Morgan

Snow

Annotated Bibliography

Does the fashion industry affect the way society feels about themselves?

Morgan Snow
Professor Malcolm Campbell
UWRT 1103
February 29, 2016

Morgan Snow

Clay, Daniel, Vivian L. Vignoles, and Helga Dittmar. Body Image and Self-Esteem.
Among Adolescent Girls: Testing the Influence of Sociocultural Factors. Journal of
Research On Adolescence. 15(4). (2005):451-477. Web. 29 Feb. 2016.

This academic article examines the effect media has on body image through studies. With
this day in age media is everywhere. Almost everyone above the age of 13 has a cell
phone and if they dont they have easy access to a computer or TV. A study in the U.K.
of girls ages 11-16 demonstrated that when experimentally exposed to abnormally thin
women, or the average-size magazine model, their body satisfaction and self-esteem
lowered. The older the girls were the more affected they were by the exposure, but the
amount of self-esteem one has doesnt just depend on age; gender plays a role in it as
well. A recent meta-analysis of self-esteem studies, most conducted in Western
Industrialized nations, proved that females self esteem is lower than males. According
to this article, body image is a central to adolescent girls self-definition, because they
have been socialized to believe that appearance is an important basis for self-approval
and the approval of others. The close relation between body image and self-esteem is
more problematic for teenagers growing up in this society because media has not just
emphasized that female self worth should be based on appearance but they make the ideal
level of beauty almost unattainable. The fact that it is mostly teenagers who are mainly
being affected is of particular concern because not only is adolescence an important time
for forming views about one-self, but also because this is the point in time when they are
going through changes brought on by puberty such as, curves and acne. Therefore this is

Morgan Snow

bringing them farther away from the medias standards of female beauty. A study of 1215 year old girls has confirmed that they associate these bodily changes with eating and
weight. The article also suggested that when exposed to thin-ideal TV models it gave rise
to symptoms in eating disorders. The author of this article gave a lot of facts on the
subject and made sure to back them up with proven studies. Each fact had a reference
source connected to it making it easy to make sure the information was accurate. The
article did a good job of presenting the information and talking about the awareness we
need to have on the subject. This article helped me find a lot of statistics that will prove
to be useful in my paper and I plan on incorporating them into it. It also showed me just
how many studies have gone on and are going on about this subject.
Mair, Avril. How the Fashion Industry Affects the Bodies of Young Women. ID RSS.
20 Nov. 2013. 2 Mar. 2016.
This developed article from a popular source called, i-D VICE, discusses the influence
fashion has on body image and eating disorders. Starting off the article is a story about a
girl named Fiona. Fiona is Bulimic, meaning she eats however much she wants and then
forces herself to throw it back up. This problem causes a lot of physical problems such as,
tooth decay, acne, and Hemoptysis, the coughing up of blood. There are 3.5 million
women in Britain who suffer from some form of an eating disorder just like Fiona. The
article goes on to discuss how eating disorders do not get enough attention from the
public, stating that unlike AIDS or cancer, there is no commercial gain or public acclaim
to be had in understanding eating disorders. The article states that during the past decade
eating disorders rose to an all time high as women rose in the power structure. Feeling fat
has often been a metaphor for feeling powerless for women. This led to women fixing

Morgan Snow

themselves to get the feeling of power that they think comes from being skinny.
Anorexia, self-imposed starvation, is the most common eating disorder found throughout
the world. But worries about being skinny do not just affect those who develop eating
disorders, in a survey held by Glamour Magazine in 1984, it was determined that 33,000
American women would rather lose ten to fifteen pounds than achieve any other goal.
This led to an up rise in the dieting industry, producing around 33 billion dollars a year in
different dieting techniques. Womens preoccupation with food is linked to the obsession
of the female form. From mythology, to renaissance art, to modern advertising, the body
has been advertised as an object of beauty. Therefore women are always engaged in how
their bodies should look based on the bodies that the media, TV, films, magazines, and
billboards, say they should have because in the eyes of women that is the idea of
beautiful. Mair claims that companies whore producing slimming aids are exploiting
womens insecurities. Mary Evans Young states that 90% of women and girls will diet at
some point in their lives and for the majority of them it will not work. The diet industry
has created the problem of making women feel the need to diet. The problem with this is
that most women using these diet plans are not considered overweight at all. Susie
Orbach, author of Fat Is A Feminist Issue, states that most women do not diet for their
health but because they are threatened by media images. This article states a lot of facts
about not only eating disorders but also how fashion influences them. It was backed up
with many sources and provided accurate information. The only part I was not fond of
was when it compared eating disorders to cancer and AIDS, although eating disorders are
very important I think it is a completely separate problem than cancer or AIDS and the
three shouldnt be compared. This article targets all audiences not just stating that fashion

