Media and Advertising
Media/Advertising
Society pays a significant amount of attention to body image and physical attractiveness, youthfulness, sexuality, and appearance. The covers of magazines display pictures of men and women alike, whose images are offered as near perfection in society's consensus. These photographs are often additionally computer-enhanced and taken in near perfect circumstances. The average man or woman could not possibly compete with these images. Perhaps the models themselves cannot live up to these expectations. Eating disorders are not foreign illnesses to the modeling industry. What is unfortunate but interesting is the fluidity of society and the alterations imposed due to its changeableness. The impact of these changes can be enormous to those who strive for that perfection. It guarantees they may never quite be able to reach those goals and almost ensures a sense of failure, shame, and guilt (Grub, Sellers, & Waligroski, 1993; Stice, Schupak-Neuberg, Shaw, & Stein, 1994; Wiseman, Gray, Mosimann, & Ahrens, 1992). One of the strongest messengers of sociocultural pressures may well be the mass media (Stice, Schupak-Neuberg, Shaw, & Stein, 1994). Irving (1990) discovered a direct relation between media exposure and eating disorder symptomatology over the last several decades. The increase in eating disorders through the years has coincided with a decrease in women's ideal body weight as portrayed in the media (Wiseman, Gray, Mosimann, & Ahrens, 1992). Paralleling the rise in eating disorders was an increase in the number of articles and advertisements promoting weight-loss diets in women's magazines (Anderson & DiDomenico, 1992). Anderson & DiDomenico (1992) established that women's magazines contained 10.5 times more advertisements and articles promoting weight loss than men's magazines, the same sex-ratio reported by Anderson (1990) for eating disorders. Irving (1990) exposed women to slides of thin, average, and heavy models which resulted in lower self-esteem and decreased weight satisfaction for these women. A similar experiment utilizing pictures of models from women's magazines found that exposure to thin models, rather than average sized models, produced increased depression, stress, guilt, shame, insecurity, and body dissatisfaction (Stice et al, 1994). These associations support the assertion that exposure to the media-portrayed thin ideal is related to eating pathology and suggests that women may directly model disordered eating behavior presented in the media (e.g., fasting or purging) (Stice et al, 1994). Leon, Fulderson, Perry, & Cudeck, (1993) established strong associations between body dissatisfaction and eating disorders. The internalization of the media's thin ideal produces heightened body dissatisfaction which leads to the engagement in disordered eating behavior. Additionally, the focus on dieting in the media may promote dietary restraint which appears to increase the risk for binge eating (Polivy, 1996; Stice et al, 1994). Body dissatisfaction is a widespread and common phenomenon among women in general (Andrews, 1997). One of the most central aspects of shame pertains to individual concerns about how one is regarded by others and self-conscious feelings about the body have been consistently noted in the shame literature (e.g., Gilbert, 1989; Mollon, 1984). There is evidence that bulimia is related to general public self-consciousness (Striegel-Moore, Silberstein, & Rodin, 1993). Bodily shame aspects include self-consciousness and embarrassment about general appearance and about exposing specific body parts, concealment of different body parts, and feelings of disgust about oneself concerning others' comments about appearance and body parts (Andrews, 1997). Stice & Shaw (1994) demonstrated that greater ideal-body stereotype internalization predicted increased body dissatisfaction, which was related to heightened eating disorder symptoms. Consistent with these findings, Leon (1993) also drew a path from body dissatisfaction to eating pathology. Stice & Shaw (1994) indicated a strong positive relation between internalization of the thin-ideal and disordered eating. Specifically, it may be that exposure to ideal-body images results in negative affects including shame, guilt, depression, and stress, as well as a lack of confidence which also shows a strong relation to eating pathology (Stice et al, 1994). Further body dissatisfaction leads to restrained eating, which has been linked to the onset of binge eating and bulimia (Wiseman et al, 1992). Although most women are exposed to the media portrayed thin-ideal images, only a small proportion develop eating disorders. It may be that women with perfectionistic tendencies are more inclined to feel dissatisfied with their bodies when they compare themselves to those images presented in the media. Coping skills may also moderate the relation between negative affect, binge eating and restricting, as women with better coping skills would likely ameliorate negative affect in more adaptive ways (e.g., seeking social support) (Stice & Shaw, 1994; Stice et al, 1994). Deborah J. Kuehnel, LCSW, © 1998