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When researchers began studying the link between women’s body image and images of women in the media, the focus was on fashion magazines, movies, and television programs. More recently, scientists have studied the impact of social media imagery on women’s body image. But a new study out of Australia takes on the impact of a relatively ignored source of exposure to highly edited media images of women: online shopping websites. In this study, researchers found evidence that online shopping for a particular category of clothing—activewear—may have an especially negative impact on women’s body image and self-esteem.
At this point, it’s widely acknowledged that media images of women tend to feature a body and beauty ideal that is unattainable for most women. Advertisers in particular tend to start with a group of models who are much taller, thinner, and younger than most women. They then Photoshop and otherwise edit the images of these women until they look very little like a woman you could actually see in everyday life. Looking at these types of images tends to worsen mood and body image, as women compare themselves to an ideal against which they will almost always fall short. Unfortunately,
