Depleting Body Image:
The effects of female
magazine models on the self-esteem and body image of college-age women.
Authors: Mary-Signe Chojnacki, Christina Grant, Kathryn Maguire, Katie Regan
Count For Manuscript: 7809
Mary-Signe Chojnacki UW-Madison 524
W. Mifflin Street Madison,
WI 53703 Kathryn Maguire UW-Madison 1380 Bonnie Drive Menasha, WI 54952 Christina Grant UW-Madison 1345 Washington Street River Falls, WI 54022 Katie Regan UW-Madison 438 W. Dayton Street Madison, WI 53703
Depleting Body Image:
The Effects of Female Magazine Models on
the Self-esteem and Body Image of College-age Women
Millions of women every day are bombarded with the
media’s idea of the “perfect” body. These unrealistic images are portrayed in
women’s magazines all over the country. The message being sent to women is that
they are not pretty or skinny enough. The average American woman is 5’4” and
weighs 140 pounds, while the average American model is 5’11” and weighs 117
pounds. Annually, magazine companies spend billions of dollars on diet and
exercise advertisements to put in their magazines. Magazines sell body
dissatisfaction to their readers through unrealistic images of women, as well
as dieting and exercise information. Thirty years ago, Marilyn Monroe, a size
14, had the “ideal” body shape and size, but today’s standard is much smaller.
As the beauty ideal continues to get smaller in our society, body image within
American women continues to plummet. Magazines portray and compare happiness
with being thin; therefore some feel if they are not thin, then they are not
happy. As with women of all ages, many college-age women are believed to hold
unrealistic ideals of body shape and size, ideals that can be both physically
and emotionally unhealthy.
Our study, focused on women who attend the
University of Wisconsin-Madison that are between the ages of eighteen and
twenty-four. We wanted to identify the specific effects that the magazine
portrayal of the “perfect” body has on college-age women’s body image and
self-esteem. We hypothesized that this portrayal contributes to women having
negative body images and self-esteem due to the reinforcement of body shapes
and sizes in magazines that are unrealistic for most women to attain. In our study we defined body image as
the subjective concept of one’s physical appearance based on self-observation
and the reaction of others. We defined self-esteem as the positive and negative
evaluations people have of themselves. The purpose of this study was to test
the influence of women’s health/fitness and beauty/fashion magazines on a
woman’s perception of her body through several distinct methods.
The first method used to collect data was a survey
administered to forty college-age women around the UW-Madison campus. The
survey focused on body image, self-esteem and thoughts about magazines. The
second method used was an observation, consisting of four groups of two
college-age women who were asked to
discuss their feelings and attitudes toward a fashion/beauty magazine and a
health/fitness magazine. The third method conducted was in-depth interviews of
four college-age women using extensive questions to gain additional information
on whether college-age women are affected by the magazine industry’s culture of
thinness. The fourth method was an experiment using twelve college-age women
who were divided into three separate groups with each group being assigned one
of three magazines: a health/fitness magazine, a beauty/fashion magazine or a
news magazine. After reading the magazines, the women were given a survey very
similar to the one used in method one. The four methods combined allowed us to
address our hypothesis that college-age women have negative body images and
self-esteem due to the culture of thinness which the magazine industry portrays
to women. Several examples of prior research on this topic provided additional
context for study.
Cusumano and Thompson (1997) examine the relative
influences of media exposure, awareness of societal pressures regarding
appearance and internalization of this socio-culture pressure on body image,
eating disturbance and self-esteem in “Body Image and body shape ideals in
magazines: Exposure, awareness and internalization.” The college-age women were
surveyed through seven questionnaires for the type of magazines they read,
along with the time spent reading each magazine. The overall body shapes and
breast sizes that were promoted in these magazines were then identified and
quantified. They found it was important to use the body and breast variables
separately. Cusumano and Thompson also found a distinct lack of a relationship
between exposure to body size ideals and measures of body satisfaction, eating
disturbance, self-esteem and one’s own actual degree of obesity.
Internalization of social norms of appearance accounted for significant and
substantial variance, whereas exposure was not.
Thomsen’s (2002) study “Health and Beauty Magazine
Reading and Body Shape concerns among a group of college women,” proposed
testing a structural equation model which incorporates several mediating
processes through which beauty/fashion, health/fitness magazines might
influence the college-age female’s fear of being fat. He explores the potential
direct and indirect effects of two additional mediating influences: “hope and
the internalized belief that men expect women to be thin.” Three key findings
emerge from this study. The first is women’s belief about men’s preferences or
expectations for female thinness were the strongest predictor of body shape and
size concerns. Although two types of magazines were studied, only health and
fitness magazine readings were directly linked to body shape and size concerns. Finally, hope was not influenced by the reading,
expected future weight gain and loss, and body shape and size concerns; this
finding was not anticipated.
Turner, Hamilton, Jacobs, Angood and Dwyer’s (1997)
study “The influence of fashion magazines on the body image satisfaction of
college women: An exploratory analysis” is an experimental study with a sample
of thirty-nine undergraduate women who were randomly assigned to two different
treatments. One treatment was to view a
fashion magazine and the other to view a news magazine. After viewing was
completed, both treatments took a body image survey. The women assigned to the fashion magazine treatment indicated a
lower self-image than the women assigned to the news magazine treatment.
Although the two groups of women in the study did not differ significantly in height
or weight, those who read fashion magazines prior to completing a body image
satisfaction survey desired to weigh less and perceived themselves more
negatively than did those who read news magazines. Exposure to fashion
magazines was related to women’s greater preoccupation with being thin,
dissatisfaction with their bodies, frustration about weight, and fear about
deviating from the thin standard.