Morgan Snow

is effecting teenage girls but women as well. I will be using the information I have
gathered from this article in my paper. It is very accurate and provides very interesting
facts about eating disorders and the influence of fashion. It will help me describe the
importance of eating disorders and will allow me to provide an example of someone with
one.
Haglund, Kirsten. The Modeling Industry and Body Image. Eating Disorder Hope RSS.
20 May. 2015. Web. 3 Mar. 2016.
This reliable website described the correlation between the modeling industry and
negative body image and how to stop it. According to The New York Times, someone
living in a city sees up to 5,000 ads per a day. Of course most of the ads feature models
used to sale products. Most of these models withhold an implicit standard of beauty. This
ultra thin standard is only naturally occurring in 1% of our population. The article states
that the modeling image is just one factor that plays a role in the influence of how we see
our selves but it is a factor that we can change. Some things Haglund says we need to
know about beauty in society is that it changes overtime. Todays ultra thin appearance
was once considered the not so ideal body. In the 1990s a curvier body was much more
womanly than an extremely thin woman. She states that whatever the body type that is
ideal today could be totally different in five years. Along with that that she says that once
in a panel, a well-known fashion designer stated that part of the reason the industry
prefers women to be so thin is because the material needed to make the clothing is very
expensive and it costs less to clothe a thinner person. The ideal body also changes in
different cultures. Our overweight may very well be their beautiful, a sign of wealth and
prosperity. Haglund says that it is important to recognize the changing in body ideals is

Morgan Snow

not just about the women and men who are feeling targeted but for the health and well
being of the models themselves. In many European countries they are recognizing the
problems of eating disorders and are enforcing healthy body mass index for the models,
as well as supplying them with food and water backstage at shows. Haglund wants you to
create your own culture; she provides an example of this through a girl who protested
against Abercrombie and Fitch for not producing larger sizes in clothing and portraying
ultra thin models. They changed the sizing and models on their clothing website because
of it. To finish off the article she states that in the end the industry isnt the problem. Its
us. People have a great deal of power to demand change and we should use it to make a
difference. This article did a great job of using two sides of the story. Haglund brought in
the opinion of the fashion industry as well as the people. She didnt just criticize the
industry but she told how we could make a difference. She gave good examples of ways
we could help and showed interest in the well being of others. I plan on using parts of this
article in my paper to help explain background on the ideal body and how it has changed.
I will also use this article to show the opinion of the fashion industry and their
explanation on the subject.
Cruz, Jamie. "Body-Image Pressure Increasingly Affects Boys." The Atlantic. Atlantic
Media Company, 10 Mar. 2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2016.
This article from the popular news source, The Atlantic, describes how girls are not the
only ones who are being influenced on how their bodies should look. A new study
published in the January issue of JAMA Pediatrics, discovers that nearly 18% of boys are
highly concerned about their weight and physique. Those who were concerned were more
likely to become depressed and were more susceptible to substance abuse. A doctor at

Morgan Snow

Boston Childrens Hospital, Alison Field, says that you want people to be concerned
about their weight enough to be healthy, not to take whatever means it is to achieve their
desired physique. The difference between girls and boys when it comes to weight concern
is that girls want to be thinner; boys want more muscle mass, meaning gaining more
weight. Although the influence for womens ideal body has not lightened this article
states that the playing field has leveled when it comes to the influence media has on
males. Media is constantly portraying shirtless men with muscular arms and six pack abs.
Mens bodies are not good enough anymore either. Even toys are contributing to the
influence now. Action figures, which are considered the equivalent to Barbie Dolls, have
lost a tremendous amount of fat and gained a substantial amount of muscle. Only one or
two percent of males have that body type, it is unnatural. All of this is leading to males
searching out ways to bulk up. A 2012 study revealed that both middle and high school
boys are influenced to gain muscle. More than a third reported using protein powders and
shakes to boost muscle mass and 10.5 percent admitted to using muscle-enhancing
substances. Along with that according to newer research 1 in 4 males have eating
disorders. Many assume eating disorders only target females but this shows that is not
always the case. This article proves that body image isnt just influencing females that it
is affecting males as well. It gives important facts and information proving that boys are
just as affected by media as girls are. It states that its important not to forget about boys
in this on going body image argument. I will be using this information in my paper to
provide the male point of view to my topic. It is accurate and will be helpful to show the
importance of paying attention to males concerns about weight just as much as you would
a female.