Cross-cultural-generational perceptions of ideal body image: Hispanic women and magazine standards

Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly

Volumn 81, Issue 1, 2004, Pages 89-107

  Pompper, Donnalyn ^a   Koenig, Jesica ^a  

^a FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

LATINO PEOPLE;

EID: 2942691715     PISSN: 10776990     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/107769900408100107     Document Type: Article

References (113)

1. Thomas F. Cash and Timothy A. Brown, "Gender and Body Images: Stereotypes and Realities," Sex Roles 21 (September 1989): 361-73;
2. Judith Rodin, "Cultural and Psychosocial. Determinants of Weight Concerns," Annals of Internal Medicine 119 (October 1993): 643-45;
3. William E. Snell Jr. and Georgette Johnson, "The Multidimensional Psychology of Eating Questionnaire" (paper presented at the annual meeting, Southwestern Psychological Association, San Antonio, TX, 1995).
4. The terms "Hispanic" and "Latino/a" are used interchangeably throughout this study to describe a U.S. resident who self-identifies with a heritage rooted in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Central America, or South America. Similarly, the terms " Caucasian" and "Anglo" also are used interchangeably. Although we use such terms, we agree with cultural theorists' position that "Latinos do not comprise even a relatively homogenous ethnicity."
5. See Juan Flores, Divided Borders: Essays on Puerto Rican Identity (Houston: Arte Publico Press, 1993), 199.
6. Arnold E. Anderson and Lisa DiDomenico, "Diet vs. Shape Content of Popular Male and Female Magazines: A Dose-Response Relationship to the Incidence of Eating Disorders?" International Journal of Eating Disorders 11 (April 1992): 283-87;
7. Cash and Brown, "Gender and Body Images: Stereotypes and Realities";
8. Lisa M. Groesz, Michael P. Levine, and Sarah K. Murnen, "The Effect of Experimental Presentation of Thin Media Images on Body Satisfaction: A Meta-Analytic Review," International Journal of Eating Disorders 31 (January 2002): 1-16;
9. Amy R. Malkin, Kimberlie Wornian, and Joan C. Chrisler, "Women and Weight: Gendered Messages on Magazine Covers," Sex Roles 40 (April 1999): 647-55;
10. Jody S. Oomen, "Body Messages in Popular Men's and Women's Health and Fashion Magazines from 1991-1995: A Content Analysis" (unpublished master's thesis, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, 1997);
11. Brett Silverstein, Lauren Perdue, Barbara Peterson, and Eileen Kelley, "The Role of Mass Media in Promoting a Thin Standard of Bodily Attractiveness for Women," Sex Roles 14 (May 1986): 519-32. According to Carolyn Kitch, the magazine medium is used more by women than men and is a "primary forum for public definitions of attractiveness and ideal style."
12. See Carolyn Kitch, Selling the "Boomer Babes:" More, My Generation, and the "New" Middle Age, 2003 [online]. [cited 25 March 2003]. Available from the World Wide Web: .
13. Malkin, Wornian, and Chrisler, "Women and Weight: Gendered Messages on Magazine Covers";
14. Oomen, "Body Messages in Popular Men's and Women's Health and Fashion Magazines from 1991-1995: A Content Analysis";
15. Silverstein et al., "The Role of Mass Media in Promoting a Thin Standard of Bodily Attractiveness for Women";
16. Claire V. Wiseman, James J. Gray, James E. Mosimann, and Anthony H. Ahrens, "Cultural Expectations of Thinness in Women: An Update," International Journal of Eating Disorders 11 (January 1992 : 85-89. According to Angela McRobbie, "the magazine embodies the stereotype of objectified femininity, unachievable and unreal."
17. See Angela McRobbie, "More! New Sexualities in Girls' and Women's Magazines" in Back to Reality?: Social Experience and Cultural Studies, ed. Angela McRobbie (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997).
18. Kimberly L. Bissell and Peiqin Zhou, "Must See TV or ESPN: Entertainment and Sports Media Exposure and Body Image Distortion in College Women" (paper presented at the annual convention, AEJMC, Miami, FL, 2002).