Rabak-Wagener, Eickhoff-Shemek, and Kelly-Vance
(1998) studied the effects of unrealistic body shapes in magazines on
college-age women in “The Effect of
Media Analysis and Behaviors regarding Body Image Among College Students.” They also sought to discover whether
or not a media analysis program helped young women change their attitudes and
beliefs about body image. The fist method they used was a survey to measure
respondents’ beliefs and behaviors regarding fashion-advertising images. After
the survey, the large group was then split into a comparison and an
intervention group. The intervention group participated in a 6.5-hour program
analyzing, critiquing, and learning about the fashion industry and their
methods of advertising. After the program both groups were surveyed again. On
the pre-test there was no significant difference between the intervention and
comparison groups. On the post-test, however, students in the intervention
group reported significant changes in their perceptions of body image while the
comparison group reported no significant changes. This study and its findings
are important because they suggest that magazines do influence the way women
feel about their bodies. The study is also somewhat encouraging because it
suggests that media analysis can be a valuable tool in changing college-age
women’s beliefs about the ideal body.
Marian Morry and Sandra Staska’s (2001) “Magazine
exposure: internalization, self-objectification, eating attitudes and body
satisfaction in male and female university students,” studies the relationship
between magazines and people’s body image. The study emphasizes social and
cultural pressure toward thinness in women through media portrayal of the ideal
female body. The study used 150 university students, which were tested by
giving them equal exposure to magazines, a questionnaire and interviews on
their eating habits, recognition of socio-cultural attitudes, and body shape.
The study’s main findings were that media exposure to the “ideal” form is being
internalized. The exposure is related to problematic eating patterns,
self-objectification and body shame.
Our hypothesis concerning the effects of magazines
correlates with the results of the previous studies. Our goal was to prove that
college-age women’s body image and self-esteem are negatively affected by the
magazine industry’s portrayal of thinness. We began our data collection with a
survey of forty college-age women around the UW-Madison campus.
Analyzing
the Survey Data: The Significance of the Statistics Behind the Respondents
Answers
Our first method was a survey using availability
sampling designed to ask college-age women questions regarding their body image
and self-esteem in relation to the magazines that they read. We collected forty surveys around the
UW-Madison campus from women between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four. Approximately eighty five percent of the
women surveyed were white and the majority of the women were twenty-one years
of age. Most of the women perceived themselves as average weight. The survey
included five questions regarding the respondents’ demographics and twenty-five
questions concerning their body image and self-esteem related to magazine
depictions. Our goal for this survey was to get an understanding of how the
magazines’ influence shapes the women’s attitude pertaining to her body image
and self-esteem. We hypothesized that the way in which a magazine depiction
will affect a woman is dependent upon the way in which she feels about her body
in general. Table One (see Appendix A) displays the questions that were asked
in the survey, the mean response and the significant frequencies discovered by
the answers from the respondents.
Frequency
Analysis
The frequency analysis provides information on the percentages of answers to each question. Some interesting findings provided by the frequency analysis are: the majority of women were between 5’3” and 5’8” and 110-149lbs. The percentage of respondents who were sometimes or often happy with their body shape or size was seventy-five percent. Over half, sixty percent, of women rarely or never felt that their body was “normal” compared to magazine body depictions. A significant amount, ninety-three percent, of women rarely or never believe that magazines portray normal body images for women. Approximately forty-three percent of the respondents sometimes to always feel that female models in magazines have the ideal body shape and size. Of our respondents, seventy-three percent sometimes or always feel that they would be more attractive if they look like a magazine model. Even though seventy-three percent rarely or never feel that it would be good for their health if their body size and shape were similar to those of fashion models, fifty-five percent would feel more satisfied if their body looked more like a magazine model. Out of the forty women surveyed, sixty-eight percent of women often or always think about their body. An overwhelming, seventy percent of the respondents sometimes or always have negative thoughts about their body. (See Table 1 for significant frequency values). This data shows that although our respondents do not see models as normal size they do believe that the models have ideal shape and size.
Average
Responses
The means are presented in Table Two. One group of
our respondents reported that they always feel that models have the ideal body
shape and size. This same group reported that they are only sometimes happy with their own body shape and size. The
respondents also said that they often to always make decisions about dieting
and exercise based on looks, not health. They also reported that they always
think about their bodies, and often to always have negative thoughts about
their bodies.
Another notable group are those respondents who
reported that they always feel that they would be more attractive if their
bodies looked more like those of magazine models. This group reported that they
perceive themselves as overweight, are rarely happy with their bodies, and
always make decisions about dieting and exercise based on looks. As with the
previously noted group, they also said that they often think about their bodies,
and often have negative thoughts about their bodies.
A final group worth noting is the respondents who
said that female magazine models always affect their body image. This group
reported that they are rarely to sometimes happy with their body shape and
size, always thinking about their bodies, and often to always have negative
thoughts about their bodies.
The mean responses suggest that those respondents
who reported that magazines always affect them are more likely to be negatively
affected by the magazines. The respondents, who reported that they always felt
that magazines portrayed ideal images, or always felt that they would be more
attractive if they looked more like magazine models, were more likely to report
in having low body image and self-esteem. This finding suggests that while magazine models do not affect all women; those
who are affected indicate that it is detrimental to their body image and
self-esteem. Overall, these findings coincide with the hypothesis that
magazines negatively affect the body image of college-age women, but also
suggest that there is only a select group of people who are affected by them.
(See Table Two, Appendix A)
Descriptive
Analysis
The descriptive analysis shows
the means and standard deviations of each question in our study. It is not
obvious from this specific analysis whether the information is significant in
relation to the affects of magazines. The means portion suggests that the small population which we sampled seems to be
very confident about their body image and self esteem. (Refer back to Table One
for full information).
Cross tabs
How do you perceive yourself versus how magazines affect you:
Table
3: Cross tab 1
|
How magazines affect respondent |
||||||
|
|
Never |
Rarely |
Sometimes |
Often |
Always |
Total |
|
Underweight |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
|
Average weight |
9 |
8 |
7 |
7 |
0 |
31 |
|
Overweight |
0 |
0 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
7 |
|
Total |
11 |
8 |
10 |
9 |
2 |
40 |
Our study found that the majority of women
perceived themselves as average weight. The women that fell into that group
reported that they sometimes or often felt they would be more attractive if
their bodies looked more like the bodies of female models in magazines.
