Looks could kill

Abstract

For some time now, a direct relation has been postulated between media images and disordered eating and indeed research has supported this proposition. The current upsurge in eating disorders among Maltese adolescent girls, is a growing concern. Therefore a qualitative study was carried out using two focus groups, three personal, and two professional interviews to assess the eating habits, diet practices, attitudes, and social and media pressures such girls face today. The research reveals severe body dissatisfaction as a result of pressure emanating from a number of sources, in particular friends and the media. However, extreme, drastic measures of dieting and exercise are not the norm. Rather such action is only really evident among the girls who, in the past suffered somewhat deeper feelings of inadequacy. Interestingly a large part of the insecurities in such girls arose from their lack of a feeling of social acceptability. The results support the assertion that the media is a powerful dictator of today's norm of femininity through its proliferation of 'thinness' images and that such images breed body insecurity but that for an eating disorder to develop, inadequacies other than this norm must be experienced.