Body shape refers to the many physical attributes of the human body that make up its appearance, including size and countenance. Body shape has come to imply not only sexual/reproductive ability, but wellness and fitness. In the West, slenderness is associated with happiness, success, youth, and social acceptability. Being overweight is associated with laziness. The media promote a weight-conscious standard for women more often than for men. Deviance from these norms results in social consequences. The media perpetuate this ideal in various ways, particularly glorifying and focusing on thin actors and actresses, models, and other public figures while avoiding the use or image of overweight individuals. This thin ideal represents less than 15% of the American population.
Magazines It has been stated that the increase in eating disorders over the past several decades has coincided with an overall decrease (pound-wise) in women's ideal body weight portrayed by the mass media. A group of researchers examined the magazines Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Mademoiselle, and Vogue from 1959 to 1999. Fashion models became increasingly thinner during the 1980s and 1990s, making the thin ideal even more difficult for women to achieve. Photos depicting the models' entire bodies significantly increased in number from the 1960s to the 1990s. From 1995 to 1999 models were dressed in far more revealing outfits than they were from 1959 to 1963.
Women's magazines have been criticized for their conflicting messages, with an emphasis on food, cooking, child rearing, and entertaining. Seventy-five percent of women's magazines contain at least one ad or article about how to alter one's appearance through cosmetic surgery, diet, or exercise. Twenty-five percent of the women's magazines surveyed included tips for dieting or messages about weight loss. Many women's magazines focus on how to lead a better life by improving physical appearance. Megenta magazine released an article on "How to dress for your body type" giving tips and tricks to look the best in an outfit while striving to encourage women to feel comfortable in their skin. Men's magazines provide information about hobbies, activities, and entertainment for men to better their lives.
Much of the research about how the media affects body image examines the change in models and magazine articles over time. Garner, Garfinkel, Schwartz, and Thompson paid particular attention to the difference in body shape of Playboy centerfolds over a 20-year period. They found that over the years, the body mass, bust, and hip measurements decreased; however, the height increased. They also determined that the Playboy centerfolds were 13%–19% lower than the normal body weight for women of their age (Cusumano, Thompson 1997). Other studies found that over the years, magazines like Seventeen, YM, and Cosmopolitan all had an increase in articles about diet and exercise. Anderson and DiDomenico (1992) compared women's and men's popular magazines and found that diet and exercise articles appeared more than 10 times as much in women's magazines than men's.
Models Modeling and fashion industries have come under fire in the 21st century for embracing and promoting an ultra-thin appearance, giving "unhealthy stigma". According to a data research done by Might Goods using 3,000 models from 20 leading model agencies, 94% of the models are underweight. In addition, in a study conducted in 1992 by Jennifer Brenner and Joseph Cunningham, it was observed that the majority of female models were underweight. The average American female fashion model begins working in the modeling business between the ages of 13 and 17 years old. The average female model in the United States weighs between , and stands at between and tall. In comparison, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the average weight of an American woman is , and the average height for American women is . According to the AMA (American Medical Association), thin models on the catwalk as well as social media and fashion photography lead to unrealistic body expectations, which in turn could lead to eating disorders and other emotional problems. With the mass advertisement promoting thin body, plastic surgery and cosmetic surgery, women and young girls are being bombarded with this very idea of achieving thin body. This issue is being control by some countries such as Israel and France in which they regulate the body mass indexes of models and let the public know whether the ad images is manipulated.
The dictionary definition of photoshopping, is "[the] alter[ation] [of] (a digital image) with Photoshop software or other image-editing software[,] especially in a way that distorts reality (as for deliberately deceptive purposes)". Aerie, the lingerie line for American Eagle, began the campaign Aerie Real, in which models were no longer photoshopped. A 2016 study showed that some women showed a smaller decrease in body satisfaction when seeing the photos of women untouched, in comparison to the greater decrease in body satisfaction when seeing previous photos that were retouched. Many well-known magazines have been called out for photoshopping, a few examples being AdWeek, InStyle, Modeliste Magazine, and Fashion Magazine. Celebrities have recently commented on changes that were made to their photos by such magazines. In 2015, Zendaya, an actor, singer and dancer who was 21 years old at the time, posted two pictures side by side of her magazine photoshoot, calling out the changes that were made by the magazine, Modeliste Magazine. She stated, "These are the things that make women self-conscious… that create the unrealistic ideals of beauty that we have".
