by Andrea Napier

Created on: March 05, 2009

In this day and age, being beautiful and thin is "chic" and is the new norm in the U.S. Pick up any fashion magazine and it is evident that fashion advertisements showcasing thin and waif-like models are causing severe problems with American youths. The perception is that one must be skinny in order to be recognized or be successful and that perception is misleading. This trend in advertising causes impressionable girls and young women to have a low self-image and in turn, many young girls strive to be thin and develop eating disorders.

Average American women are not the same size as models, but most fashion magazine advertisements, such as in Vogue Magazine, have photos and advertisements featuring sickly thin women. The average American woman is 5'4", weighs 140 lbs, and wears a size 14 dress. "Beautiful, young people belonged on the escapist pages of a fashion magazine, not real women of different sizes," Vogue editor Kirstie Clements said. Even the photographs of these already thin women are airbrushed and altered to make them look even thinner. Models featured in advertisements are not accurate or relevant representations of the female form and when they are altered even more, the message going out to young women is warped. That is absolutely defined as false advertising.

Fashion magazines market to young women, more specifically, ages 15 to 25. That being said, 95% of those who have eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 25. There is a strong correlation between fashion magazine advertising and eating disorders when it is considered that the readers of magazines are ages 12 to 25 and eating disorders dominate in the ages 12 to 15. Adolescent girls and young women compare themselves to these skinny models and eating disorders are becoming more prominent in young women due to the advertising.

This alarming trend in fashion advertising has caught the attention of many people, including Australian Youth Minister Kate Ellis. Ellis wants a national code of conduct to be finalized this year after the success of a Victorian program introduced in April, a code where advertisers and magazines would be encouraged to use fewer skinny models and feature real women with healthy body sizes. Also, according to Markson, if the code were enforced, magazines and advertisers would be forced to disclose whether a model's image had been digitally enhanced. A similar campaign launched by the Dove Corporation, known as the Dove Campaign, features proud women of all shapes in sizes in their ads and has had great response all over the world.

If the code were implemented all over the world, eating disorders and self-image issues among young women may be cut in half. The national code that Ellis wishes to launch and enforce "would be complemented by an advertising campaign aimed at teenagers to promote positive body images, along with support services and programs to help young people suffering from eating disorders." Until such a plan is implemented, young women continue to struggle because of false advertising in fashion magazines.

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