How does the mass media influence ideas about anorexia and eating disorders?
Media images and advertising messages about weight and appearance are certainly hard to ignore. These days, fast-paced music videos, glossy fashion magazines, and cutting-edge television programs are a normal part of routine American life.
A reflection of our culture’s thin obsession, television “news-magazines,” such as Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood regularly feature stories about the latest “celebrity slim-down.” Popular film and television celebrities on the red carpet seem to be slimmer each year as they showcase high-fashion designers and couture clothing. Tabloid stories repeatedly reinforce a standard of beauty that emphasizes thinness and dress size over health and well-being, equating fashion chic with a dangerously thin waistline. Just walk by a magazine stand in your local bookstore and chances are you will be bombarded with images of thin, sometimes gaunt looking models surrounded by eye-catching phrases such as “ultimate weight-loss secrets!” “10 weeks to a slimmer, better you!” or “lose those last 10 pounds for good!” Likewise, advertisements in magazines and on television routinely pair images of thin, attractive people in order to sell products.
Unfortunately, we know from scientific studies that repeated exposure to waif-thin models and images that promote a thin ideal have a negative effect on those who view these images and internalize such body ideals.
Studies show that the standards of beauty portrayed through the media have ushered in an ever-increasing thin ideal over the past several decades. For example, 20 years ago the average female model weighed 8% less than the average American woman; today the average model weighs 23% less than the average woman and is thinner than 98% of American women.
The prevailing standards of weight and body shape are virtually unattainable by the average person. In her book The Body Myth: Adult Women and the Pressure to Be Perfect, psychologist and author Margo Maine draw attention to the changing cultural ideals of beauty over the past century. Maine observes that fashion icons of the 1950s included women like Marilyn Monroe, Lana Turner, Sophia Loren, and Jane Russell. Voluptuous women with “curvy” figures were representations of glamour and beauty. In the1960s, the beauty ideal took a different shape, highlighting the “waif” look of British model Twiggy. The 1980s and 1990s followed with an ever-increasing emphasis on body shape. No longer was the average woman represented on the pages of fashion magazines. Instead, an ultra-thin ideal began to take shape in fashion and entertainment-an image not only unattainable by most U.S. women, but also by many of the women in the photos themselves! Take for example a recent promotional photo from CBS television that featured Katie Couric; from the time she posed for the original photo to the time the promotional photo appeared, Couric’s image had been digitally altered to make her appear 20 pounds lighter and 3 dress-sizes smaller! Techniques like this are a normal part of the fashion industry; however, the average consumer may not realize that tens of thousands of dollars are often spent “enhancing” the bodies that grace the pages of their favorite fashion magazines. Even famous celebrities are not immune to the insecurities created by our thin-obsessed culture.
Increasingly, notable entertainment personalities have been coming forward to discuss their own struggles with anorexia and other eating disorders in an effort to combat the illnesses and send a positive message to their fans.
The mass media’s trend toward increasing thinness has not gone unnoticed by the average American. In 2002, America Online (AOL) conducted a survey in which they asked participants, “What do you think is responsible for many women’s poor self-images?” A full 66% selected the response “impossibly beautiful media images.” A recent study found that the more frequently young girls read fashion magazines, the more likely they were to diet and to feel that these magazines influenced their ideas about ideal weight and body shape.
Nearly half of this study’s participants reported wanting to lose weight because of a magazine image, although only 29% were actually overweight (Kilbourne 1999). In addition, studies at both Stanford University and the University of Massachusetts found that 70% of college women say they feel worse about their appearance after reading women’s magazines, and 80% of those responding to a survey in People magazine stated that images of women on television and in film make them feel insecure about their appearance. Our culture’s bias toward extreme thinness has had this effect: 80% of women (four out of every five!) are dissatisfied with their appearance.
The consensus from the literature is this: Mass media exposure has an effect on body image disturbance; negative body image, in turn, has been shown to be a risk factor for disordered eating. Additionally, the negative effects of media exposure may have a long-term effect. A recent study found that adolescent girls who were exposed to television commercials depicting thin, attractive models reported feeling more dissatisfied with their bodies and expressed a greater drive for thinness up to two years later. Important to our discussion of anorexia, some studies suggest that the negative effects of media exposure are greater for those at increased risk for the illness. For example, a study published in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology found that a 15-month subscription to a fashion magazine resulted in increased body dissatisfaction, dieting, and binge/purge symptoms-but only for girls who were considered to have increased risk for an eating disorder prior to the study.
