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Research indicates that exposure to thin ideal images in women’s magazines is associated with heightened concerns for body shape and size in a number of young women, although the media’s role in the psychopathology of body image disturbance is generally believed to be mediated by personality and socio-cultural factors. The purpose of this research study is to know and gather solid facts and reasons about fashion magazines affecting the teenagers’ body image in a form of research to self evaluation through careful accumulation of acceptable data and relevant resources for such data to be precise and spontaneous in its respected details to support results.

Few studies have explored mediating processes through which media exposure and use contribute to development and perpetuation of eating-disordered cognitions. The other purpose of this study was to test a structural equation model that incorporates several mediating processes through which women’s beauty, fashion, health, and fitness magazines might influence the fear of being fat. This study complements previous models by exploring the potential direct and indirect effects of two additional mediating influences: “hope” and the internalized belief that men expect women to be thin.

Theoretical Background

The emergence of the slender body type as a beauty standard for women is especially salient in the mass media, and several researchers have demonstrated how the female body depicted in the media has become increasingly thin (Garner, Garfinkel, Schwartz, & Thompson, 1980; Ogletree, Williams, Raffeld, Mason, & Fricke, 1990; Silverstein, Perdue, Peterson, & Kelly, 1986; Wiseman, Gray, Mosimann, & Ahrens, 1992). Assessing the height, weight, and body measurements of Playboy centerfolds and of Miss America Pageant contestants from 1960 to 1979, Garner et al. (1980) found that the percent of average weight of the models declined significantly. For example, in 1960; the average weight of Playboy models was 91% of the population mean. By 1978, mean weight of the models has dropped to 84% of the population mean. A similar trend was apparent among the Miss America Pageant contestants: Prior to 1970, mean weight of the contestants was approximately 88% of the population norm. Following 1970, mean weight of the contestants had decreased to 85% of the population norm.

Garner and colleagues also noted a trend toward noncurvaceousness from 1960 to 1979. The bust and hip measurements of Playboy models decreased and their waist measurements increased significantly. These findings are consistent with those reported by Silverstein, Perdue, Peterson, and Kelly (1986) who examined the curvaceousness of models appearing in Vogue and Ladies Home Journal from 1901 to 1981 and of popular movie actresses from 1941 to 1979. The investigators found that among the models appearing in Ladies Home Journal and Vogue, the bust-to-waist ratio dropped significantly.

Additionally, the average bust-to-waist ratio of actresses from the 1960s and 1970s was significantly smaller than that of actresses from the 1940s and 1950s. Similar results were reported by Morris, Cooper, and Cooper (1989) in their study of British fashion models. Taken together, the findings of Garner and colleagues and of Silverstein and colleagues show that from the turn of the century throughout the 1970s, the standard of physical attractiveness for women presented in the mass media became much thinner and less curvaceous. These findings were replicated in a recent update of the Garner et al. (1980) research. Using the same procedures employed in the Garner study, Wiseman et al. (1992) found that during the period from 1979 to 1988, Miss America contestants continued to decrease in body size and Playboy models maintained their already low body sizes.

Other researchers have also noted the prevalence of disordered eating among fashion models (Brenner & Cunningham, 1992) and the severe health risks associated with achieving a very thin body type. Women whose body fat falls below 22% are much more susceptible to infertility, amenorrhea, ovarian and endometrial cancer, and osteoporosis (Seid, 1989). The findings suggest that the slim beauty ideal presented in the media may be unhealthy for women.

Given the messages aimed at women through the mass media, it is not surprising that many American women desire to be thin and that women typically feel dissatisfied with their bodies. Women generally are less satisfied with their bodies than are men (Altabe & Thompson, 1993; Brenner & Cunningham, 1992; Davis & Cowles, 1991; Koff, Rierdan, & Stubbs, 1990; Mintz & Betz, 1986).

Even women who can be classified as being within or slightly below the normal weight range for their height often perceive themselves as being overweight and are dissatisfied with their bodies. Body image dissatisfaction is a crucial area of investigation because of its relationship to low self-esteem (Koff, Rierdan, & Stubbs, 1990) and to depression (Rierdan, Koff & Stubbs, 1989). Although previous researchers (Spillman & Everington, 1989) have implied that the media have changed our perceptions of the female body, few studies have actually tested this hypothesis empirically. Further research is needed that examines whether exposure to media depictions of the thin female body does influence women’s body image satisfaction. Additional research is needed to determine whether the thin models featured in popular women’s magazines would have a similar effect on women’s self-perceptions.

The aim of the present investigation was to explore whether the depictions of women in magazines do, in fact, affect women’s perceptions of their own bodies. Specifically, the impact of exposure to fashion magazines on women’s body image satisfaction was investigated. Consistent with previous research, we hypothesized that viewing fashion magazines would lead to lower levels of body image satisfaction among college women. Because of the small non-representative sample, the data are offered to stimulate further investigation of the effects of the mass media on females’ development.

