Source+6+Facts

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 * 1) Mass media's use of such unrealistic models sends an implicit message that in order for a woman to be considered beautiful, she must be unhealthy. The mindset that a person can never be "too rich or too thin" is all too prevalent in society, and it makes it difficult for females to achieve any level of contentment with their physical appearance.
 * 2) There are many different perspectives that can be used to explain why and how women internalize the thin-ideal.These theories include: social comparison, cultivation, and self-schema.Each perspective has helped researchers examine mechanisms by which the media images are translated into body image disturbance in women.They also provide explanations for why some females are particularly vulnerable to the detrimental effects of the media, while others display remarkable levels of resiliency.
 * 3) Females of all ages seem to be particularly vulnerable to disturbance in this area; body dissatisfaction in women is a well-documented phenomenon in mental health literature. Researchers have called female's concerns with their physical appearance "normative discontent;" implying that body dissatisfaction affects almost all women at some level
 * 4) Concern over weight and appearance related issues often surfaces early in females' development, and continues throughout the lifespan.The importance of physical appearance is emphasized and reinforced early in most girls' development; studies have found that nearly half of females ages 6-8 have stated that they want to be slimmer
 * 5) Field et al. (1999) found that 20% of 9-year-olds and over 40 % of 14-year-olds reported wanting to lose weight.In addition, most girls who express a desire to be thinner are within the normal weight range for females their age
 * 6) . Body dissatisfaction and preoccupation with food, shape, and weight are some of the core features in the diagnostic criteria of both anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.Estimates of the prevalence of such disorders vary, but most state that 3% to 10% of females ages 15 to 29 could be considered anorexic or bulimic.Most individuals who develop an eating disorder start with what is considered "typical" dieting behavior
 * 7) Images in the media today project an unrealistic and even dangerous standard of feminine beauty that can have a powerful influence on the way women view themselves.From the perspective of the mass media, thinness is idealized and expected for women to be considered "attractive."
 * 8) Many of the models shown on television, advertisements, and in other forms of popular media are approximately 20% below ideal body weight, thus meeting the diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa
 * 9) Schooler et al. (2004) found that women who reported greater exposure to television programming during adolescence were more likely to experience high levels of body image disturbance than females that did not report such levels of exposure. In addition, certain types of programming seem to elicit higher levels of body dissatisfaction in females.
 * 10) A study done by Tiggemann and Slater (2003) found that women who viewed music videos that contained thin models experienced increased levels of negative mood and body image disturbance.
 * 11) Findings of one study indicate that 83% of teenage girls reported reading fashion magazines for about 4.3 hours each week (Thompson & Heinberg, 1999). Female's motivations for reading such material varies, but self-report inventories have shown that most women who read fashion magazines do so to get information about beauty, fitness, grooming, and style (Tiggemann, 2003).
 * 12) Tiggemann (2003) found that frequent magazine reading was consistently correlated with higher levels of body dissatisfaction and disturbed eating. The study also found that women who read fashion magazines displayed higher levels of thin-ideal internalization, which is a powerful risk factor for development of weight anxiety and disordered eating patterns
 * 13) studies have shown that women who view slides of women pictured in many mainstream magazines and advertisements show increased levels of depression, stress, guilt, shame, and insecurity (Stice, Schupak-Neuberg, Shaw, & Stein, 1994).
 * 14) social comparison theory offers some level of explanation for how media images actually come to impact the way women feel about their bodies.It examines how individuals evaluate themselves in relation to peers, groups, and/or social categories (Milkie, 1999). The main argument is that people compare themselves on many different dimensions with other individuals who are similar to them.Depending on the target of comparison, a person will usually judge themselves as being either or better or worse on some dimension.
 * 15) 14b. In general, upward comparisons have been found to correlate with depression of mood, whereas downward comparisons are more likely to elicit elevation of mood
 * 16) Most companies that target women in the media actually attempt to foster social comparison with idealized images, in order to motivate women to buy products that will bring them closer to the ideal (e.g. diet products, makeup, hair products).If women see a discrepancy between themselves and the images they view in advertisements (which the almost definitely will), they will be more inclined to buy the products that are advertised