Under the current trend of obsession with appearance and beauty, many young women who have dissatisfied with their look have gone on a diet and plastic surgery to have a thinner and more beautiful look. This study investigated if the mass media has ha...
Under the current trend of obsession with appearance and beauty, many young women who have dissatisfied with their look have gone on a diet and plastic surgery to have a thinner and more beautiful look. This study investigated if the mass media has had a great influence on current lookism, focusing on female college and high-school students. For the sake of analysis, the mass media are narrowed down to TV and magazines.
In this paper, 6 hypotheses were stated and empirically tested as follows: 1^(st) hypothesis: a woman who often watches thin-ideal TV programs would gradually dissatisfy with her body. 2^(nd) hypothesis: a woman who often watches thin-ideal TV programs would go on a diet. 3^(rd) hypothesis: a woman who often watches thin-ideal TV programs would approve with a plastic surgery if possible. The hypotheses from 4^(th) to 6th are about magazines. 4^(th) hypothesis: a woman who often reads thin-ideal magazines would gradually dissatisfy with her body. 5^(th) hypothesis: a woman who often reads thin-ideal magazines would go on a diet. 6^(th) hypothesis: a woman who often reads thin-ideal magazines would approve with a plastic surgery if possible.
In order to collect the data on the said hypotheses, this paper has conducted a questionnaire survey to female college students, female high-school students, and female graduate students. In terms of TV, the two most popular genres (soap opera and entertainment) were chosen. Then, TV-watching frequency (0=never, 4=very often) was asked to female high-school students and female college students. Then, the top 10 programs in terms of the level of standard deviation were chosen in the two genres. In case of the questionnaire survey to the graduate student group, the participants evaluated the female guests’ appearance on each TV program (1=very fat, 7=very thin). The mean value of each program was multiplied by the mean value of TV-watching frequency. Then, all the figures were summed up. The summed value was used as the level of ‘exposure to thin-ideal TV programs.’
In case of magazines, fashion and trend related magazines that often expose thin woman models and actresses were chosen as thin-ideal magazines. Then, the exposure frequency was evaluated. In case of dependent variables, the body dissatisfaction was segmented to face, breast, mid-body (belly, waist, arms), lower-body (hip, thigh), and overall dissatisfaction. In case of diet, it was classified into eating behavior, awareness, other behaviors (more active, go on a recent popular diet, professional body-care), and the overall diet. They were evaluated just like the body dissatisfaction based on 5-point scale (1=never, 5=very much).
Lastly, with regard to the questions about plastic surgery (1=never want to, 5=already done), five types of plastic surgeries including the facial plastic surgery were asked. In order to evaluate the pure influence of TV exposure, control variables were stated. For control variables, 5 topics were chosen such as body-shape related exercise, fitness, nutrition, diet, and participants were asked how interested they would be in a hypothetical new television show if it covered each of five separate topics. (0=never, 4=very interested)
The collected data were analyzed by ANOVA, ANCOVA, and linear regression. The results are as follows: When the results between female high-school student group and female college student group were combined, in case of the body dissatisfaction due to the exposure to thin-ideal TV programs, the difference between lower-than mean group and higher-than mean group was significant in terms of breast and mid-body. In terms of diet, it has turned out that the overall diet and other behaviors were significant. When the two groups were compared, the difference was partially significant in terms of overall diet and other behaviors. In terms of plastic surgery, no influence was found in regression analysis. However, when the two groups were compared, the difference was significant.
With regard to the exposure to magazines, no influence was found in terms of body dissatisfaction. In terms of diet, the influence was found in overall diet, awareness, and other behavioral diets. When two groups (‘Never” group and “Very much” group) were compared, the difference was found in overall diet and awareness. Lastly, the plastic surgery part was verified in both regression analysis and ANOVA.
When the results were compared between the two groups (female high-school student group and female college student group) as shown above, in case of the body dissatisfaction due to the exposure to thin-ideal TV programs, the body dissatisfaction in mid-body was found in former group only. In case of diet, it has also turned out that the former group only was influenced in terms of eating behavior and overall diet. In terms of plastic surgery, no influence was found in both groups.
In case of body dissatisfaction due to the exposure to thin-ideal magazines, the body dissatisfaction in mid-body was found in female high-school student group only. In case of diet, it has turned out that the female high-school student group was influenced in terms of awareness, other behavioral diet, and overall diet while the female college student group was influenced in terms of other behavioral diet. In terms of plastic surgery, lastly, it has turned out that both groups were influenced.