Revenge of the Size 12 Woman

CULTURAL IDEALS GET A MAKEOVER





THAT ZAFTIG REDHEAD hawking body lotion on the 20-foot billboard? The three-by-four-foot poster of a woman unapologetically embracing her thunder thighs? Yep, they're talking to you. And if you're a woman, your're listening.

Women will compare themselves to pictures of superthin models more than to pics of regular women only when accompanying text reinforces the "need" to be slender and attractive. Otherwise, new research published in Body Image finds, they're much more likely to relate to everyday models. And, ad mavens hope, buy what's on offer.

Lars Perner, a professor of marketing at USC not affiliated with the study, related the phenomenon to the use of celebs in ads. "Although there may be a drive to try to be like celebrities, models who are more like consumers are often seen as more relevant role models. People are more likely to imitate those are more like themselves" Score one for big girls-and one for the Big Beauty as well.

-Jocelyn Voo

Psychology Today
February 2007