Right on, sIx. And not all of us are wise enough to know that commercial images of the perfect bod are so unimportant - especially before the tender age of 10. That hype can become a one-way ticket to the hospital - or the grave - or at least few decades, maybe even a lifetime of self-hating misery.

Here's some interesting stats about the Media and Eating Disorders.   

In 1950 mannequins closely resembled the average measurements of women. The average hip measurement of mannequins and women were 34 inches. By 1990 the average hip measurement was 37 inches, while the average mannequins hip measured only 31 inches.

If today's mannequins were actual human women, based on their theoretical body-fat percentages they would have probably ceased to menstruate

Twenty years ago the average fashion model weighed 8% less than the average woman. Today she weighs 23% less.

Kate Moss is 5'7" and weights 95 pounds. That is 30% below ideal body weight.

Supermodels Niki Taylor and Elle Macpherson also meet the Body Mass Index physical criteria for Anorexia.

Gisele Bundchen was Vogue's model of the year, in part the magazine states, because she strays from the rail-thin image. Gisele is 5'11" and weights only 115, that is 25% below her ideal body weight.

Four out of five U.S. women are dissatisfied with their appearance.

81% of ten-year-old girls are afraid of being fat.

Over one half of normal weight white adolescent girls consider themselves fat.

Following viewing images of female fashion models, seven out of ten women felt more depressed and angrier than prior to viewing the images.


That last point and this little poem by one sufferer of an eating disorder may help explain why some people react to "supermodelling" with annoyance or disapproval.

"One day I actually picked up one of those subscription cards
That are always falling out of magazines
It was dropped by a woman who was everything I wanted to be
Beautiful
(thin)
tall
(thin)
rich
(thin)
successful
(thin)
perfect
(and God, she was thin)

perfect.

I looked down at myself,
My mediocre self
And I thought it was time to get a subscription
I took the card home and filled it out
And dropped it in the mailbox
Not knowing that when I signed my name I also signed away
Freedom
Peace of mind
Health
Hope
And happiness

When the issues started coming
I soaked them in greedily
But still I remained nothing more than me
And I thought
This isn't working, I have to try harder
So I found a community
Of people like me
And we shared what we were
What we should be
And how we should get there.
Some of us succeeded and some of us failed,
Some of us got fed-up and stopped reading
Some of us got the magazine ripped out of our hands,
And some of us died.

I never thought it would go this far, never thought that at
21
I'd be thankful to be alive
I tried to cancel my subscription, but was denied.
Didn't you read the fine print?
Once you signed you are stuck with me for life
A never ending barrage of models and
Grapefruit diets and
How to please your man and
How to tone your thighs and
How to slowly kill yourself by aiming for the unattainable.

I shove each new magazine in the back of my closet
But something in me can't bear to throw them out,
All those back issues of angst and devotion
I admit sometime my curiosity gets the better of my
Common sense
And I open the pages just to see what's new inside
Just to see
And God they are thin (perfect)
But it's not hard to seem flawless when you're
Two-dimensional.

I looked down at my arms and I turned them and
Pinched the flesh I tried for nine years to melt away
I sighed with the resignation that
I was 3-D.
I stood up and left my house and started
To resume my life."