However, the majority from that same group reported that they never or rarely
exercise in order to look more like models in magazines. While there was a
large of spread in the number of women who perceived themselves as average in
relation to how often magazines caused the
respondents to have negative feelings about themselves, there was a definite
correlation for women who perceived themselves as either underweight or
overweight.
Of the women who reported
themselves as underweight, all reported that women in magazines never
negatively affect them. Of the women who reported themselves as overweight, all
reported that they are sometimes, often, or always negatively affected by these
images. These correlations show that women who perceive themselves as
overweight, along with some women who perceive themselves as average weight,
are generally less comfortable with the way they look in relation to the body
depictions of models in magazines. (See Table Three for exact values).
How often you think that female models in magazines have the ideal body
shape versus how magazines affect you:
Table 4: Cross tab 2
There was a definite correlation between how often
the respondent felt that female models in magazines have the ideal body shape
and how often the respondent felt that they would be more attractive if they
more closely resembled female models. The majority of women who never thought
that magazine models portrayed the ideal body shape also never felt that they
would be more attractive if they looked more like female models in magazines,
and the reverse is also true.
However, there was more variation among the data in
relation to how often the respondent exercises in order to look more like
magazine models. Of the respondents who
indicated that they never felt that women in magazines had the ideal shape, the
frequency of exercising in order to look more women in magazines ranged from
never to always.
Similarly, responses for how often the respondent felt that female models in magazines have the ideal body shape versus how often magazines caused negative feelings about one’s body were wide-ranging. There was no clear correlation between never thinking that models have the ideal shape and never feeling bad about one’s body. These correlations suggest that while some women thought that magazine models did not have the ideal body shape, they still took steps to look like them. (See Table Four).
Frequency of negative thoughts about your body versus how magazines
affect you:
Table 5: Cross tab 3
|
How magazines affect respondent |
||||||
|
|
Never |
Rarely |
Sometimes |
Often |
Always |
Total |
|
Never |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
Rarely |
3 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
9 |
|
Sometimes |
3 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
12 |
|
Often |
4 |
1 |
6 |
5 |
0 |
16 |
|
Always |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
|
Total |
11 |
8 |
10 |
9 |
2 |
40 |
Our study shows a clear correlation between the frequency of negative thoughts and how often the respondent felt that she would be more attractive if she looked more like a female model. The more often the respondent had negative thoughts about her body, the more often she felt like she would be more attractive if she looked more like a model. The same correlation was true for the frequency of negative thoughts and the frequency of exercising in order to look more like models. The same correlation was also true for the frequency of negative thoughts and the frequency of magazines causing negative feelings about one’s body. These correlations show that the effect of magazines on the respondents was dependent upon body image in general. (See Table Five)
Discussion
The majority of the population
sampled in method one was of average weight and had medium to high self-esteem.
The data that we found in this method showed that magazine models do not
directly affect most college-age women who are confident about their body shape
and size. Additionally, those women who were unhappy with their body shape and
size often felt negatively about their bodies and wanted to look more like the
models portrayed in magazines. Our study showed a clear correlation between the
frequency of negative body image and self-esteem and wanting to have a body
similar to that of a model. Due to the majority of women feeling confident in
their body, the data we received did not correlate with our hypothesis. In
order to get a more detailed analysis, our research group went on to perform an
observational study consisting of eight college-age women.
Imprints
Left Behind by Magazines: An Analysis between College-Age Women
The second research method used in our study on
college-age women’s body image and self-esteem was an observational study. Four
sets of two college-age women, between eighteen and twenty-four years old and
from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, were asked to sit down and look at
two different magazines, Self and Cosmopolitan. Self is a health and fitness magazine that includes articles
concerning nutrition, exercising, and other related topics. Cosmopolitan is a fashion and beauty
magazine that includes articles concerning sex, dieting and exercising, the
latest fashion, and other related topics. The women were asked to comment as
they paged through the magazine on anything that stood out to them. Each
session was tape recorded and dictated upon completion of the session.
Session #1-
Ariel1 and Christina
People have many different reactions when looking
at magazines. When looking at the Self
and Cosmopolitan magazines, Ariel,
twenty-one and average weight, and Christina’s, twenty-one and slightly
overweight, reactions did not fit with what we had hypothesized women would
feel when looking at a magazine. Ariel and Christina did feel that they should
look sexier and have a boyfriend, but they felt that the magazines have unrealistic
ideals of how a woman should look. When looking at Cosmopolitan, they remarked on an article concerning a competition
for a new model, that the women all had the same body shape and size. Ariel and
Christina both believe that many of
the models look like Barbie and it is unrealistic for there to be four women
who look the identical. Self magazine
shows many different ways to exercise and eat healthy but at the end of the
magazine, Ariel points out, that there are about five pages of dieting pills
advertising. Ariel also points out that
the magazines talk about exercising and being thin but then describes the
dangers in dieting. The women feel the
magazines are very contradictory regarding how a woman should act when trying
to change her body shape and size. The magazines have many advertisements for
shaving and make-up to show how a woman should look in our society. After reading Cosmopolitan, Ariel felt like she wanted “to have sex more, get
drunk more and be really skinny,” which is not how she felt after reading Self magazine. She felt that Self is not a good health magazine
because it has the same amount of make-up ads that Cosmopolitan has and still focused on being really skinny.
Christina felt that Self did not have
very many health articles and was just a fashion/beauty magazine but
nonetheless tried to characterize itself as a health/fitness magazine because
it had “two more exercise tips.”
Session #2-
Maria and Jackie
Maria and Jackie, both twenty-four and overweight,
chose to first look through Cosmopolitan
magazine. Maria and Jackie pointed out numerous ads in which the female model
stood out to them. With comments such as this one by Maria: “This girl is way
too thin, she looks unhealthy.” The two women were very offended by several of
the models. Maria and Jackie questioned exactly what each ad was trying to sell
or convey to the readers of the magazine, as several of the ads showed a
nearly-naked model posed in a provocative way.
