In pursuit of the ideal, women exhaust themselves with diets, do liposuction … But what if we are wrong? What if, in fact, both women and men like parameters that are far from model ones?
The fashion industry has long been criticized for promoting an unrealistically thin female body. In the 1980s, researchers were able to prove that men are not at all as fond of a thin physique as we used to believe.
In the press, this discovery was interpreted as evidence that men find skinny supermodels unattractive, preferring curvaceous. And 40 years later, articles in popular publications are full of quotes from these articles.
Northwestern University psychology professor Rene Engeln and colleague Sarah N. Johnson set out to test the claim that women find thin models attractive and men find them too thin.
The results showed that both men and women overestimate the attractiveness of fashion models for the opposite sex. Both are mistaken.
In earlier studies, scientists used a scale of drawings with female silhouettes. And Rene Engeln and his group used real photos of supermodels. At least three-quarters of the body was visible on them, and the faces were covered so that their features did not affect the choice.
We see the figures of fashion models, they create in our minds a certain image, an ideal that women consciously and unconsciously strive for
More than 1000 volunteers rated how attractive they found each participant’s body and how thin she was, on a scale from “too thin” to “too fat”. In addition, men guessed what the assessment of women would be, and women tried to predict the opinion of men.
The results of the studies led to one conclusion: women greatly overestimated how much men like the impeccable bodies of fashion models. At the same time, men also made mistakes when trying to evaluate the models on behalf of the survey participants.
Men thought women thought thin bodies were perfect. And women assumed the same about men. In fact, both of them noted that the models are too thin.
Research data again shows that men are attracted to women with fuller bodies than what we see in fashion magazine photos. But not all women listen to this argument. The image of an attractive female body in many of the fairer sex was formed in childhood.
From an early age, we look at advertising images, heroines of popular films, actresses and style icons. We see the figures of fashion models, and they create in our minds a certain image, an ideal that women consciously and unconsciously strive for. Even the ill-fated Barbie doll lives up to the same unattainable standard.
It is quite natural that, growing up, we begin to have complexes if our individuality, uniqueness does not correspond to this image.
The desire of women to reshape their bodies according to the set standards brings great benefits to business. All kinds of weight loss products, programs and marathons, books about magical diets, plastic surgery … The list of those who profit from this female delusion is very extensive.
Trends such as body positivity and the attraction of more complete models for advertising, as a rule, are not accepted by everyone. In some cases, this is simply an attempt by brands to play on the new mood in the public mind and win the trust of buyers.
That is why it is worth once again paying attention to the positive message of psychological research. Both men and women mostly vote for more realistic body shapes, and not for the images that the fashion industry promotes. And if the size range of models on the catwalks expands, and in magazines we see more bodies “for life”, and not just for a profitable display of clothes, this will surely attract more benevolent responses than criticism from the general public.