Thin Ads + Low Body Image = Stress?

Viewing ads of super-skinny models may make young women feel worse about themselves, especially if they have body image problems, according to a new study.

Researcher Gayle Bessenoff, Ph.D., reports the findings in Psychology of Women Quarterly. Bessenoff is an assistant professor in the University of Connecticut's psychology department.

Bessenoff studied 112 college women (average age: 18) in an introductory psychology course at an unnamed Northeastern U.S. college. Almost all were white.

Half of the women were quite harsh about their bodies, claiming they fell far short of their ideal.

The other women had a more upbeat outlook, saying their bodies were closer to their ideal.

Ad Study

Bessenoff gave the students packets of ads from women's magazines such as Glamour and Vogue.

Half the students got clothing ads showing thin female models. The rest got ads for products other than clothes that showed no female models.

Afterward, the students completed a series of surveys to rate their depression, agitation, self-esteem, and urge to lose weight.

Those who had viewed the ads of skinny female models fared worse on all the surveys, especially if they had low body image to begin with.

"Women who already have low opinions of their physical appearance are at an even greater risk for negative effects from media images," Bessenoff says in a news release from the journal's publisher.

The theory: Those women may compare themselves to the models, dredging up their bad feelings about their own bodies.

Reality Check: Airbrush Alert

However, notes girlpower.gov, a web site of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, media images aren't always realistic.

"The pictures of models you see have been airbrushed and touched up," states girlpower.gov.

"Things like wrinkles, blemishes, uneven skin tones, sags, bulges, or out of place hairs can be fixed by a computer before going to print," the Web site says.

That's not to mention the makeup artists, lighting experts, clothing consultants, personal trainers, and other professionals who work with models.

Unless you go through the same process before you look in the mirror, it's not fair to compare yourself to the image of a model.

Boosting Body Image

If you have body image issues, counseling may help.

Also, here are tips from experts who spoke to WebMD in January about improving body image:

• Make sure the people around you make you feel good about yourself, no matter your size.
  
• Make sensible decisions about what you eat. If you need help, ask a dietitian.
  
• Choose positive role models that help you feel good about who you are.
  
• Focus on the inside, and let your body take its natural shape.

"You need to focus on eating healthy and exercising while working on what's inside of you and the way you feel about yourself," Elaine Magee, M.PH., R.D., a WebMD Weight Loss Clinic consultant, told WebMD in January.

"Don't get hung up on pounds and what size dress you are wearing," she said.

"Instead, focus on being healthy from the inside out: Eat well and exercise regularly. And remember that you can be sexy, and look fabulous, and feel fabulous, and not be thin," said Magee.

---

SOURCES: Bessenoff, G. Psychology of Women Quarterly, September 2006; vol 30: pp 239-251. News release, Blackwell Publishing, Ltd. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' girlpower.gov: "Bodywise: The Media." WebMD Weight Loss Clinic: "Look and Feel Great at Any Weight."

By Miranda Hitti
Reviewed by Louise Chang, M.D

[squiz2]

I think it's ridiculous that they even spent money to do a study on this. You can ask any girl, and she will tell you what they wasted so much money to learn. The more you throw air-brushed, air-headed women at us, the more we are going to loathe ourselves, the more we're going to disregard the real beauty and the real power that we have. Girls should not look up to actresses and pop stars for guidance. They should be bombarded with images of intelligent, successful women. Women who have fought so hard to get us where we are. Women going to college, running companies, standing up for their rights....not women who are completely talentless (Paris Hilton, Jessica & Ashlee Simpson, Britney and Christina) but are filthy rich because they make money off their trampy looks. We should raise our girls with REAL heroes.

[sharncedar]

(continued)

What do the TV people, the do-nothing celebs like Ashlee Simspon do to stay thin? We know in real life they are a) bulimic or b) take dangerous drugs or c) have full-time diet coaches, but the answer is none of these, because the question to a generation nothing person is not what do they do, but what do they portray doing. Big difference. Generation nothing is not interested in reality, but in touching the unreality and validating the false experiences. The answer is something like - I'm just fun, thin, and rich naturally!

The good part is the identification with idiot celebs like Ashlee Simpson is so total for these kids that they probably will think they are thin even if they are not. They will look in the mirror, but not believe what they see - cognitive dissonance, the solution for generation nothing is to seek more distraction until the nagging reality goes away.

[sharncedar]

Hah, these kids actually think TV is more real than life. TV and the media culture was their babysitter, their friend, their teacher, their mother and father, their priest, their faith, their narcisstic self-image.

The great quest of generation nothing is to break the fourth wall; that is, to somehow connect with the "reality" they believe in which is just beyond the TV screen.

So their turbulent unholy desires center around being famous themselves, or meeting a famous person, or doing something fabulous and living up to the faux values and lives shown on the demon dream box.

"Being thin" is part of this insanity. Thin like the people they think are their "friends" from TV. As unreal as their relationships with each other, as unreal as their ideas about life.

[drarassios]

Well, duh. I remember the body image from my teen years, when Twiggy was the model of the day. What I couldn't reconcile was the curvy lovely young woman I saw in the mirror with the image that the magazines wanted me to be. I remember how vile I looked in all the clothing sold for the Twiggy look, and wept because of it. I looked great in the kind of clothing that normal "movie stars" of the time wore, but had it in my mind that wasn't right.

Wouldn't the clothing manufacturers sell more clothes if whatever you wore make you feel great, instead of "not Twiggy?"

[litagrant]

I really feel that the fate of these young women who are in the lime light of being known of who they are such as if you are Nichol Richie or Paris Hilton that the pressure is their by the public media. But then their are woman as myself, who has been thin all of 45 years and has try to put the weight on and was able to put the five to ten pounds on, but then it drops off in a matter of time, which most of it is caused by the remarks of how thin you are or that you believed that you are overwieght as your own family tells you that you are to fat. This is part of things that women as myself face everyday.
In the trouble that I face in keeping the wieght on is a norm when it is in the summer time where I am more active then in the winter. But my situation is pretty normal as I have not let my wieght take over the way I see myself as I know I will always be thin, but I will never be below that 110 pounds ever as I was for many years of my life. This is what these young women need to do is not let their weight be the issue of their everyday situation.