Maria and Jackie took note that the models’ body shapes were, in their
minds, not a natural shape, and in turn looked unhealthy because they look
unnatural. While the major focus for Maria and Jackie was on the extreme
thinness of the models, they also commented on other aspects of the female
models: breast size, hairstyle, and makeup. Although Maria and Jackie seemed to
reject the thinness of the models, they did seem to accept and even desire
other aspects of the models, such as: breast size and hairstyle; perhaps
suggesting that focus has been shifted away from strictly thinness and has
poured over into other sectors of body image.
Maria and Jackie then switched to Self magazine. They seemed to be more
accepting of the female models in this magazine. Jackie said: “These girls seem
a lot more ‘normal-sized,’ probably because it is a fitness magazine, telling
you how to be strong, rather than a beauty magazine telling you how to look
pretty”. Their comments really focused in on this point, saying again and again
that the models looked a lot “healthier, and more normal.” Most of the comments
were generally positive. The women
summed up by saying, Self is a better
influence on women because of the number of ads and feature articles that
depicted women as being strong and lean, rather than bony and skinny as in Cosmopolitan.
Belle and Jasmine, twenty
and twenty-four both of who are average weight, began their session by reading Cosmopolitan. They described some of the
models as being a little too “chubby” or not skinny enough, even though, by all
standards, the models were very thin. When the two women were looking at a picture
in Cosmopolitan of a very thin
actress (Sarah Jessica Parker), one of the girls remarked, “Every time I see a
picture of her I never want to eat for the rest of the week.” When the girls
moved on to Self magazine, they
started comparing the models in this magazine to those in the previous
magazine. Although most of their comments could not be applied to this study,
the girls did say that they thought that the models portrayed in the second
magazine seemed to be healthier and
have more realistic body shapes and
sizes.
Haley, twenty-two and
average weight, and Robin, twenty-three and
overweight, first looked over Self. The women commented on the diet pill
advertisements and how they were contradictory to the fitness, exercise and
health food programs in the magazine. Many times during the session the girls
commented on how unrealistic many of the advertisements in the magazine were.
Haley commented on a woman riding a bicycle in her tennis shoes (which they
were trying to sell) wearing her bikini, “how many girls do you know that ride
a bicycle in just their tennis shoes and bikini?” The girls went on to discuss the exercise tips and how, realistically,
a woman weighing 300 lbs could not lose weight by doing the exercises in the
magazine. Although Robin admits she
uses the exercise tips, both women felt the exercise programs were designed for
women who were already skinny. The girls were very critical of the magazine;
however, they did say some positive things about the exercise and the food
tips.
Next, Haley and Robin looked at Cosmopolitan. The women discussed how
throughout the magazine there were half-naked skinny models getting touched or ogled
by men. The women stated that in real life, “some men like a woman that has a
good body but that is not the only thing men look for.” Haley went on to state
how even though they know men look for more than just a skinny body, they also
wish they could be skinny.
Body
Image on the Personal Level: Interviewing College-Age Women on Their Thoughts,
Feelings, and Reactions to Magazines
For a third perspective on this project, in-depth
interviews were conducted in order to gain further insight into whether or not
college-age women are affected by magazine exposure. We interviewed four women,
ages eighteen to twenty-three, for about thirty minutes each and asked them a
series of questions (see Table Seven) about the way they perceive magazines and
how they react to them. (See Table Eight for demographics of interviewees)
Table 7- Interview questions
|
Would you describe
you self-esteem as being high, medium, or low? |
|
Are there factors,
either present or past, that affect the way you view your body? If so, what
are they? |
|
Do you wish that
your body looked similar to someone else’s? If so, who is that someone else? |
|
How often do you
read magazines? |
|
Which magazines do
you read? |
|
How do magazines
affect the way you feel about yourself? |
|
How do you react
towards magazine models? |
|
What would you
describe as an ideal body? |
|
Comment on whether
or not magazines portray realistic body images. |
|
How do magazines
affect your eating habits and exercise habits? |
|
How do female models
make you feel about yourself? |
Table
8- Demographics of interviewees
|
|
Jody |
Lucy |
Maggie |
|
|
Age |
18 |
21 |
21 |
23 |
|
Size |
Average |
Average |
Underweight |
Overweight |
|
Frequency of magazine reading |
Regularly |
Often |
Once in a while |
Very infrequently |
Maggie, twenty-three, says that she has mostly
positive thoughts about her body. By exercising and eating well she maintains
her healthy body image. She exercises mostly for herself, to become stronger
and reach her goals but she says that she cannot deny that part of the reason
that she exercises is to change the way she looks. Maggie describes her
self-esteem concerning her body to be around medium or low but her overall
self-esteem as medium or high. She admits that, throughout her life, images
from the media have affected the way she views her body. She wishes that her
body more closely resembled other women but could not pinpoint any one
person. Maggie does not read
fashion/beauty or health/fitness magazines very often; she most often read news
magazines. When she does read fashion/beauty or health/fitness magazines she
feels that she needs to change herself, “my body, my hair color, and the way I
do my make-up.” Therefore, the magazines make her angry for causing her to feel
this way so she avoids reading them. Maggie could not pinpoint an ideal body
shape but thought that a healthy ideal is 100 pounds for a 5’0” woman and five
pounds for every additional inch. Magazines do show real women, not airbrushed
women, according to Maggie but they are not realistic ideals because they are
too thin for the norm. She says that magazines change her thoughts about
dieting and exercising but not her actions. Female models make Maggie feel like
she is not good enough and that she is “too big to be beautiful.”
Lisa, twenty-one, feels comfortable with her body
but there are always things that she would like to change about herself. She
also feels that she has a high self-esteem. She feels that gaining weight and
going on birth control has affected her body image. She knows that the media
does play a role but she is conscious about this so she is not affected as much
as she could be. She does wish that her body could look more like other women
such as, some of her friends or models. The magazines she reads, Cosmopolitan and Glamour, do not really affect her since she mostly looks at the
articles and not at the pictures. Lisa sees magazine models as a small
percentage of the population who are also altered, by computer, to look the way
they do. She exercises and tries to eat
healthy in order to feel good about herself. She sees an ideal body as one that
is “not too skinny but looks good.” Lisa feels that magazines encourage her not
so much to look similar to a model but “to look her best.”
