Today Sharon was quoted in USA Today in an article, entitled, "Do thin models warp girls' body image?"

So? Of course they do!  Here's an excerpt from the longer article:

Girls today, even very young ones, are being bombarded with the message that they need to be super-skinny to be sexy, says psychologist Sharon Lamb, co-author of Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters From Marketers' Schemes.

It used to be that women would only occasionally see rail-thin models, such as Twiggy, the '60s fashion icon. "But now they see them every day. It's the norm," Lamb says, from ads, catalogs and magazines to popular TV shows such as America's Next Top Model and Project Runway. "They are seeing skinny models over and over again."

On top of that, gaunt images of celebrities such as Nicole Richie and Kate Bosworth are plastered on magazine covers, she says.

What worries Lamb most is that these images are filtering down to girls as young as 9 and 10. Some really sexy clothes are available in children's size 6X, says Lamb, a psychology professor at Saint Michael's College in Colchester, Vt. "Girls are being taught very young that thin and sexy is the way they want to be when they grow up, so they'd better start working on that now," she says.

Lamb believes it's fine for girls to want to feel sexy and pretty when they are teenagers, but that shouldn't be their primary focus. "If they are spending all their time choosing the right wardrobe, trying to dance like an MTV backup girl and applying lip gloss, it robs them of other options."

Some girls don't want to participate in sports because they're afraid they'll bulk up. Some won't try to play an instrument such as a trombone because it doesn't fit their image of what a "girly girl" should do, she says.

ok. it's not exactly poetry but I think I got the message across that super sexy models are much more pervasive in girls' worlds today and that, as a body ideal, the image reaches down to even younger girls.  I also told the journalist that viewing these images has been associated in dozens of studies with girls' lowered self esteem, poor body image, eating disorders, and depression.  Colleagues Sarah Murnen, Janet Hyde, and Monique Ward have all done meta-analyses or literature reviews compiling these studies and showing the results! 

Comments

[Jackie Dupont "Officially Irked"]

I would also like to comment how appalling it is that websites like USA Today's page would capitalize on this distressing social phenomenon that is killing girls - by putting advertisements for DIETS right next to your article!
Just goes to show you how pervasive this message of thin as beautiful really is.

[Sharon Lamb]

Thanks Jackie, for pointing that out. You are so right. Our friend, MJ, who runs www.girlzone.com turns down ads from diet companies for her girl site, although they have pitched the idea to her and she could really support her site by taking them!

[Meredith Knight]

The messages don't stop for older women. I'm always taken aback by the Women's Day and Family Circle and other magazines aimed at women in the check out line. Every odd line is about making some scrumptious dessert, followed by a strategy of how to "walk off the weight" that one gained, presumably, from the aforetomentioned scrumptious dessert!!
We live in a culture of consumption with an underlying thread of guilt associated with that consumption. What is a concerned, everyday girl or woman, to do in light of these conflicting messages?

[heather]

I do not if you have already seen it but if not the new People Mag. that is out highlights this epidimic of young girls losing their lives to eating disorders. It is so sad and I feel so much of it is being highlighted by Hollywood. They are capitalzing on thinness everywhere. Every star that was once healthy looking has become extremely thin and these are the people on every mag. esp. trashy ones. People mag. shows how frightenly thin women are and that women are becoming sicker and sicker.
They show the sad, honest side in the article yet at the same time I felt that they also show how many women suffering from eating disorders thrive on this control and image, being "Pro-Ana" and belonging to clubs that support this ill thinness and destruction. I guess you have to show both sides to the story but personally I wish they would just show how sad and scary these false ideals of beauty are and that nothing is healthy about destroying your body. Nothing.

[Sexy Black Women]

Models today absolutely ward women body images. I'm just glad that girls also have role models with normal figures, like Beyonce.