Jones says. "They're not fat, but they have big chests, butts and hips." But white women on television always look like the stereotypical model, with thin legs, well-toned arms and a flat, muscular abdomen. Jones says she doesn't worry about her weight and is happy with her looks.

As the African-American culture continues to mesh more each day with the United States' predominantly European-American culture, Merryman predicts more instances of eating disorders and the development of a more negative body image among African-American women. "As cultural identity blurs, we're seeing more and more incidences (of eating disorders)," she says.

Mike Register, a Kent State senior information systems and criminal justice major, has witnessed this phenomenon among friends. Many of the African-American women he knows are growing more concerned about their body image.

"Women are concerned because it's just part of this society to be," Register says. "I just like women. I don't have necessarily a preference about size ­ I'm beyond anything like that. But I do like women who don't look like sticks."

Indeed, the ever-changing ideal of "the perfect body" makes it more difficult for young adult females to understand what a female body should actually look like, says Meehan, an eating-disorder expert.

"We emphasize large breasts, then no breasts and large hips, then no hips," Meehan says. "We shouldn't use these as a guideline for who is beautiful. These are genetic differences. But we're all corrupted by attitudes of society."