Cecilia, eighteen, responded that she felt that she
was overweight and not particularly happy with her body shape and size. She
stated that she had a medium self-esteem, neither high nor low. She believes
that some of the things that influence the way she feels about her body are the
media, the culture of thinness and the way her peers treat people her size. “I
have never personally been made fun of for my weight but I have heard and seen
other people make negative comments about people who are my size.” Overall,
Cecilia seemed to be dissatisfied with her body; however, unsure of whom she
would like to look like, only knowing that she would like to be thinner.
Cecilia reads different magazines about once a
month including Seventeen, People,
and “whatever is around” and stated that magazines do not affect the way she
feels about herself. “The models are gross and too skinny.” She had a hard time
pinpointing what she thought the perfect body looked like but it would
definitely not look like that of a model’s. She said a thin layer of fat would
be ideal not too skinny but not too fat. Cecilia repeatedly stated that she
felt that magazine models had “gross” bodies, ones that were clearly
unrealistic to the average women in society. The models, in general, do not
really affect the way she feels about herself and actually make her happy that
she is not that thin. However, she does use some of the exercises that some
magazines provide because they are non expensive and easily accessible.
Lucy, twenty-one, states that she has a medium
self-esteem, when pertaining to how she feels about her body. She knows she is
a little underweight, yet she sometimes feels uncomfortable because she is not
really in shape or toned. There is not one person exactly that she can come up
with in regards to whom she wished her body looked like; however, she does find
herself often comparing her body to other women her age. Lucy does not have any
magazine subscriptions but once in a while she reads Cosmopolitan. In regards to how the models in magazines make her
feel, Lucy replied, “I know that many of their bodies are not real, they are
mostly airbrushed or something, but sometimes it is hard not to want to look
like them.” However, Lucy feels that she would never change her eating habits
nor take diet pills or do anything else unhealthy just to look more like a
model. Although she does not feel as if she has an ideal body size and shape,
she is pretty accepting of that.
Our interviews suggest that
female models in magazines often, but not always, negatively affect the body image
of college-age women. However, these negative effects do not always lead to
very dangerous behavior, such as changing eating habits or taking diet pills.
Mostly, the negative effects consist of making some women feel as if they are
not thin enough or not as beautiful as models because their bodies are not
similar. However, we also found that many women avoid magazines or try to
remind themselves of the unrealistic nature in order to preserve their body
image. The women we interviewed that have a higher body image were currently on
an exercise/healthy eating plan in order to maintain their body shape. This
finding suggests that an active healthy lifestyle is pro-active to a positive
image that may possibly counteract the negative effects of a magazine. Overall, the in-depth interviews provided our
research group with rich data and we next used an experiment to differentiate
between reading magazines in general and having read a magazine prior to taking
the survey from method one to further our data.
For a fourth perspective on
this project, we conducted an experiment to study the effects of reading different types of magazines on college-age
females. We recruited twelve women, without revealing the focus of the
experiment. When they arrived, we informed the participants that there would be
a short delay while we prepared and that they could read through a magazine
during the wait. We gave each of them one of following magazines: Self, Cosmopolitan, or Newsweek, a
news magazine that includes articles regarding current events and other
important news-related stories. The magazines were distributed equally among
participants and each being represented four times.
After about ten minutes of waiting time, the women
were given a survey very similar to the one used in method one concerning their
body image and its relation to magazines. We chose this experiment to compare
the results of the surveys of the women reading different magazines to see
whether the women reading the health/fitness and fashion/beauty magazines would
have a lower body image immediately after reading these magazines than those
reading the news magazines. Due to the
participants not being aware that the study is about the effects of magazines
on body image, we felt that we would obtain a more accurate view on how
different magazines may alter one’s view of themselves.
Table Nine (see Appendix A) lists the survey questions and average response to each question. As Table Nine describes, most of the women were satisfied with their body shape and size, as the survey yielded a mean of 3.5. Across the three groups, the women also agreed that magazines rarely, if ever, portray a realistic body image for women.
Means
The data was analyzed by looking at the means. The means from our data showed many findings so we chose to look closely at the ten questions from Table Eight. The most statistically significant finding shows that the women are often or always happy with their body shape and size. Those who read Self are more often than those who read Cosmopolitan and Newsweek to have moods that are negatively affected by magazines and the female models in them. This is interesting since the women who read Self believe more strongly that the models in magazines do not portray realistic images of women. All of the women agree that it would not be good for their health if they looked like a magazine model. The women also believe that they would be somewhat happier if they looked like a model.
For the remainder of the survey questions,
differences emerged among the treatment groups. Therefore, our group focused on
a few questions from the survey that the women from each group disagreed on in
order to see what kind of analysis we could develop. Table Nine lists these
questions and the average response by treatment group. The following paragraphs
describe the patterns that emerged.
When beginning our research
we hypothesized that health/fitness and fashion/beauty magazines cause
immediate and sustaining impressions on women.
Due to having the women fill out the surveys immediately after looking
at the magazines, we thought the women who read Newsweek would have a higher body image and not be as affected by
the magazines. After analyzing a few key questions we found that this was not
always true. Of the women reading Newsweek
fifty percent believed that models have an ideal body size and shape while
seventy-five percent of the respondents from the other treatment groups rarely
believed this to be true. On a similar note, fifty percent of Newsweek readers often believed that
women would be more attractive if they looked more like a model. The same
percent of Self readers only
sometimes found this to be true and the Cosmopolitan
readers responded with rarely. Self
and Cosmopolitan readers believed
that they would rarely be healthy if they looked like a model, while
seventy-five percent of Newsweek
readers replied “sometimes.” However, the question regarding how models affect
a women’s feelings gave the results that we had expected would develop from
this method. Of the Self readers
fifty percent are sometimes affected while Cosmopolitan
and Newsweek readers are rarely
affected. The moods of over half of the women reading Self are always negatively affected after reading a magazine while
the moods of the same percent of women reading Cosmopolitan and Newsweek
are rarely affected. These findings show that the women reading Newsweek may believe that women should
look more like models yet they do not always let the models affect their
feelings about themselves. Following the frequency analysis, further analysis
was conducted using cross tabulations, which provided other interesting
results.
