be thin and the unrealistic images portrayed in the massmedia may have a devastating effect on womens self-perceptions, self esteem, and identitydevelopment (Heights 603-614). There have been many studies on the weight decline ofPlayboy centerfolds and Miss America Pageant contestants over the years. In 1960, the averagePlayboy models weight was 91% of the population mean. By 1978, it dropped to 84% andcontinues to plummet. From 1979 to 1988, 69% of Playboy models and 60% of Miss Americacontestants weighed 15% or more below their expected weight, which is criterion for anorexia(603-614). Who is too blame for this massive self destructive phenomenon? Most of the fault lieswith the media. Children as young as two years old start to see images of perfect women, whoone day they are supposed to look like. Even the dolls and Barbies they play with have flawlessfigures. In the fortys and fiftys children we seeing more shapely models and actresses, so therewas not the strain on those children of doing anything possible to achieve a so called perfectfigure.When you turn on the television, do you see many heavy women or men for that matter? No, the majority of todays actors and actresses are thin. The fat people are usually the funnyunusual people on sitcoms and daytime shows. The only other place you might find an overweight person is on a pathetic talk show. When you only see fat women as miserable talk showguests, then you are thinking if you become over weight you might end up where they are, so youhad better go on a diet. Speaking of diets, a study found diet promotions, nonexistent in 1973,make up about five percent of television commercials (Berg n. pag.). When doing segments onweight, producers want to know what the women look like. The producers explanation for thisis, We do not want to turn off our viewers (Fear n. pag.) You might think that putting reallife people on their program instead of women that are not represe...
