14 DAY TRIAL // Even the most gorgeous woman in the world, who works out regularly, eats healthy and doesn’t have a pound to spare, will start questioning herself and her weight if she’s bombarded with images with skinny women.
Though the media has often tried to wash its hands of allegations that it’s responsible for the size 0 craze still sweeping the fashion industry, studies show that it’s instrumental in how it’s being perpetuated.
It’s not just images of skinny models on the catwalk that has a disastrous impact on regular women, but also the fact that they can find no one even close to their body size in the mainstream media, Dr. Aric Sigman says in his paper “A Source Of Thinspiration? The Biological Landscape of Media, Body Image and Dieting,” cited by the Daily Mail.
As he sees it, countless studies have shown that the media needs to look at body size as an issue of “diversity” up there with race or age, and not use the “this is not my doing” excuse.
The impact images of thin women has on female viewers is beyond powerful: it can even cause problems in healthy and fit women, prompting them to lose weight unnaturally, thus putting their health at risk.
Countless studies have already shown a deep connection between women and the images they’re exposed to on a daily basis, Dr. Sigman says, to the point that the mere thought that someone could consider them “heavy” or “overweight” can lead to depression.
“New research shows there is a much stronger link between visual media and eating disorders. Repeated exposure to images of thin women alters brain function and increases our propensity to develop eating disorders,” Dr. Sigman says.
“Even more interesting is the fact that while these neurological changes occur in women, they do not in men,” he continues.
What’s even worse is that these changes have also started to occur in girls, with some as young as 9 or even younger saying they spent a lot of time wondering whether they weren’t too heavy.
“An abundance of skinny women on screen makes viewers question their own attractiveness or ‘mating value’,” Dr. Sigman explains.
“Not to be left behind, women compete by losing weight themselves. Modern life has hijacked an ancient survival mechanism,” he adds.
The solution can’t happen overnight, that much is clear. However, the media should show more responsibility in circulating either photos of very thin women or retouched pics that bear little resemblance to the real model.
“It appears that while men eat food, women have a relationship with food. This relationship has grown increasingly dysfunctional. Forty years after the debut of body politics, biology is explaining more precisely why fat is indeed a feminine issue. And it’s one that requires urgent action,” Dr. Sigman points out.