It should be noted that not all studies have found conclusive evidence for a direct impact of media images on disordered eating, suggesting that the relationship between the two may not be clear-cut. Therefore, we must stop short of saying that the mass media directly causes anorexia. However, we do see a clear connection between a mass media saturated with images of thinness and unhealthy attitudes about weight, body shape, and food. Thus, altogether it appears exposure to media images of the thin-ideal can be considered an additional risk factor that, when combined with the effects of other known risks, may increase an individual’s susceptibility to anorexia and other eating disorders. Male Images in the Media Studies show that men are not immune to the effect of the media’s ideal images of body shape and appearance. Just over a decade ago, there were scarcely any magazines devoted to men’s fitness and nutrition. Today, there are more than 20. Researchers are beginning to witness the effect of increasingly muscular male media images on levels of body satisfaction. For example, researchers at the University of Central Florida released a study in 2004 that showed that men who watched television commercials depicting muscular actors reported being unsatisfied with their own physique. Other research has highlighted some of the effects of the fastest growing segment of the entertainment market: video games. One study found that boys who read popular video game magazines containing very muscular characters reported greater body dissatisfaction than boys who read sports, fitness, and even fashion magazines!
Men who report body dissatisfaction are more likely, researchers have found, to take protein supplements, display symptoms of an eating disorder, and to think about using steroids to enhance their muscle growth. This preoccupation with muscle growth can lead to a condition called “muscle dysmorphia” (sometimes referred to as “reverse anorexia”).
A Thin Line on the Catwalk The fashion industry has also received renewed criticism in recent months for the perceived pressure that designers and modeling agencies place on thinness. The death of two models in 2006 from anorexia, Uruguayan model Luisel Ramos and Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston, served as wakeup calls regarding the dangers of disordered eating and the prevalence of unhealthy behaviors practiced by some models to be runway ready. These events led many in the eating disorders field to call for stricter standards regarding body weight and for industry guidelines for minimum health requirements. For example, the Academy of Eating Disorders, the National Eating Disorders Association, and the Eating Disorders Coalition all
joined together to take a proactive role in trying to reshape the health and wellness guidelines of the fashion industry. Among the recommendations were yearly medical exams for models, including eating disorders assessments when appropriate, and the discouragement of all non-healthy weight control behaviors throughout the industry. In the months following these efforts, we have witnessed some initial, positive dialogue between health professionals, eating disorders experts, and fashion designers. In the fall of 2006, the organizers of Madrid Fashion Week decided to ban underweight models from the runways in an attempt to promote a healthier image of the fashion industry; a full 30% of the models were turned away for being underweight! In July 2008, German fashion industry representatives likewise signed a voluntary agreement to ban underweight models from their fashion shows.
Sarah shares:
Throughout my battle with anorexia, it was hard to ignore the tempting weight-loss solutions offered on the covers of nearly every magazine. With or without meaning to, I soaked up the information from each of these magazines, and before long I was a walking
weight-loss connoisseur. Regarding the statistic that 80% of women are dissatisfied with their appearance: A therapist of mine once described warped American beauty ideals using the term “normative discontent.” In our culture, the average person wants to lose weight, discussing diets is the norm, and nearly everyone’s natural appearance is seen to have weaknesses.
In addition, not only are extremely thin stars portrayed as “fit” and “healthy,” but truly healthy stars are described as “voluptuous” or “curvy”- words that, in my disordered mind, simply meant “fat” and “out of control.”
Facts about Media Influence
Few would deny that ours is a culture that receives a vast amount of input from the mass media. But did you know:
• The average person living in the United States is exposed to more than 3000 advertising messages per day.
• The main source of health information for adolescent girls comes from the media.
• Sixty percent of Caucasian, middle-school-aged girls read at least one fashion magazine regularly.
• The average adolescent watches 3-4 hours of television per day.
• The average teenager spends more than 16 hours per week online, and 50% of teens are online every day.
• One of every 3.8 television commercials sends a message about attractiveness, meaning the average adolescent receives more than 5200 “attractiveness messages” per year.
• A 20-year review of 1 teen magazine found that in articles that focused on fitness and exercise, 74% encouraged adolescent girls to exercise to become more attractive, and 51% emphasized exercise in order to lose weight.
Only rarely were the health benefits of exercise the focus of such articles.
• Several studies suggest that young women consider fashion magazines and television at least moderately important as a source of information about beauty, nutrition, weight management, and fitness. (Levine and Smolak 1998
Term:
Muscle dysmorphia – A condition in which a person becomes fixated on the idea that he or she is not muscular enough and is inordinately preoccupied with thoughts concerning appearance, especially musculature
