Modelling Models

Since the 1950’s the body shape of contemporary models in advertisements has changed, over the past decade it has become thinner and thinner and more recently been found to be clinically underweight. This body type which is commonly represented has been socially constructed as beautiful and desirable (Fay & Price) – (“Female Body-shape in Advertisements") A 2008 Mission Australia survey of 45,500 people found body image was one of the top three concerns of both males and females aged between 11 and 24. (ABC NEWS,2009)

"the proliferation of photographic and electronic media images of thin and in most cases emaciated looking women has in the last decade been and increasingly powerful factor in promoting contemporary body ideals to the female audience" (Gordon 2000) – (pursuit of identity journal)

“mass media (TV, movies, magazines, internet) pervade the everyday lives of people living in Western societies, and undoubtedly one of the effects of such media saturation is the pervasive transmission of societal beauty ideals” (Tiggemann, 2006, para. 2)

An overwhelming amount of studies have found a relationship between media, specifically fashion magazine reading and body dissatisfaction* and certain eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. In a study by Harrison (1997) among undergraduates, media consumption was positively linked with a strive for thinness and body dissatisfaction among women. Examples such as thin television characters and magazine models are used and it is found that about 15 percent of the women met criteria for disordered eating--signs of anorexia or bulimia, body dissatisfaction, a drive for thinness, perfectionism and a sense of personal ineffectiveness. Interpersonal attraction to these social agents facilitates modeling of these agents’ behavior; her study showed that attraction to thin media personalities predicted 6 of 7 eating disorder indices (Harrison 1997).

Hofschire and Greenberg (2002) study on the media's impact on adolescent body dissatisfaction, found that reading magazines for teen girls or women also correlated with body dissatisfaction for girls and girls who identified with models has a positively correlation with body dissatisfaction. DeGroat (1997) found that reading fashion magazines is significantly related to a woman's body dissatisfaction and drive for thinness. Teenage girls who viewed commercials depicting women who modelled the unrealistically thin-ideal type of beauty caused adolescent girls to feel “less confident, more angry and more dissatisfied with their weight and appearance” (Hargreaves, 2002).

A study by Bearman, Martinez and Stice (2006) found significant increases for girls over the three year course of their study in terms of body dissatisfaction. The stereotype given to girls through the media emphasizes the importance of physical attractiveness which is categorically linked with thinness.

Ana Carolina Reston, image taken from THE AGE 3 march, 2009


Representations of feminine beauty in mass media personalities and in the fashion industry reinforce the desirability of extreme thinness, not only by those who follow it, but also by those who are in it. Media personalities and models who feel pressured to attain to the set ideals of expected appearance to be successful in their industry suffer. There has been little response from organizations who have an influence on these standards. It wasn’t until 2006 that the use of underweight models was largely criticised, following the death of two catwalk models in, Ana Carolina Reston, 21, died from a generalised infection caused by anorexia and Luisel Ramos, 22, who died of heart failure during a fashion show in Montevideo after living on a diet of lettuce and diet coke for three months (THE AGE, 2009) Later that year Madrid barred models below a certain weight from walking in Shows. If models had a body-mass-index (BMI) of less than 18 they were banned. (under 18.5 is considered underweight) (THE AGE, 2006). Other fashion organisers such as The British Fashion Council (who organise London Fashion Week), refused to impend such bans (ABC NEWS 2009).

In Australia, the Federal Government has commissioned a group of fashion industry leaders to address body dissatisfaction levels among Australia's youth amid concern that the use of spindly models sets unrealistic standards of beauty that encourage young people to crash-diet at the expense of their health (ABC NEWS 2009). A similar rule to that in Mandrid was set by the City of Melbourne council in 2008 for L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Week, where models under BMI of 18 were not supposed to take part. Working backstage on the event, I witnessed two models, be dressed in baggy clothing to hide the fact that they were very underweight, and were still allowed to take part in the show. The two were the most saught after models, sending a message that ‘the skinnier you are the more work you get’. The girls had just returned from a successful modeling trip in New York, were models are told they can only get work with a 24inch waist.

Source: Vogue France April 2008

It is clear that a large quantity of explicitly thin models and characters are portrayed as attractive and competent in the media. The social learning process of modeling (Bandura, 1977 cited in Harrison 1997) provides an explanation for how young women may come to believe in the thin ideal and behave accordingly. Social learning paradigm theorizes that the more attractive an observer finds a social agent, the more the observer will strive to try to be like that agent. As media correlates thinness with attractiveness through beauty advertisements, fashion catalogues, runways and campaigns using explicitly thin models, in terms of a modeling point of view, young women are motivated to engage in behaviors to emulate these models, such as becoming motivated to engage in extreme dieting behavior in order to meet this ideal.

References

ABC NEWS “Group mulls media curbs to tackle negative body image” (03 March 2009)
viewed 25th August 2009 http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/03/2506286.htm

Bearman, S.K., Presnell, K., & Marinez, E. (2006). "The skinny on body dissatisfaction: A longitudinal study of adolescent girls and boys." Journal of Adolescence, 35
Viewed 7th September

DeGroat, Bernie (1997). Media influence eating disorders.
Viewed 29th October

Fay, M. and Price, C. (1994) Female body shape in print advertisements and the increase of anorexia nervosa. European Journal of Marketing 28:12

Gordon, R.A. (2000), Eating Disorders, Blackwell Publishers, Oxford and Malden, MA,
Viewed 17th August

Hargreaves, D. (2002). Idealized Women in TV Ads Make Girls Feel Bad. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 21, 287-308.

Hofschire, L. J., & Greenberg, B. S. (2002). Media's impact on adolescents' body dissatisfaction. In J. D. Brown, J. R. Steele, and K. Walsh-Childers (Eds.) Sexual Teens, Sexual Media. NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Harrison, K., (1997) Does Interpersonal Attraction to Thin Media Personalities Promote Eating Disorders? Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Vol. 41, 1997
Viewed on 17th august 2009

THE AGE (2009) “Skinny tyranny killed my model girl” November 17, 2006 - 6:34AM
Viewed 12th September 2009

THE AGE (2006) “Survival of the thinnest” Booth Moore and Sarah Malik October 5, 2006
Viewed 12th September 2006

Tiggemann, Marika (2006). The role of media exposure in adolescent girls’ body dissatisfaction and drive for thinness: Prospective results. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 25(5), 523-541. Retrieved February 12, 2008, from Psychology Module database. (Document ID: 1060410481).