American's Unrealistic Body Ideals

Intro. to Psychology

American's Unrealistic Body Ideals

So many women in the United States are unsatisfied with their body image. According to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), 36.8 percent of normal and underweight women stated they had tried to lose weight in 2006. The NCHS also reports "there were 27,000 average annual hospital discharges with an eating disorder diagnosis" in 2006. What causes these women to feel pressured into being slim? Children's dolls, super models, media, weight loss products, weight loss shows, family characteristics and non-verbal behavior in America all play a part in pressuring women into longing for these unrealistic body ideals. The most crucial factor of this pressure on women is media because it has such a major impact and is virtually everywhere.

Children's thoughts and beliefs are being molded as they grow up. I believe this is where slim ideals start to be noticed. Some of the dolls that young girls play with on a day-to-day basis, including very controversial Barbie, are ridiculously thin. A standard Barbie Doll is 11.5 inches tall giving the real life height of 5 foot 9inches.( M. G. Lord) Barbie's measurements are estimated to be in real life, 38 inches (chest), 18 inches (waist), and 34 inches (hips) (M. G. Lord). Kelly Brownell Ph. D, author of Distorting Reality for Children: Body Size Proportions or Barbie and Ken Dolls, found that, in order for a healthy adult woman to attain the same proportions as Barbie they would have to increase 24 inches in height, 5 inches in the chest, 3.5 inches in neck length, and decrease 6 inches in the waist. Barbie would lack the 17 to 22 percent body fat required for a woman to menstruate (M. G. Lord). According to M. G. Lord, author of Forever Barbie, "In 1965 Slumber Party Barbie came with a book entitled How to Lose Weight which advised: ‘Don't eat.' The doll also came with pink bathroom scales reading 110 lbs., which would be around 35 lbs. underweight for a woman 5 feet 9 inches tall" (Ch. 11). These statements are almost sickening to read. I think it's safe to assume, Barbie definitely can have an influence of body image on young females. If young girls tried to be as thin as Barbie they would become anorexic. Young females played with Barbie everyday thinking that she portrayed the perfect women, molding their minds to believe these unrealistic body measurements were normal. This shows how powerful even a children's doll can be, even though no studies were shown, I think the correlation is obvious.

Another influence on women are super models whom adolescent females look up to and idolize. These super models also convey this sickening thinness. The fact that young teens see these ultra-thin models is significant because it has an effect on the way they see themselves and visualize