19. What Causes Eating Disorders [online]. Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders, Inc. [cited 3 April 2003]. Available from the World Wide Web: .
20. Eric Stice, Erika Schupak-Neuberg, Heather E. Shaw, and Richard I. Stein, "The Relation of Media Exposure to Eating Disorder Symptomatology: An Examination of Mediating Mechanisms," Journal of Abnormal Psychology 103 (November 1994): 835-60; The 90's Woman and Other Stories. Stellenbosch Journalism Insight, 1996 [online]. [cited 19 June 2002]. Available from the World Wide Web: .
21. See David M. Garner, Marion P. Olmsted, and Janet Polivy, Eating disorder inventory-2 (Lutz, FL: American Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc., 1991);
22. David M. Garner, Marion P. Olmstead, and Janet Polivy, "Development and Validation of a Multidimensional Eating Disorder Inventory for Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia," International Journal of Eating Disorders 2 (winter 1983): 15-34.
23. William H. Sheldon, Stanley S. Stevens, and William B. Tucker, Varieties of Human Physique: An Introduction to Constitutional Psychology (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1940).
24. Carol Saltus, Bodyscopes: Your Guide to How Body Structure Reveals the Secrets of Personality (New York: Bantam Books, 1986).
25. Kay K. Abrams, La Rue Allen, and James J. Gray, "Disordered Eating Attitudes and Behaviors, Psychological Adjustment, and Ethnic Identity: A Comparison of Black and White Female College Students," International Journal of Eating Disorders 14 (July 1993): 49-57;
26. Gloria E. Akan and Carlos M. Grilo, "Sociocultural Influences on Eating Attitudes and Behaviors, Body Image, and Psychological Functioning: A Comparison of African-American and Caucasian College Women," International Journal of Eating Disorders 18 (September 1995): 181-87.
27. Susan Bordo, Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body (Berkley, CA: University of California Press, 1993).
28. Marian L. Fitzgibbon, Bonnie Spring, Mary E. Avellone, Lisa R. Blackman, Regina Pingitore, and Melinda R. Stolley, "Correlates of Binge Eating in Hispanic, Black, and White Women," International Journal of Eating Disorders 24 (July 1998): 43-52;
29. Katherine J. Miller, David H. Gleaves, Tera G. Hirsch, Bradley A. Green, Alicia C. Snow, and Chanda C. Corbett, " Comparisons of Body Image Dimensions by Race/Ethnicity and Gender in a University Population," International Journal of Eating Disorders 27 (April 2000): 310-316;
30. Jane E. Smith and Jonathan Krejci, "Minorities Join the Majority: Eating Disturbances Among Hispanic and Native American Youth," International Journal of Eating Disorders 10 (March 1991): 179-86;
31. Mary Story, Simone A. French, Michael D. Resnick, and Robert W. Blum, "Ethnic/Racial and Socioeconomic Differences in Dieting Behaviors and Body Image Perceptions in Adolescents," International Journal of Eating Disorders 18 (September 1995): 173-79.
32. Mary B. Harris and Kathleen M. Koehler, "Eating and Exercise Behaviors and Attitudes of Southwestern Anglos, and Hispanics," Psychology and Health 7 (October 1992): 165-74.
33. Robyn J. Goodman, "Flabless Is Fabulous: How Latina and Anglo Women Read and Incorporate the Excessively Thin Body Ideal Into Everyday Experience," Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 79 (autumn 2002): 712-27.
34. Goodman, "Flabless Is Fabulous: How Latina and Anglo Women Read and Incorporate the Excessively Thin Body Ideal Into Everyday Experience."
35. T. D. Jackson and Carlos M. Grilo, "Weight and Eating Concerns in Men and Women in Outpatient Treatment for Substance Abuse," Eating and Weight Disorders 7 (December 2002): 276-83.
36. What Causes Eating Disorders [online]. Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders, Inc. [cited 3 April 2003]. Available from the World Wide Web: .
