Does Size Matter? The Impact of Model's Body Size on Women's Body-Focused Anxiety and Advertising Effectiveness

Seeing the beauty in everyday people: A qualitative study of young Australians’ opinions on body image, the mass media and models

“…It was thought that exposure to thin and muscular models may prevent consumers from becoming "too relaxed" (Lily) with their health and appearance, while seeing average-size models may promote unhealthy behaviours, including overeating and weight gain. In terms of the effectiveness of advertisements featuring average-size models, participants' views were often in contrast to industry concerns and in agreement with quantitative average-size model research (e.g., Diedrichs & Lee, 2010, in press;Halliwell & Dittmar, 2004;Halliwell, et al, 2005). It was frequently argued that seeing models that have body sizes and shapes more reflective of the general population might boost the appeal of a brand or product.…”

“…For example, in response to the evidence that thin and muscular media exposure is associated with negative body image, governments, politicians and researchers throughout Australia, Europe, and the United States have called for greater body size diversity in media imagery in order to promote positive body image (Australian Government, 2010;Boyer et al, 2009;Liberal Democrats, 2009;. Research that has investigated the effect of exposure to average-size fashion models (i.e., models with body sizes that are more representative of the general population) supports these recommendations (e.g., Diedrichs & Lee, 2010, in press;Dittmar & Howard, 2004a, 2004bHalliwell & Dittmar, 2004;Halliwell, Dittmar, & Howe, 2005;Lorenzen, Grieve, & Thomas, 2004). These studies have found that viewing average-size female and male models in advertisements is associated with more positive body image among both women and men, in comparison to viewing images of thin and muscular models, or no models.…”

“…Despite the finding that women and men perceive advertisements featuring averagesize models to be as effective as those with thin and muscular models (Diedrichs & Lee, 2010, in press;Dittmar & Howard, 2004a, 2004bHalliwell & Dittmar, 2004;Halliwell, Dittmar, & Howe, 2005), there are concerns among the media, fashion and advertising industries that average-size models do not appeal to consumers. For example, Karl Lagerfeld, head designer for fashion house Chanel recently said, "You've got fat mothers with their bags of chips sitting in front of the television and saying that thin models are ugly.... No one wants to see round women" ("Runde Frauen will da niemand sehen [No one wants to see round women]," 2009, para 2).…”

Social comparisons on social media: The impact of Facebook on young women's body image concerns and mood

“…Magazines generally feature images of models and celebrities whereas Facebook mainly features images of one's peers (Hew, 2011). Similar to the effect of exposure to images of thin-ideal models and celebrities (Halliwell & Dittmar, 2004;Halliwell et al, 2011;Hargreaves & Tiggemann, 2004), exposure to peers who closely match the thin ideal has been found to increase women's body dissatisfaction (Krones, Stice, Batres, & Orjada, 2005). Some research examining the impact of appearance comparisons to these different target groups has shown that comparisons to peers and models can lead to different outcomes in regard to women's body image concerns, perhaps because the appearance of peers is seen to be more personally attainable than the appearance of models or celebrities due to the similar resources and lifestyle that peers often have to oneself.…”

Relación entre el grado de actividad física y la satisfacción sexual y corporal en estudiantes universitarios costarricenses

“…Ésta indica que la objetivación de la figura, muy estudiada por otros investigadores (Calogero, ), mediante el proceso de optar por una perspectiva de observador como principal visión de la apariencia propia, muchas veces comparándose con un ideal, puede llevar al monitoreo o evaluación habitual del cuerpo, el cual puede incrementar la vergüenza y la ansiedad. La figura que se ha promulgado como ideal, en el caso de las mujeres, es aquella figura delgada (muchas veces de apariencia no sana) e inalcanzable (Halliwell & Dittmar, 2004); y en el caso de los hombres el ideal está más dirigido a una figura un poco más saludable, musculosa y en forma (Petrie et al, 1996).…”