Researchers report that women’s magazines have ten and a half times more advertisements and articles endorsing weight loss than men’s magazines do, and over three-quarters of the covers of women’s magazines include at least one message about how to change a woman’s bodily appearance—by diet, exercise, or cosmetic surgery. Television and movies reinforce the importance of thinness as a measurement of a woman’s worth. Heavier actresses often receive negative comments from male characters about their bodies in the media. Unfortunately, 80 percent of these negative comments from males are followed by canned audience laughter.
Advertising companies fuel news industries and have a large influence on what is reported and depicted in the media. Advertisers believe thinness sells products. When the Australian magazine New Woman recently included a picture of a full figured model on its cover, it received an abundance of letters from satisfied readers asking for more. However, the magazine’s advertisers complained and the magazine returned to featuring extremely thin models.
Jean Kilbourne argued that the overwhelming presence of devastatingly thin women in the media has a negative impact on female readers. Women are judging their own bodies and trying to live up to impossible standards of beauty, which has led to increased competition in women for men’s attention and the presence of eating disorders.
Source: “Body Image: The Media Lies,” Our Bodies, Ourselves.
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