37. Esther Madriz, "Focus groups in feminist research" in Handbook of Qualitative Research, 2d ed., ed. Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc., 2000).
38. Albert Bandura, Social Learning Theory (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1977).
39. See Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality (New York: Anchor Books Doubleday, 1966);
40. Nancy Signorielli and Michael Morgan, Cultivation Analysis: New Directions in Media Effects Research (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1990);
41. George Gerbner, Larry Gross, Michael Morgan, and Nancy Signorielli, "The 'Mainstreaming' of America: Violence Profile No. 11," Journal of Communication 30 (summer 1980): 10-29;
42. Nancy Signorielli, Mass Media Images and Impact on Health: A Sourcebook (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993).
43. Leon Festinger, "A Theory of Social Comparison Processes," Human Relations 7 (1954): 117-40. Even though Festinger's study was published in the 1950s, it wasn't until 1984 that SCT was celebrated at the American Psychological Association convention. SCT's linkage to attribution theory resulted in renewed interest in comparison processes.
44. See George R. Goethals, "Social Comparison Theory: Psychology from the Lost and Found," Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 12 (September 1986): 261-78.
45. See Bissell and Zhou, "Must See TV or ESPN: Entertainment and Sports Media Exposure and Body Image Distortion in College Women";
46. Renee A. Botta, "Television Images and Adolescent Girls' Body Image Disturbance," Journal of Communication 49 (spring 1999): 22-41;
47. Renee A. Botta, "The Mirror of Television: A Social Comparison of Black and White Adolescents' Body Image," Journal of Communication 50 (summer 2000): 144-59;
48. Arie W. Kruglanski and Ofra Mayseless, "Classic and Current Social Comparison Research: Expanding the Perspective," Psychological Bulletin 42 (September 1990): 108-133.
49. Sarah Grogan, Body Images: Understanding Body Dissatisfaction in Men, Women, and Children (New York: Routledge, 1999); Bordo, Unbearable Weight.
50. See Botta, "Television Images and Adolescent Girls' Body Image Disturbance";
51. Botta, "The Mirror of Television: A Social Comparison of Black and White Adolescents' Body Image."
52. Abrams, Allen, and Gray, "Disordered Eating Attitudes and Behaviors, Psychological Adjustment, and Ethnic Identity: A Comparison of Black and White Female College Students";
53. Akan and Grilo, "Sociocultural Influences on Eating Attitudes and Behaviors, Body Image, and Psychological Functioning: A Comparison of African-American and Caucasian College Women";
54. Shanette M. Harris, "Racial Differences in Predictors of College Women's Body Image Attitudes," Women & Health 21 (summer 1994): 89-105.
55. Mediated images of alcohol and tobacco have been blamed for unhealthful behaviors. The negative implications of these products for a person's health rarely are shown in mass media content. Cigarette advertisements in magazines commonly have been associated with images of beauty and health. Furthermore, between 1960 and 1984, cigarette advertising targeted toward youth and women steadily has increased. See David G. Altman, Michael D. Slater, Cheryl L. Albright, and Nathan Maccoby, "How an Unhealthy Product Is Sold: Cigarette Advertising in Magazines, 1960-1985," Journal of Communication 37 (autumn 1987): 95-106;
56. William J. McEwen and Gerhard Hanneman, "The Depiction of Drug Use in Television Programming," Journal of Drug Education 4 (fall 1974): 281-94;
57. Lawrence Wallack, Joel W. Grube, and Patricia A. Madden, "Portrayals of Alcohol on Prime-Time Television," Journal of Studies on Alcohol 51 (September 1990): 428-37.
58. Mary Pipher, Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls (New York: Putnam, 1994);
59. Kristen Harrison and Joanne Cantor, "The Relationship between Media Consumption and Eating Disorders," Journal of Communication 47 (winter 1997): 40-68.
