The report also suggests that the Independent Television Commission should review its policy on the use of thin women in advertisements and that schools should implement media literacy programmes to encourage critical viewing skills, especially in the area of food advertising. The publication of the report coincides with a summit on body image run by the government's women's unit. In response to public consultation with teenage girls, Tessa Jowell, the minister for women, will be hosting a meeting later this month to discuss the use of a wider range of images of women. Representatives of modelling agencies, fashion designers, magazine editors, and young women will join experts on eating disorders at the meeting.
Some magazine editors resent the government's initiative, however.
The June issue of Elle will feature Calista Flockhart, star of the television show Ally McBeal, who has been under the scrutiny of the world's media because of her weight. She expressed concern, however, that blaming the media did not address the underlying societal change. The BMA report was compiled in response to a motion at the annual representative meeting two years ago. It highlighted the fact that eating disorders are a culturally bound phenomenon, largely associated with Western industrialised society.