The devil wears stata: Thin-ideal media’s minimal contribution to our understanding of body dissatisfaction and eating disorders.

Abstract

It is not uncommon for the general public to hear from scholars and advocates that images of thin women in the media are linked to body dissatisfaction and eating disorders among women viewers. However, does the evidence base support such claims? A review of the literature suggests that public claims about media effects in this realm are often misleading and considerable evidence exists to warrant caution in claiming causal effects. Relationships between thin models in media and women's body satisfaction are likely nuanced and complex, but there does not appear to be evidence that western media caused an epidemic of eating disorders in western countries. Regarding body dissatisfaction, media appears to have little influence on most women but for a small number it may remind them of their body dissatisfaction, although it is unlikely that media caused this body dissatisfaction in the first place.

The Breast Size Satisfaction Survey (BSSS): Breast size dissatisfaction and its antecedents and outcomes in women from 40 nations

“…As hypothesised, greater breast size dissatisfaction was significantly and positively associated with both weight and appearance dissatisfaction. This is consistent with previous work showing that greater breast size dissatisfaction is significantly associated with higher scores on a range of indices of negative body image (Forbes & Frederick, 2008;Frederick et al, 2008;Junqueira et al, 2019;. The most straightforward interpretation of the present finding is that breast size dissatisfaction is an important facet of global negative body image (Swami, Tran et al, 2015).…”

“…Thus, we would expect significant associations between breast size dissatisfaction and other indices of negative body image. Indeed, the available evidence supports such associations: greater breast size dissatisfaction has been found to be significantly associated with greater body dissatisfaction (Forbes & Frederick, 2008;Frederick et al, 2008;Swami, Cavelti et al, 2015;, greater actual-ideal weight discrepancy (Junqueira et al, 2019;Swami, Cavelti et al, 2015), lower body appreciation (Junqueira et al, 2019;Swami, Cavelti et al, 2015), greater appearance preoccupation (Koff & Benavage, 1998), and greater drive for thinness (Swami, Cavelti et al, 2015). The strength of associations has generally been weak-to-moderate (e.g., , although it should be noted that at least one study found no significant association with body image disturbance (Tantleff-Dunn & Thompson, 2000).…”

“…This commodification and scrutinisation of breasts can influence how women feel about their own bodies (Bonillas, 2009;Goldsmith & Byers, 2016;Millsted & Frith, 2003;Webb, Jacox, & Temple-Oberle, 2019). Studies of North American and Western European women have documented high levels of breast size dissatisfaction -typically operationalised as a discrepancy between current and ideal breast sizes and, less frequently, as attitudes about breast size -since at least the 1950s (Forbes & Frederick, 2008;Forbes, Jobe, & Revak, 2006;Jacobi & Cash, 1994;Jourard & Secord, 1955;Tantleff-Dunn, 2002;Tantleff-Dunn & Thompson, 2000). For example, one large survey of North American heterosexual women (N = 26,703) reported that the majority (70 %) were dissatisfied with some aspect of their breasts and that, of these participants, 28 % wanted larger breasts (Frederick, Peplau, & Lever, 2008).…”

Assessment of Family Functioning and Eating Disorders – The Mediating Role of Self-Esteem

“…On the one hand, modern society is exposed to idealization of youth and the thinness presented in the mass-media (Thompson and Heinberg, 1999; Phelps et al, 2007; Striegel-Moore and Bulik, 2007). Several analyses (Murray et al, 1990; Eyal and Te’eni-Harari, 2013; Barcaccia et al, 2018; Ferguson, 2018; Griffiths et al, 2018) show that the body image represented on television, thinspiration/fitspiration websites, and magazine covers is commonly unrealistically thin for women or muscularity unideal for men, not reflecting the range of body shapes in the general population. On the other hand, biological predisposition and family related phenomena are also of significant importance as family provides grounds for comprehensive intellectual, emotional and social development, including personality and self-esteem (SE).…”

Understanding body image perception and body image discontentment in early adolescence

“…These results are in line with a study in which adolescent girls showing social comparison tendencies were using manipulated and enhanced images on social media. (21) Both girls and boys often compared themselves with the peers and people around them who they thought had better figure or physique respectively. However, girls compared themselves more with people around them having better figures.…”