60. Groesz, Levine, and Murnen, "The Effect of Experimental Presentation of Thin Media Images on Body Satisfaction: A Meta-Analytic Review";
61. Rodin, "Cultural and Psychosocial Determinants of Weight Concerns."
62. David Abrahamson, Rebecca L. Bowman, Mark R. Greer, and William B. Yeado, A Quantitative Analysis of U.S. Consumer Magazines: A Ten-Year Longitudinal Study of Transformation [online]. [cited 25 March 2003]. Available from the World Wide Web: .
63. Louise C. Weston and Josephine A. Ruggiero, "The Popular Approach to Women's Health Issues: A Content Analysis of Women's Magazines in the 1970's," Women and Health 10 (winter 1985-86): 47-62.
64. Susan J. Douglas, Where the Girls Are: Growing up Female with the Mass Media (New York: Times Books, 1994);
65. Susan Faludi, Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women (New York: Crown, 1991);
66. Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (New York: Norton, 1963);
67. Ellen McCracken, Decoding Women's Magazines: From Mademoiselle to Ms. (London: Macmillan, 1993);
68. Janice Winship, Inside Women's Magazines (New York: Pandora Press, 1987).
69. Carolyn Kitch, The Girl on the Magazine Cover: The Origins of Visual Stereotypes in American Mass Media (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001), 14.
70. Donnalyn Pompper and Brian Feeney, Traditional Narratives Resurrected: The Gulf War on Life Magazine Covers, 2002 [online]. [cited 10 April 2003]. Available from the World Wide Web: .
71. Malkin, Wornian, and Chrisler, "Women and Weight: Gendered Messages on Magazine Covers."
72. Abrahamson et al., A Quantitative Analysis of U.S. Consumer Magazines: A Ten-Year Longitudinal Study of Transformation.
73. Wiseman et al., "Cultural Expectations of Thinness in Women: An Update."
74. Oomen, "Body Messages in Popular Men's and Women's Health and Fashion Magazines from 1991-1995: A Content Analysis."
75. Carol J. Nemeroff, Richard I. Stein, Nancy S. Diehl, and Karen M. Smilack, "From the Cleavers to the Clintons: Role Choices and Body Orientation as Reflected in Magazine Article Content," International Journal of Eating Disorders 16 (September 1994): 167-77;
76. Silverstein et al., "The Role of Mass Media in Promoting a Thin Standard of Bodily Attractiveness for Women."
77. Anderson and DiDomenico, "Diet vs. Shape Content of Popular Male and Female Magazines: A Dose-Response Relationship to the Incidence of Eating Disorders?"
78. Harrison and Cantor, "The Relationship between Media Consumption and Eating Disorders."
79. Among high school girls with unhealthy weight-control practices, researchers found that 80% of those who vomit, 73% who use appetite suppressants or weight-control pills, 60% who took laxatives, and 60% who restricted their diets to 1,200 daily calories were frequent (at least once a month) readers of health and fitness magazines. See M. Mitka, "Magazine Ideals Wrong," Journal of American Medical Associationas 286 (July 2001): 409.
80. Abrahamson et al., A Quantitative Analysis of U.S. Consumer Magazines: A Ten-Year Longitudinal Study of Transformation.
81. Melissa Therrien and Roberto R. Ramirez, "The Hispanic population in the U.S.," Current Population Reports (Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau, March 2000), 20-535.
82. Women of Hispanic Origin in the Labor Force, 1997 [online]. [cited 29 November 2001]. Available from the World Wide Web: .
83. Latinas on the Rise, 2002 [online]. [cited 1 November 2002]. Available from the World Wide Web: .
84. Charles R. Taylor and Hae-Kyong Bang, "Portrayals of Latinos in Magazine Advertising," Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 74 (summer 1997): 285-303.
85. Melissa Johnson, "Looks Like Me? Body Image in U.S. Hispanic Women's Magazines" (paper presented at the annual convention, AEJMC, New Orleans, LA, 1999).
86. Goodman, "Flabless Is Fabulous: How Latina and Anglo Women Read and Incorporate the Excessively Thin Body Ideal Into Everyday Experience."