The survey data was then
analyzed through cross tabulations. Each cross tabulation compared the type of
magazine the respondent read to her answer and then to a series of questions on
body image (see Table One). The cross tabs showed very scattered data,
providing evidence that the type of magazine read before the body image survey
did not have a significant impact on the respondents’ answers to questions
about body image.
Our research group had hypothesized that reading a
beauty magazine prior to the survey would provide vastly different answers than
would reading a news magazine. However, the data presented showed that each
question gave scattered responses across all three types of magazines. By doing
this experiment we did not find any significant data to prove that the type of
magazine a person read affected their answer, but we did find data that goes
along with our overall hypothesis for this study. The first significant finding
was from question one and question ten. Question one read: “What are your
feelings about your body?” and question ten read: “How do female models make
you feel about yourself?” The data shows that if a person is happy with her
body shape and size, then magazines do not negatively affect her. When looking
at questions nine (“How do magazines affect your eating habits and exercise
habits?”) and ten (see above) we found that the data was positively correlated
so that the more often magazines make a person feel bad the more often it
affects their mood. With questions eight (“Do magazines portray realistic body
images?”) and ten (see above), if a person feels less attractive than a model
and does not make attempts to look like one, then magazines negatively affect
their moods.
Overall,
the data found in the experimental part of this research project was not
significant. The data was similarly scattered throughout each type of magazine,
suggesting that the type of magazine read prior to the body image survey did
not have a significant impact on the survey answers. While it may be expected
that a respondent reading a beauty magazine prior to the survey may have
responses that are indicative of a lower body image at that point in time, we
found that some questions show that respondents reading news magazines were
actually more inclined to do so. This suggests that at this point in the life
of our targeted response group (women ages eighteen to twenty-four), magazine
depictions may already be internalized, so that those who are negatively
affected by female models in magazines will continue to be negatively affected,
regardless of the type of magazine they may currently be reading.
It seems that magazines do not affect women
immediately but it is a slow process that causes the women to have a lower body
image. A reason we may not have found significant data may be because we only
had a group of twelve women. These women may be a group of very self-aware
women and may have already come to terms with their bodies. It may also have
been a discriminating factor that the subjects were all friends of the
researchers.
Conclusion
Previous studies have shown that college-age women
are affected by the magazine industry’s use of thin models in the
advertisements; however, some studies have proven that our data is not
statistically insignificant. For
example, Cusumano and Thompson (1997) discovered that internalization of social
norms of appearance accounted for significant and substantial variance, whereas
exposure to magazines did not. In opposition to our data, the Thomsen (2002)
study discovered that only health/fitness magazines were directly linked to
body shape and size concerns. Our findings showed that one particular magazine,
either health/fitness or fashion/beauty, did not influence the college-age
women’s body shape and size concerns, one way or the other.
Coinciding with the data collected in the Thomsen
(2002) study, Turner, Hamilton, Jacobs, Angood and Dwyer (1997) discovered that
exposure to fashion magazines was related to women’s greater preoccupation with
being thin, dissatisfaction with their bodies, frustration about weight, and
fear about deviating from the thin standard. Once again, our data did not find
these statements to be true, at least among the majority of our sample
population. Many of the college-age women acknowledged that they would like to
look like female magazine models, but they did not feel the models had a direct
impression on their own body image and self-esteem.
Earlier the internalization process was discussed
and our research team hypothesized that this process may be an underlying
factor in many of the women in our study. Morry and Staska’s (2001) main
findings were that media exposure to the “ideal” body is being internalized.
Although our data seems to be leaning toward this finding, it is unable to be a
conclusive finding to our study because internalization is unable to be proven
through the methods that we used.
Overall, our study has concluded that magazine
models do not influence women's body image or self-esteem. In method one, we
concluded that whether magazine models affect women is dependent upon the
women’s general self-esteem and body image. Our research group also uncovered
that most college-age women never feel as if magazine models have the ideal
body shape, but despite this, many college-age women still strive to attain
this unrealistic ideal. The findings discovered in method two, which coincide
with our results from method one, suggest that college-age women feel that the
body shape of female models in magazines is an unnatural shape. Our method
three data, using in-depth interviews, found that female models in magazines
negatively affect the body image of college-age women. Unlike our survey
results, women commented that they did not feel thin enough to meet social
standards. However, as with the data in method one, we found that women who are
have average to high self-esteem are not influenced by the models in magazines.
Lastly, our data from method four was not significant to our study because the
data was scattered, suggesting that the type of magazine read prior to the body
image survey did not have significant impact on the respondents’ answers.
Our results from the overall
study are inconsistent with our hypothesis, which is that female models in
magazines influence college-age women’s body image and self-esteem. Everyday
women read fashion/beauty or health/fitness magazines; however, our study
infers that either college-age women are not influenced by the magazines due to
their confidence with their bodies or the influence of the magazines industry’s
portrayal of thinness has already been internalized by the age of eighteen to
twenty four. Our hope is that with the future research techniques suggest
below, a more conclusive study can be done to correlate our hypothesis with the
data received from the respondents.
Further Research
This study sought to determine the potential
harmful effects of female models as portrayed in magazines on the body image
and self-esteem of college-age women. Due to the time restraints on this project,
there were several areas in which further research is required. A bigger sample that is more representative
(in terms of size and demographics) of college-age women for each method is the
first step in finding more conclusive evidence. Another important factor is ensuring that the participants in any
of the methods have no affiliation with the researcher since the four
college-age women who conducted this study were often some way associated with
the respondents, the data may have been skewed. The use of those respondents was due to time constraints and
accessibility.