Victoria's Secret puts on an annually televised Fashion Show, in which its models walk down the runway in lingerie and the latest releases for PINK, a brand aimed at high school and college-age consumers. In the televised showing, the models usually include how they prepared for the Fashion Show by showing clips of working out and dieting to prepare for the big day. A study published in 2013 analyzed the responses viewers were tweeting during the showing. Viewers discussed food, weight, eating disorders, and self-harm. The results of this study showed that vulnerable viewers could experience negative affect, or even engage in harmful behaviors, during or after viewing the show or others like it. In 2019, Victoria's Secret canceled its runway show amid declining ratings and later ditched the concept of the Victoria's Secret Angels, saying the marketing strategy was no longer "culturally relevant." In 2021, the company announced plans to revive the show, but without the Angels.
Television In 28 primetime situational comedies analyzed by researchers in 2002, 33% of the central female characters were below average weight. As the thinness of a female character increased, the number of compliments she received from men did as well. Research has shown that below-average weight female characters are overrepresented, while above-average weight female characters are underrepresented in situational comedies as compared to the norms of the US population. Primetime television shows that appeal to a primarily female audience, such as Friends or Ally McBeal are helmed by young, attractive, and thin women. Extremely skinny or emaciated women are shown on fashion industry related shows, like House of Style.
Male characters often negatively comment on average and above average weight females' body shapes and weights and audiences usually react by laughing. Male characters are not immune to unfair representation. 33% of male characters were below average weight and 13% were above average weight. By comparison, approximately 30% of men in the US are overweight. In 2003 a study was conducted on ten top-rated American primetime fictional television programs. 33% of female television characters were underweight. Of 1018 major television characters, 14% of females and 24% of males were overweight or obese, less than half their percentages in the general population.
A study was done of 10 primetime television programs on each of the six major TV networks (ABC, CBS, Fox, UPN, NBC, and WB) with the largest Nielsen audience ratings during the 1999–2000 season. Of the 1018 characters on all of the shows, 14% of females and 24% of males were overweight or obese. These numbers represent less than half the percentage of overweight or obese males and females in the general population. Overweight female characters were less likely to be considered attractive, display physical affection, or connect with romantic partners. Overweight male characters were less likely to interact with friends or romantic partners and less likely to talk about dating. Overweight male characters were often shown eating. These statistics are representative of the fat stigmatization present in many US television programs. The small number of fat female television characters that do exist are consistently depicted in relation to thinner, highly sexualized female characters. These characters are used as props, against which thinner women are compared, judged and valued.
A study in Fiji showed that the introduction of western television had a detrimental effect on young women's perceptions and eating behaviors. Three-fourths of the girls in the study reported feeling fat after prolonged exposure to western television.
In 2007, analysts sampled 135 scenes featuring overweight individuals from popular television programs and movies and coded for anti-fat humor. The majority of anti-fat humor found was verbal and directed at the individual in their presence, with no regard for their feelings. Self-deprecating fat comments were much less common than those about or directed at another person. Male characters were three times more likely to engage in fat commentary than female characters. Media programs containing fat stigmatization content often are popular and have high ratings, suggesting that the general public finds it acceptable to overlook such remarks in the context of the story.
According to Renee Hobbs, associate professor of communications at Temple University, the average teen girl gets about 180 minutes of media exposure daily and only about 10 minutes of parental interaction a day. Girls often take drastic measures in an attempt to become like the media images they view. Many end up with very low self-esteem and dangerous eating disorders. Elissa Gittes, a pediatrician in the division of adolescent medicine at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh says, "We're seeing girls at younger ages starting to be dissatisfied with their bodies, proactively trying to change them, and feeling like they need to emulate something different than what their bodies can do."
Video games In 2009 a content analysis of 150 top-selling video games found that games rated for children depicted female characters as significantly thinner than female characters in games rated for adults. Females in video games had significantly larger heads, but smaller chest sizes, waists, and hips than the average American woman. In 2008, a study showed that after playing video games, both female and male college-aged participants had significantly lower body esteem.
The muscular male body in mass media and video is the cause of many symptoms such as body dissatisfaction and body esteem. In the United States, adolescent boys aged 13–18 spend nine hours on average playing video games. Exposure to these unattainable avatars within video games lead to higher body dissatisfaction, and in turn lead to many other social and psychology problems. Garner reported that 41% of teenage boys 13–19 years old were found to be dissatisfied with their overall body.