87. Rosa Maria Raich, M. Mora, D. Sanchez-Carracedo, J. Torras, M. C. Viladrich, L. Zapater, J. M. Mancilla, R. Vazquez, and G. Alvarez-Rayon, "A Cross-Cultural Study on Eating Attitudes and Behaviors in Two Spanish-Speaking Countries: Spain and Mexico," European Eating Disorders Review 9 (January-February 2001): 53-63.
88. Fitzgibbon et al., "Correlates of Binge Eating in Hispanic, Black, and White Women";
89. Marisol Perez, Zachary R. Voelz, Jeremy W. Pettit, and Thomas E. Joiner Jr., "The Role of Acculturative Stress and Body Dissatisfaction in Predicting Bulimic Symptomatology Across Ethnic Groups," International Journal of Eating Disorders 31 (May 2002): 442-54.
90. Rebeca Chamorro and Yvette Flores-Ortiz, "Acculturation and Disordered Eating Patterns among Mexican American Women, International Journal of Eating Disorders 28 (July 2000): 125-29.
91. Body-Weight Perceptions and Selected Weight-Management Goals and Practices of High School Students - United States, 1990 [online]. [cited 20 June 2003]. Available from the World Wide Web: .
92. Smith and Krejci, "Minorities Join the Majority: Eating Disturbances Among Hispanic and Native American Youth."
93. Deborah A. Dawson, "Ethnic Differences in Female Overweight: Data From the 1985 National Health Interview Survey," American Journal of Public Health 78 (October 1988): 1326-29.
94. Harris and Koehler, "Eating and Exercise Behaviors and Attitudes of Southwestern Anglos and Hispanics."
95. Dulce M. Jane, George C. Hunter, and Bettina M. Lozzi, Do Cuban American Women Suffer from Eating Disorders? Effects of Media Exposure and Acculturation, 1999 [online]. [cited 2 March 2002]. Available from the World Wide Web: .
96. Ester Lopez, Glen Garry Blix, and Arlene Gray Blix, "Body Image of Latinas Compared to Body Image of Non-Latina White Women," Health Values 19 (November-December 1995): 3-10.
97. MEDLINEplus Health Information, 2003 [online]. [cited 11 April 2003]. Available from the World Wide Web: .
98. U.S. Hispanic/Latino Population, 2000 [online]. [cited 21 October 2002]. Available from the World Wide Web: .
99. Richard A. Krueger, Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research (Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1988).
100. Lana F. Rakow, "Looking to the Future: Five Questions for Gender Research," Women's Studies in Communication 10 (fall 1987): 79-86.
101. Wiseman et al., "Cultural Expectations of Thinness in Women: An Update."
102. Goodman, "Flabless Is Fabulous: How Latina and Anglo Women Read and Incorporate the Excessively Thin Body Ideal Into Everyday Experience."
103. Goodman, "Flabless Is Fabulous: How Latina and Anglo Women Read and Incorporate the Excessively Thin Body Ideal Into Everyday Experience."
104. Sarah Trent, Women over Forty (New York: Macaulay, 1988), 103.
105. Goodman, "Flabless Is Fabulous: How Latina and Anglo Women Read and Incorporate the Excessively Thin Body Ideal Into Everyday Experience."
106. America Rodriguez, "Commercial Ethnicity: Language, Class and Race in the Marketing of Hispanic Audience," The Communication Review 2 (spring 1998): 283-309.
107. Kitch, The Girl on the Magazine Cover.
108. Kitch, Selling the "Boomer Babes";
109. Gloria Steinem, "Sex, Lies and Advertising" in Gender, Race, and Class, 2d ed., ed. Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2003).
110. Bradley S. Greenberg, "Minorities and the Mass Media" in Perspectives on Media Effects, ed. Jennings Bryant and Dolf Zillmann (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1986).
111. Greenberg, "Minorities and the Mass Media."
112. Flores, Divided Borders: Essays on Puerto Rican Identity, 212.
113. Lawrence D. Cohn and Nancy E. Adler, "Female and Male Perceptions of Ideal Body Image," Psychology of Women Quarterly 16 (March 1992): 69-79.