sponse (70 percent) was that the ideals portrayed in magazines had an effect of making them want to look like the ideal. Clearly showing that social pressures concerning weight and body shape had an influence on females. Significant percentages of the females commented that body shape ideals for women were constantly shown in the media. It is interesting to note that almost one-quarter of the female subjects felt that they were more influenced by social pressures than anything else. One subject commented:I think that Im easily led by magazine articles, pictures, and diets. Television-not so much now, but earlier on- it portrayed a perfect body image, and everyone had to be like that. I am tremendously affected by the media. Well, theyve portrayed the way which we feel we should eat and look, and Ive sort of followed blindly along behind. If Im going to eat something bad, I pull out a magazine and look at the models and it makes me stop eating (subject, age 21)This study shows that merely being aware that one is influenced by social pressures does not necessarily stop this process from occurring (Murray et al., 1996). Another study examined media use and perceived importance of appearance. Rabek-Wagener and Eickhoff-Shemek (1996) conducted a study investigating the impact of analyzing and reframing fashion advertisements on the attitudes and behaviors of the body images of females. The study investigated how an education intervention that focused on critiquing popular fashion advertisements and creating more inclusive fashion advertisements would affect females belief and behaviors about their own body image. Participants were 60 intervention subjects and 45 comparison subjects all between the ages of 18 and 23 years of age. They used a 11-item survey instrument to measure subjects beliefs and behaviors regarding fashion advertising images. Subjects responded to the 11 statements using a seven -point Likert-type scale, ran...
