Could the size zero trend to idolise skinny models in the media really cause an eating disorder?
Eating disorders are never caused by just one thing; they have many roots like the roots of a tree, and some of those roots will lie in culture and in the expectation of how thin a woman has to be in order to look attractive. But there are other factors, for example personality and things going on in their families, like pressures from mothers or fathers to lose weight, comments that parent make about their own weight and size, and dieting behaviours in the home. The editor of Vogue (Alexandra Shulman) has said that magazines simply sell images that people want to see, and that the public wouldn’t find a size 14 model attractive. What’s your take on that? Unfortunately, there’s some truth in what she says. The evidence is that if we have very thin models or celebrities on our covers, people are drawn to these images and buy the magazines. It’s a sad fact. I wouldn’t necessarily agree with her totally though. If there were magazines brave enough to put larger models on their covers and
