ABSTRACT
The third edition of this volume marks the first time a chapter has been devoted to media effects on body image and disordered eating. In the past 10 years there has been an explosion of advanced theory and research concerning sociocultural factors in general and mass media in particular (see, e.g., Cash & Prusinky, 2002; Thompson, Heinberg, Altabe, & Tantleff-Dunn, 1999). Few media effects research areas have grown so rapidly in such a short time. Every day millions of people of all ages, including many as young as 2 years old, are engaged with a wide variety of media that extol the virtues of an extremely lean body. As we will demonstrate, it is neither possible nor defensible to interpret this fact as a public health issue of marginal importance, relevant only to a handful of privileged White American teenage girls.
