Pictures portraying images of beauty in other cultures and in other historical periods are useful in demonstrating how ideals are socially constructed. A study of women who were Playboy centrefolds and Miss America pageant contestants has shown their body weights and shapes progressively diminished between 1959 and 1979. Over these same twenty years, however, there has been an increase in the average weight for women in the general population, particularly those in young adulthood. Thus, there is a growing disparity between the ideal and reality. One good way of demonstrating this is by collecting and discussing images of women in fashion magazines.
Women respond to pressures to be thin by dieting.
More than 80 per cent of women dislike their bodies, and dieting is becoming a concern of women of all ages, from nine year-olds to the very old. Women are constantly told to diet and are made to feel guilty for eating. A survey of women's magazines during the period from 1970 to 1978 found the number of diet articles had doubled from the previous decade. Advertisers, movies and television programs use deeper societal pressures to be thin to sell their products. Having thin women model expensive products and play glamorous characters works to link thinness with wealth, success and happiness.