Thin Body ideal

The thin body ideal is the concept of the ideally slim female body.

The common perception of this ideal is a woman who possesses a slender, feminine physique with a small waist and little body fat. The size that the thin ideal woman should be is decreasing while the rate of female obesity is simultaneously increasing, making this iconic body difficult for women to maintain. This creates a gap between the actual appearance of an average woman's body and its expected appearance which, depending on the extent to which a woman internalizes the necessity of living up to this ideal for her well-being and peace of mind, may have serious psychological effects.

The thin-body ideal is illustrated and fortified by numerous social influences such as family, athletics, peers, schools, doctors, and other health care professionals. However, the greatest social influence behind the thin-body ideal is the mass media (Groesz, Levine, & Murnen, 2002). Depictions of female bodies in the media tend to be unattainable and unrealistically thin (Veldhuis et al., 2014). Actresses on television and magazine models are significantly less curvaceous and have become too thin over time (McCreary & Sasse, 2000). Many studies have shown that the depiction of the thin-body ideal in the media provokes body dissatisfaction as well as other consequences, including objectified body consciousness, negative feelings about one's body, and induced eating disorders (Veldhuis et al., 2014).

Internalization of the thin-body ideal correlates with key facets of objectification theory such as body surveillance and body dissatisfaction (Morrison & Sheahan, 2009). Internalization of the thin-body ideal for women has been associated with dietary restraints that may anticipate eating disorders (Guõnadóttir & Garõarsdóttir, 2014)

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