Discussions about body image and self-esteem would
be more open and honest if the respondent did not feel that she might be judged
by the researcher (in terms of interviews and observations). Therefore, it would be more effective to do
an observation in a comfortable setting with trust between the researcher and
participant. In addition to these
suggestions, more in-depth face-to-face interviewing should be done to dig even
deeper and get more detailed information. The researching team from this
project feels that a focus group would be an important addition to the existing
methods since it would allow the researcher to obtain more information from the
respondents. Another method, which could be used in further research, is the
pre-test/post-test technique. Our research team was unable to use this
technique due to the possibility of skewing results because the respondents
would have initially known what the survey or interview topic was pertaining
to.
Further research should also be done using a
younger age group. It was discovered
that many women used in this study, ranging in age from eighteen to
twenty-four, already tend to have medium to high self-esteem and are not as
easily affected by the magazine’s portrayal of thinness. This research team
hypothesizes that the younger generation is more impressionable; therefore,
more apt to have lower body image and self-esteem due to looking at models in
magazines.
One last idea, which could be used for future
research comes from the previous study done by Cusumano and Thompson, is using
the body and breast variables. Many women may feel comfortable with their body
but not with their breasts and vice versa. Our research team thought that by using
these two variables in the same study, some interesting information could be
found. Overall, future research could be conducted using several different
techniques, such as, size of sample, race, age, and the use of differently
designed methods and variables.
1
All names throughout this research project have been changed to preserve
participant confidentiality.
References
Cusumano, Dale L. and Kevin
Thompson. 1997. “Body image and body shape ideals
in magazines: Exposure, awareness, and internalization.” Sex Roles 37: 701-721.
Morry, M. M., and S.L. Staska.
2001. “Magazine Exposure: Internalization, Self-Objectification, Eating
Attitudes, and Body Satisfaction in Male and Female University Students.” Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science 33:
269-279.
Rabak-Wagner, Judith and JoAnn
Eickhoff-Shemek; Lisa Kelly-Vance. 1998. “Participation in a media analysis
program helped young women change their beliefs about body image, but their
behaviors stayed similar.” Journal of
American College Health 47: 124-135.
Thomsen, Steven R. 2002.
“Health and beauty magazine reading and body shape concerns among a group of
college women.” Journalism and Mass
Communication Quarterly 79: 4: 988-1007.
Turner, Sherry L. and Heather Hamilton; Meija Jacobs; Laurie M. Angood; Deanne Hovde Dwyer. 1997. “The influence of fashion magazines on the body image satisfaction of college women: An exploratory analysis.” Adolescence 32: 127: 603-614.
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Appendix
A |
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Table 1- Survey questions,
means, and significant frequencies |
||
|
Survey Questions |
|
|
|
Age |
Mean (SD) |
Significant Frequencies |
|
Race |
20.8(1.26) |
65%
20-21 years |
|
Weight |
4.03(.357) |
83%
white |
|
Height |
3.75(.899) |
80%
weighed 110 to 149 lbs. |
|
How
do you perceive yourself? |
3.60(.841) |
73%
were 5’3 to 5’8 |
|
How
often are you happy with body shape and size? |
2.13(.463) |
73%
average weight |
|
How
often do you feel that you have a normal body according to magazine
depictions? |
3.28(.847) |
75%
sometimes or often |
|
How
often do you feel that women’s magazines portray realistic body images for
women? |
2.13(.463) |
60%
rarely or never |
|
How
often do you use diet plans in magazines? |
3.28(.847) |
93%
rarely or never |
|
How
often do you think magazine models have an ideal body? |
2.45(1.20) |
83%
rarely or never |
|
How
often do you think women would be more attractive if their bodies were
similar to those of fashion models? |
1.50(.817) |
58%
rarely or never |
|
How
often do you think it would be good for your health if your body was similar
to those of fashion models? |
1.55(.986) |
70%
sometimes or often |
|
How
often do you feel more satisfied with yourself if your body looked more like
a fashion model? |
2.43(1.24) |
73%
rarely or never |
|
How
often do you watch what you eat because you feel pressured to have a body
size or shape similar to a models’? |
3.05(.986) |
55%
often or always |
|
How
often do you exercise or workout in order to have a body size or shape
similar to a models’? |
2.10(1.22) |
50%
rarely or never |
|
If
you do not make attempts to look like female models in magazines, do you feel
you will be as less attractive? |
3.45(1.54) |
53%
rarely or never |
|
How
often do you diet or exercise based more on how you look than upon your
health status? |
2.50(1.20) |
53%
sometimes or often |
|
How
do you consider taking diet pills due to a magazine ad? |
2.55(1.36) |
51%
sometimes or often |
|
How
often do you think about your body? |
3.13(1.22) |
83%
rarely or never |
|
Do
you often have negative thoughts about your body? |
1.55(.960) |
73%
sometimes or often |
|
Do
you often feel that you have a normal body? |
3.55(.904) |
70%
sometimes or often |
|
How
often do magazine models affect your body image? |
3.23(.947) |
73%
sometimes or often |
|
How
often do you consider taking diet pills? |
2.70(1.20) |
50%
sometimes or often |
|
How
often do you compare your body to your peers? |
1.75(1.15) |
80%
rarely or never |
|
How
often do you think about your body image? |
3.45(.846) |
83%
sometimes or often |
|
How
often do female models in magazines affect your feelings about yourself? |
3.38(1.00) |
73%
sometimes or often |
|
Are
you often happy with your body image? |
2.58(1.26) |
About
equally distributed |
|
Do
you often feel pressured to use diet plans/pills advertised in magazines in
order to look like the female models? |
3.30(1.07) |
71%
sometimes or often |
|
How
often is your mood negatively affected after reading a magazine? |
1.68(1.03) |
80%
rarely or never |
|
|
2.35(1.19) |
63%
never or rarely |
|
Table 2-
Means |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Means
(Standard Deviation) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
How respondent perceives herself |
Happy with body shape and size |
Makes decisions about dieting and exercise based on how
