Health

Three items.

Imagery of ultra-thin high-fashion models can be disturbing for many, and the high status of these models may inspire some girls and young women to unnecessarily diet in order to lose weight.  However, are the following images a solution to this problem?

Toward the end of March, 2007, New Woman magazine reported the following from a survey of about 5,000 women.  In this survey, 58% of women believed that men find size zero sexy!  Must read facts for these women:

In a literature review of the effectiveness of eating disorders prevention programs in reducing abnormal eating, only 6 of 38 programs examined reduced current or future symptoms that persisted over follow-up (1 to 24 months later)(1).  Given the high status of skinny high-fashion models, one does not expect wonders from eating disorders prevention programs with respect to girls or women inspired by the thinness of high-fashion models and at risk for developing anorexia or bulimia.

A number of studies have examined what happens to girls’ or women’s ratings of their bodies if they are exposed to images of skinny fashion models in a laboratory setting.  Many of these studies have reported worsened body image among the participants, some have reported no change in body image and a few have even reported improved body image.  Groesz et al.(1; zip) carried out a meta-analysis of 25 such studies, i.e., grouped the samples to see overall trends.

This is being posted with revised and updated FAQ and solutions pages.  The solutions page addresses steps that can be taken to solve the problems that this site is addressing.  In attempting to solve some problems, this site will be unintentionally creating problems of a different nature, which would need to be taken care of.  A previous entry sketched the outline of how one could promote feminine beauty and avoid increasing or diminish discrimination against unattractive women.  This entry addresses body image problems among women resulting from the choice of models in glamorous settings.

Anorexic women will be interested in reading the following paper on some cognitive processes behind the influence of beauty and fashion magazines on driving at-risk women toward anorexia.