The relationship between Media Consumption and Eating Disorders

A study done at the University of Wisconsin, "examined the relationship between women's media use and two sets of variables (disordered-eating symptomatology and a set of related variables, including body dissatisfaction and drive for thinness) and assessed the relationship between college men's media use and their endorsement of thinness for themselves and for women."

Influence of the Mass Media

The mass media may operate as important influences on disordered eating through their impact on the values, norms, and aesthetic standards embraced by modern U.S. society. Researchers in the fields of communication and eating disorders have long suspected that the media play a significant role in transmit- ting thinness-oriented norms and values. Garfinkel and Garner (1982), two pioneers in the study of disordered eating, described this role: “The media have capitalized upon and promoted this image (of thinness) and through popular programming have portrayed the successful and beautiful protagonists as thin. Thinness has thus become associated with self-control and success” (p. 145). Historical trends, content analyses, and effects studies all suggest that media trends may indeed be linked to the idealization of thinness and, thus, to the development of eating disorders in media consumers.

Historical Trends

The highest reported prevalence of disordered eating occurred during the 1920s and 1980s, the two periods during which the “ideal woman” was thinnest in U.S. history (Boskind-White & White, 1983). According to Mazur (1986), who tracked U.S. trends in feminine beauty through the 20th century and matched these trends to female disorders prevailing during the same periods, a sizable minority of women have overadapted to each beauty trend, thus accounting for the prevalence of disorders such as anorexia and bulimia when the slim female form has been in fashion. (41 Journal of Communication, Winter 1997)

Changes in eating disorder epidemiology over the past 30 years appear to mirror changes in mass media representations of women throughout the same time span. The figure of the female sex symbol trimmed down dramatically during this time (Chernin, 1981), and popular publishing found a profitable niche in marketing the thinness ideal. One of the best-selling books of the early 1980s was The Beverly Hills Diet (Mazel, 1981), a popular guide to weight loss. In a critique of this book, Wooley and Wooley (1982) claimed that The Beverly Hills Diet is filled with erroneous dietary information and dangerous diet tips, such as using large quantities of alcohol or fruit as purgative agents.

Gagnard (1986) reported a significant increase in thin models in popular- magazine advertisements from 1950 to 1984, which reached a high of 46% in the 1980s. A frequently cited study by Garner, Garfinkel, Schwartz, and Thompson (1980) reported a significant decrease in the body measurements and weights of Playboy centerfolds and Miss America Pageant contestants from 1959 to 1978. These authors calculated correlations between year and percent- age of expected weight based on height to assess the strength of the down- ward trend in weight over time. These analyses revealed that pageant contes- tants’ weight decreased sharply and significantly each year, and for most of the years, pageant winners weighed significantly less than other contestants. By 1978, however, the average normal weight of U.S. women under age 30 had actually increased by 5 to 6 pounds. The same study also reported a concur- rent and substantial increase in the number of diet articles in popular women’s magazines, from a yearly mean of 17.1 for the 1960s to a yearly mean of 29.6 for the 1970s.



Source: Harrison, K. and Cantor, J. (1997), The relationship between media consumption and eating disorders. Journal of Communication, 47: 40–67. doi: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.1997.tb02692.x