she looks |
How often respondent thinks about her body |
How often the respondent has negative thoughts about her
body |
|
Never feels that she has a normal body according to
magazine depictions |
2.33a (.50) |
3.00b (.71) |
3.22b (1.39) |
3.33b (.71) |
3.66b (.71) |
|
Always feels magazines portray realistic images of women |
2.00a (.00) |
3.00b (.00) |
2.00b (.00) |
3.00b (.00) |
4.00b (.00) |
|
Always thinks female magazine models have the ideal body
shape |
2.33a (.58) |
3.00b (1.00) |
4.67b (.58) |
5.00b (.00) |
4.33b (.58) |
|
Always feels that she would be more attractive if she had
a model's body |
3.00a (.00) |
2.00b (.00) |
5.00b (.00) |
4.00b (.00) |
4.00b (.00) |
|
Always feels that if she must try to look like a model to
be attractive. |
2.50a (.55) |
3.00b (1.10) |
3.83b (1.60) |
3.83b (.98) |
3.67b (1.03) |
|
Female magazine models always affect her body image |
2.50a (.71) |
2.50b (.71) |
4.50b (.71) |
5.00b (.00) |
4.50b (.71) |
|
Mood is always negatively affected by reading a magazine |
2.50a (.71) |
4.00b (.00) |
2.00b (1.41) |
4.00b (.00) |
3.00b (.00) |
|
a:
1=Underweight, 2=Average, 3=Overweight |
|||||
|
b:
1=Never, 2=Rarely, 3=Sometimes, 4=Often, 5=Always |
|||||
|
Table 6- Bivariate
Correlations |
||||||
|
|
Correlation Coefficient (Significance two-tailed) |
|||||
|
|
How often do female models in magazines affect your
feelings about yourself? |
How often do you have negative thoughts about your body? |
How often are you happy with your body? |
How often do you think female models in magazines have the
ideal body? |
How often do you think women would be more attractive if
their bodies were more like models'? |
How often do you think it would be good for your health if
you looked like a model? |
|
How often do female models in magazines affect your
feelings about yourself? |
1(0) |
.38*(.02) |
-.35*(.03) |
.19(.25) |
.10(.54) |
.35*(.03) |
|
How often do you have negative thoughts about your body? |
.38*(.02) |
1(0) |
-.72**(0) |
.31(.05) |
.37*(.02) |
.18(.27) |
|
How often are you happy with your body? |
-.35*(.03) |
-.72(0) |
1(0) |
-.22(.10 |
-.39*(.01) |
-28(.08) |
|
How often do you think female models in magazines have the
ideal body? |
.19(.25) |
.31(.05) |
-.26(.10) |
1(0) |
.26(.11) |
.19(.23) |
|
How often do you think women would be more attractive if
their bodies were more like models'? |
.10(.54) |
.37*(.20) |
-.39*(.01) |
.26(.11) |
1(0) |
.42**(.01) |
|
How often do you think it would be good for your health if
you looked like a model? |
.35*(.03) |
.18(.27) |
28(.08) |
.19(.23) |
.42**(.01) |
1(0) |
|
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level
(2-tailed). |
||||||
|
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
|
||||||
|
Table 9
-Survey Questions and Average Responses |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Survey
Question |
Overall Mean
(S.D.) |
|
1. How often are
you happy with your body shape and size? |
3.5(.67) |
|
2. How often do
you feel that you have a normal body according to magazine depictions? |
2.9(1.2) |
|
3. How often do
you feel that women’s magazines portray realistic body images for women? |
1.5(.52) |
|
4. How often do
you think that female models in magazines have an ideal body size and shape? |
2.3(1.3) |
|
5. How often do you think women would be more attractive
if their body size or shape looked like most of the female models in
magazines? |
2.8(.87) |
|
6. How often do you think it would be good for your health
if your body size and shape were similar to those of fashion models? |
2.2(.83) |
|
7. How often do you feel more satisfied with yourself if
you body looked more like a female magazine model’s body? |
3.1(.90) |
|
8. If you do not make attempts to look like female models
in magazines, do you feel you will be perceived as less attractive than other
women? |
2.9(1.7) |
|
9. How often do female models in magazines affect your
feelings about yourself? |
2.8(1.0) |
|
10. How often is your mood negatively affected after
reading a magazine? |
2.8(1.4) |
|
|
|
|
Note:
1= never; 2=rarely; 3=sometimes; 4=often; 5=always |
|
Christina Grant
Katie Regan
Explanation of why our paper
exceeded 30 pages
Our paper totaled 37 pages, including one page for a
title page and four for our graphs/tables. We had to exceed 30 pages in order
to include all of the pertinent information and data we collected from our four
methods. Our first method had a significant amount of data; which we sifted
through and picked out the most important information for our paper. This
section was especially long due to the graphs/tables that we needed to include
in this method. Our second method used four sessions of two college-age women.
Each session was explained, as concisely as possible, only taking the most
important information gathered from the respondents. The third method was four
in-depth interviews which provided our research team with more specific
information/data than we received in the first two methods. For each interview,
we explained the responses of each interviewee in a way such that was detailed
but to-the-point. Our fourth method consisted of the experiment we conducted
using 12 college-age women. Method 4 was similar to method one, in that, this
experiment brought about a lot of data which needed to be narrowed down and the
pertinent information described in the paper. Our group revised this paper
several times and we were unable to get our paper under 30 pages for the
reasons listed above. Had we taken out any more, our paper would have been
incomplete and difficult to follow and understand. We needed the extra pages in
order for our paper to be complete, detailed and concise.
Christina Grant
Mary-Signe Chojnacki
Kathryn Maguire
Our
group has decided not to assign a lead researcher to any of the methods
completed. We all worked together to
complete each section/method. Each
write-up, revision, etc. was done by our entire group getting together at the
library and working together. We feel
that it is unfair to choose one lead researcher for each section; because if
one person gets marked down for a section that we all worked on, this would be
unfair to that person. Each person in
our group put in 110% effort in order to make this research paper what it
is. We thought that if you added up all
the scores of the subsections and then divided by four then that could give us
our score that would have been double for the subsection which we would have
been the lead researcher. We would like
to each get the same grade for this paper and all of the work that has gone
into it. We hope that you enjoy our
paper as much as we did.