Female Body‐shape in Print Advertisements and the Increase in Anorexia Nervosa Available to Purchase

It is widely believed that contemporary female fashion and advertising models are thinner than those of the 1950s and it has been suggested that the use of thin models in advertisements is causally linked to the increased incidence of anorexia nervosa. Reports on a study to quantify the changes in the body‐shape and weight of female models in New Zealand print advertisements over the period of 1958‐88. The findings confirmed that advertising models became thinner and less curvaceous over the period studied, resulting in contemporary models being approximately 8.5kg lighter than they would be if they had the same body‐shape as models of the early 1960s. To achieve the currently fashionable body‐shape, a young woman of average height would weigh approximately 42kg, which is far below the recommended level for good health. Visually, the changes in body‐shape have been accentuated by changes in pose and camera angle, presenting an image of a body‐shape that is unattainable.