Women and the Media:

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Women and the Media
How the media influences women and the occurrence
of eating disorders
By Allison Grala
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Thesis Statement
The media has a strong negative influence on
women throughout the world, and is partially
responsible for the large occurrences of eating
disorders diagnosed in females.
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That Was Then...
The Three Graces Considered most beautiful in
17th Century
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Lillian Russel Actress-1890s 200 pounds
Marilyn Monroe 1950s Focus on Large Breasts
Twiggy 1980s 91 pounds
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...This is Now
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"let's say you were a Size 12 in the 1950s, and
you stayed the same measurement-wise, you'd be a
6 today, or in the 1960s, that 12 would have been
a 10 (Helser).
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The Dirty Little Secret...
Vanity Sizing Fashions way of making
buyers feel better while
spending more money.
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A Weighty Issue
The appearance of larger models in magazines
broke a 50-year trend for the media to present
increasingly smaller bodies as the ideal.
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Weighing the Options

• Even in Plus Size Catalogues/Magazines,
  extremely full-figured women are still not used.
• The largest model in many magazines is a size
  16even rare.
• Majority of viewers are much larger still.
• Many customers want to see clothing on their
  size bodies, which are larger than normally shown.

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Conclusion
Although the media is not the sole cause for
eating disorder occurrences, it plays a major
role in the body dissatisfaction of women.
Should an agreement be made in which models are
shown to represent the majority of the female
population, women would be under less stress to
be considered thin and slim to fit in with a
trend.