ABSTRACT
Given the status of current theory and research and the many complicated effects being proposed, we analyze the relation between mass media and disordered eating by addressing some ostensibly simple questions (after Harris, 1994):
TABLE 10.1 A Sample of the Proposed Negative Effects of Mass Media in Relation to
Eating Disorders
• Promotion of the importance (i.e., the reality) of image as substance • Advocacy of individuality while restricting standards of physical beauty to a
narrow range • Creation of slenderness as the "gold standard" for a narrow range of ideal body
shapes, which in turn creates widespread anxiety, self-consciousness, and dissatisfaction about body weight and body shape
• Glorification of slenderness as a testament to beauty, fitness, and feminine morality
• Promotion of slenderness as the path to social, sexual, and occupational success for women
• Open abhorrence of fat and fat women • Emphasis on the possibility, desirability, and safety of personal transformation
through fashion and dieting • Establishment of gender roles based on impossible expectations • Simultaneous dramatization and obfuscation of the issues of indulgence and self-
control
heterogeneous, and essentially anonymous audience (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 1994; Harris, 1994). The messages serve many purposes, including entertainment, education, government, and, of course, engagement of huge groups of people so that advertisers can sell them products. Children, adolescents, and adults interact with a wide variety of mass media, including television, music delivered by compact discs and radio, and telecommunications available through personal computers. In fact, books and articles about eating disorders in and of themselves constitute a form of mass media that may be contributing to proliferation of those disorders (Gordon, 1990; Murray, Touyz, & Beumont, 1990). In this chapter we focus on television and fashion magazines because they traffic in potentially powerful visual images, they are sustained by advertising, and they have been the target of considerable criticism by advocates of a sociocultural perspective in understanding eating disorders.