Literature Review

The socio-cultural model of eating disorder pathology identifies concerns about body shape and weight as a central link between exposure to pressures to be thin and development of pathological eating practices. (Garner et al., p. 263) In fact, abnormally high body shape concern, which includes dissatisfaction with, or even an abhorrence of one’s body, is one of several specific diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association. (Wagener et al. p. 30) Body disturbance consists of three separate, but related components: size perception accuracy, satisfaction with or anxiety over one’s body size or shape, and behaviors that include avoiding situations that cause physical appearance-related discomfort. (Thompson, pp. 1-2) Body disturbance ranges from mild or normative dissatisfaction to extreme loathing of one’s body that can, in some cases, prompt individuals to engage in pathological behaviors such as excessive dieting, self-mutilation, and even suicide. (Cooper et al. p.32)

Several studies have linked body dissatisfaction with both concurrent and future eating pathology. Stice, Schupak-Neuberg, Shaw, and Stein tested a structural equation model that explored the direct and indirect effects of media exposure on eating disorder symptoms. Specifically, their model examined whether gender-role endorsement, ideal-body stereotype internalization, and body satisfaction mediated the effects of media exposure.

In addition to finding a direct effect between media exposure and eating disorder symptoms (beta = .30, p < .001), they found a direct link between media exposure and gender role endorsement (beta = .21, p < .001), which was positively related to ideal-body stereotype internalization (beta = .37, p < .001). Ideal-body stereotype internalization, in turn, was positively linked to body dissatisfaction (pbeta = .17, p <.05). Although direct pathways from media exposure to ideal-body stereotype internalization and body dissatisfaction were not statistically significant, the indirect pathway through gender-role endorsement was.

These pressures also contribute to ideal-body internalization, which further exacerbates body shape concerns and body dissatisfaction. Finally, body dissatisfaction positively predicts both dietary restraint and negative affect, which are the final proximal predictors of bulimic symptomatology. They found that their model successfully discriminated among bulimics, sub clinical bulimics, and no bulimic controls.

Polce-Lynch, Myers, Kliewer, and Kilmartin tested a path model in which body image concern was a hypothesized mediator of adolescent females’ self-esteem. The initial predictor variables included gender harassment, family relations, media influence, peer relations, and grade level. Media influences were the strongest predictor of body image concern (beta = .59, p < .001), which, in turn, was negatively associated with self-esteem. Cultural gender images, as communicated through television, movies, and advertisements, appear to be linked to the way these adolescents evaluated their physical appearances and themselves.

This study seeks to understand further those factors that predict body shape and size concerns. Specifically, it combines body mass and expected future weight gain or loss, as factors previously identified as mediating the relationship between exposure to thinness-depicting media and disordered eating pathology, with a measure of the general affective state of “hope,” as well as an internalization measure that focuses on women’s beliefs that men expect them to be thin. In addition, it explores direct and indirect effects of two types of magazines, health and fitness and beauty and fashion, read by large numbers of college age women.

Previous research has identified internalization of the thin-ideal as an important predictor of body size and shape concerns. Here, one important manifestation of this internalization is endorsement of the traditional gender-role belief that women must be thin in order to be attractive to men. Accordingly, the model hypothesizes that a young woman’s beliefs about men’s expectations for female thinness will be positively associated with body shape and size concerns.

Further, the model posits that magazine reading frequency and body mass index will be positively linked to body shape and size concerns, and that magazine reading frequency will have an indirect positive association with body shape concern through beliefs about men’s expectations for female thinness and an indirect negative link through expectations regarding future weight gain or loss.

Hope is an important determinant of human behavior and has been associated with increased problem-solving skills; (Snyder et al., 1991) ability to remain energized when faced with obstacles to goals, (1989) an increased sense of personal competence, (Jakobsson et al, p. 136) lower levels of depression and anxiety, and positive mental and physical health outcomes. “Hope,” writes Miller “nurtures the individual’s transition from being weak and vulnerable to functioning-living-as fully as possible.” (Miller, p. 23)

One other possibility is that readers with high levels of hope might be more resistant to socio-cultural pressures for thinness created by the images and messages in the magazines than those with lower levels of hope. These possibilities are reflected in the model, which predicts a direct positive link between magazine reading frequency and hope, a negative link between hope and expectations for future weight gain, and an indirect link between magazine reading frequency and body shape concern through both hope and expectations for future weight gain or loss.

Socio-cultural theory contends that women’s dissatisfaction with their physical appearance stems from: (1) the thin body ideal that is promulgated in Western societies; (2) the tendency for women to adopt a “body as object” rather than “body as process” orientation; and (3) the thin is good assumption which emphasizes the rewards that are accrued by being attractive (i.e., thin) and, concomitantly, the costs that are associated with being unattractive (i.e., fat). It should be noted that the thin body ideal and the thin is good assumption represent distinct constructs. The former denotes the ideal physical representation for women in North America; specifically, a thin body.

The latter denotes the benefits associated with adhering to that ideal representation; specifically, the advantages women are believed to accrue as a function of thinness. Researchers contend that the strongest conveyors of each of these Socio-cultural assumptions (the thin body ideal, body as object, and thin is good) may be mass media (Stice, Schupak-Neuberg, Shaw, & Stein, 1994).