Playboy Playmates vs. Natural Beauty: Portrayals of the Female Form in Media

In this month's Wired magazine, there was an article that compared the Body Mass Index (BMI) values of Playboy Playmates to those of the general population. They plotted the BMI values of every Playboy centerfold from December 1953 to January 2009. Alongside this, they plotted the average BMI of American women age 20-29. An interesting trend emerged. The BMI of American women has been increasing since the 1950s, thanks to McDonald's, childhood obesity, and the like. The BMI of Playboy Playmates, however, has been decreasing over the years. This means too, that the difference in BMI between the average American woman and the Playboy Playmate is at its highest ever. In the 1960s, the difference between the BMI of the average American woman and the Playmates was only 2.8. By 2002, the difference rose more than three-fold to about 8.6. This difference is staggering, and reflects the disparity between what society deems physically attractive and what is actually normal or real. Women in today's society are bigger than they have ever been. But depictions of women's bodies in the media have not reflected this fact. Instead, media depictions have been far out of touch from reality, portraying a thin and curvaceous female form as ideal. This in turn affects society's perceptions of the female body. Women often aspire to a body weight that is unattainable or unhealthy. Men often find unrealistically proportioned women attractive and sexy; body shapes that are not based in reality. Both society and the media have placed great value on a female form that is disparate from what is real and normal. This ought to be a cause for concern, for it is this disparity has contributed immensely to the rise of eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. It should be the responsibility of the media, especially companies that profit from these images of unattainable beauty, to understand their impact on women's perceptions of their bodies.

Messages in the media about the ideal body shape and size of women impact girls from an early age. Disney movies, for example, while portraying stories of moral excellence or romantic fantasy, also stand to depict the “perfect” female form. According to Danielle Travall, one can see that “each Disney heroine possesses a petite waistline, perfectly proportioned facial structures, skin-tight, skin-baring garments, and voluptuous curves that attract members of the opposite sex” (see picture right). These Disney Princesses, characters that so many little girls admire and emulate, perpetuate the message that thinner and curvier are perfect. It is unfortunate that Disney animators, in trying to turn a profit, portray such an unattainable and unhealthy body shape as ideal. By creating characters that are "perfectly beautiful," they can sell more merchandise to kids. In addition, it seems such messages seem to have some effect on kids. A study by a University of California professor showed that nearly 80 percent of fourth-grade girls in the Bay Area are watching their weight.

Disney is not the only company that serves to profit from selling and portraying the idealized feminine form. Indeed, the cosmetic and fashion industries also depict the “perfect” female body to help sell its products. In these industries, utilizing models with unrealistic or often unattainable body shapes sends the message “use our cream, wear our dress, and you will be thin, beautiful, and sexy.” Like the trend seen in the Playboy Playmates, models in these industries have also strayed from reality over time. According to the Media Awareness Network, “Twenty years ago, the average model weighed 8 per cent less than the average woman—but today’s models weigh 23 per cent less.” The message is thus clear. Women today are bombarded with images that idealize the thin and curvaceous feminine form. It is these images that are held as the paragon of beauty by society.

And that is where the problem arises. Ultimately, these images of idealized beauty are often unattainable by normal women without extreme dieting and exercise. In fact, pictures of women in magazines are oftentimes airbrushed to appear thinner and more curvaceous, such that our concept of the perfect body isn't a real body at all; its a computer altered image. Studies have shown that exposure to these images of unattainable beauty “is linked to depression, loss of self-esteem and the development of unhealthy eating habits in women and girls.” Anorexia and Bulimia are pervasive problems that have had increased incidence over the years, and most often affect women in Western countries. The messages that the media disseminates do not operate in a vacuum. Although industries profit from associating their products with thin feminine forms, they are in a sense setting up women to try to achieve a body shape that is impossible. Women thus resort to unhealthy measures, such as starvation and vomiting to live up to impossible standards.

The situation, however, is not all bad. One company, Dove, has embarked on an advertising campaign that completely goes against the notion of unattainable beauty as ideal beauty (see figure top left). They call it The Campaign for Real Beauty Worldwide. According to their site, the campaign is meant to “help free us....from beauty stereotypes.” In addition, they have started a self-esteem fund that supports self-esteem building workshops around the country. Although an advertising model that goes so counter to the establishment is difficult for many companies to pull off, Dove's move represents a marked shift in the industry; it recognizes the fact that beauty stereotypes exist. Disney, too, has come a long way. In a recent film Lilo and Stitch, the main character Lilo is not shown as thin and sexy, but of normal weight, wearing a hawaiian shirt and flip flops.

Although it is impossible to change all messages in the media to present a more realistic depiction of beauty, there are some steps that have been taken in the right direction. Some may argue that removing idealized forms of beauty, especially in advertising campaigns and movies, would hurt profits. This may be true. But the unseen cost is that such media messages perpetuate the idea that normal body shape isn't good enough. Dove, for one, has shown that it is possible to turn a profit while still breaking stereotypes of beauty. Perhaps other companies and forms of media will follow.