According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services the average dress size of a woman is between a size 11 and 14, compared to the 0 to 2 average dress size for a model or an actress.
“One sociocultural factor that appears to influence body satisfaction in both men and women is the media…it can evoke comparisons between themselves and unrealistic media images of thinness and/or muscularity." -- Lorenzen, Lisa A., Frederick G. Grieve, Adreian Thomas. "Exposure to Muscular Male Models Decreases Men's Body Satisfaction." Sex Roles 51(2004): 743-748.
“Since women entered the workforce, there has been a 60% increase in advertisements in which women are portrayed in purely decorative roles. Increasingly, women’s presence in advertisements has no substantial relation to the product; increasingly, the woman’s role is to be sexy and alluring.” -- MacKay, Natalie, Katherine Covell. "The Impact of women in Advertisements on Attitudes toward women." Sex Roles 36(1997): 573-582.
“Negative body image is often the result of a social comparison process, in which discrepancies are perceived between the cultural ideal of attractiveness, usually characterized in the media by a particular emphasis on thinness, and women’s views of their own bodies. Negative body image is particularly problematic because it is positively correlated with eating disorders.” -- Linder, Katharina. "Images of women in general interest and fashion magazines advertisements from 1955 to 2002." Sex Roles: A Journal of Research October 2004 1-13. July 24 2007
1 comment:
This portrayal of women in media has been going on for as long as i can remember. But an interesting thing that I am noticing in regards to countering this portrayal, is that the same is being done for men. The typical male body image is not necessarily buff and muscular as most male models are, yet we see this in the media often. Perhaps the answer to changing the image portrayal of women is not to do the same to men.
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