People who watch TV regularly tend to prefer slimmer women. A disturbing trend that proves how much the media influences our ideals of beauty.
Although mores are changing in terms of the image of women in the media, with less retouched advertisements and less skinny models, the diktat of universal feminine beauty dies hard. The proof is: the more a person watches television, the more they will prefer slim female bodies, according to a study published in the journal Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and unveiled this Thursday, December 19 in a press release from durham university (England)
For their study, researchers from this University followed 299 people living in the Pearl Lagoon basin region of Nicaragua. Participants completed a questionnaire about their ethnicity, education, income, language and exposure to television. They then had to assess the appeal of images showing female bodies of varying shapes and sizes.
The researchers chose to focus on this population because it was very homogeneous in terms of diet, income and education, but on the other hand had varied access to television. Most participants did not have access to magazines or the Internet, and none owned a smartphone. Scientists were thus able to isolate the effect of television exposure from other factors. In doing so, they found that people with limited TV access preferred female figures with higher BMIs while those who watched it often preferred slimmer bodies.
Mass media have an influence on the body ideal of women
According to the researchers, this study proves the responsibility of television on the perception of body ideals. However, the representation of this ideal of thinness conveyed in the media can lead to bodily dissatisfaction and lead to eating disorders or depression, they worry.
“This study, using a range of quantitative and qualitative research methods with non-Western participants, provides even more empirical evidence that mass media has an impact on women’s body size ideals,” comments Dr. Jean-Luc Jucker, of Durham University, co-author of the paper.
“The media have an important role to play”
In parallel, the researchers also followed villagers who did not have access to television. “We showed them a series of images, showing either fatter women or thinner women. We found that after seeing these images, the body ideals of the villagers adjusted in the same direction,” says Dr. Tracey Thornborrow from the University of Lincoln, also in England, co-author of the study. “If there’s anything universal about attraction, it’s its flexibility,” comments Professor Lynda Boothroyd, from Durham University’s Department of Psychology, lead author of the study.
“Television and advertising bosses have a moral responsibility to use actors, presenters and models of all shapes and sizes and to avoid stigmatizing big bodies. There needs to be a change in attitude towards ‘health at all sizes’ and the media has an important role to play in this,” she concludes.
Body image issues and eating disorders
Unfortunately, it has been proven, and time and time again, that the ideology of the female body conveyed in the media and social networks can affect the mental and physical health of young people.
At the beginning of December, a study notably showed that social networks lead certain young adolescents to develop body image problems and consequently eating disorders. A phenomenon all the more true among young girls who use Snapchat and Instagram. “A key part of preventing eating disorders is getting the message across that our self-esteem should be defined by a combination of our abilities, values and relationships,” the researchers warned. , calling on “parents to take responsibility”.
In 2017, in the magazine JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery cosmetic surgeons were concerned about the increase in “snapchat dysmorphia”. This phenomenon “designates patients who want to look like filtered versions of themselves (proposed by social networks and especially Snapchat, editor’s note), with fuller lips, larger eyes or a thinner nose”.
.
