March 2003 Faculty Spotlight

Journalism colleagues Mark Popovich and Robert Gustafson have conducted research together for more than ten years. They have done a number of studies on objectionable and offensive advertising using college students, baby boomers, and advertising professionals as respondents. Basically, they look at what people find irritating or offensive and why they feel that way.

Steven Thomsen earned his master's degree at Ball State and his PhD at Georgia. He started teaching in Ball State's journalism department in 1992, the same year as Gustafson. He is now an associate professor at Brigham Young University.

In so doing, the investigators provide some additional insights into how high school-age girls perceive female stereotypes in advertising and how this may contribute to the development of eating disorders.

Advertisers use a wide variety of female stereotypes to sell their wares and many of these stereotypes are believed to be psychologically and physiologically harmful. These potentially harmful stereotypes can take many forms by portraying women as dumb blondes, half-wits, indecisive, child-like, frivolous, zany, dingalings, obsessed with men, submissive to men, a simple housewife, a superwoman, sexual objects, overly concerned with appearance, beautifully/successfully slim, dieting for a waif-look, sexual prowess, and more.

While all of the stereotypes can be offensive and demeaning, none is more dangerous than the one that promotes the "thin ideal." The stereotypical portrayal that suggests that super-slim women are more fashionable, desirable, and successful can contribute to eating disorders that can kill.

The mass media have been identified as among the most influential sociocultural factors in the cause of anorexia nervosa. A growing body of research has linked the readership of women's beauty, fashion, and fitness magazines with eating-disordered thinking, body dissatisfaction, and an obsessive drive for thinness, particularly among high school girls and college-age women.

Dieting has been identified as a precursor to the development of most eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa. Dieting has become commonplace among adolescent and college-age women. Estimates are that as many as 40 to 60 percent of all high school girls are on a diet and significant numbers of pre-adolescent and elementary-age school girls are frequent dieters. Recent research indicates that eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, may affect as much as 22 percent of all college-age women.

The media inundates women with a steady stream of messages, both visual and editorial, that suggest to be attractive and successful one must be "ultra-slender." This emphasis on appearance is believed to lead many women to internalize an unrealistic and unattainable thin "ideal-body stereotype." That, in turn, leads to the development of body size dissatisfaction and, potentially, to eating disorders.

The direct impact of seeing thin models, coupled with use of the broad array of female stereotypes already mentioned, may contribute to the development of eating disorders.

As alternative stereotypes are portrayed as acceptable or desirable, the proliferation of contradictory expectations can create stress for young women. Stress and poor strategies for coping with stress have been cited as key components in the development of anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders.

The Imperceptible "Thin Ideal"

In a 1999 study, researchers used Q methodology to examine how college-age women ranked magazine advertisements that featured potentially harmful female stereotypes. The study found that college women reacted most strongly to ads portraying women as sexual objects, who are submissive to men, obsessed with men, and as being dumb or frivolous.

Ads featuring the "thin ideal" body shape went unrecognized as being potentially harmful.

Current findings essentially concur with the researchers' earlier study, and they provide additional findings and comparisons among younger, less-mature high school girls. Using the same Q methodology, the sample of girls ranked 40 magazine ads featuring potentially harmful female stereotypes on a nine-point scale from "harmless" to "harmful."

In the study, investigators also were able to separate a sample of high school girls into two groups using a self-administered questionnaire that screened for anorectic cognitions, body anxiety, and dieting behavior. As a result, subjects were classified by their likelihood of developing an eating disorder as: "higher risk" and "lower risk." However, investigators did not observe any significant differences between the high-and low-risk group's sorting of ads. Both groups sorted the advertising stereotypes similarly.

Three of the five advertisements/stereotypes identified as harmful blatantly portrayed women as sexual objects. The two other ads depicted women as helpless and dumb. The high school girls reacted strongly to the more explicit images and were less inclined than college women to react to the more subtle, implicit stereotypes. None of the purely "thin ideal" images were ranked as harmful by either the high school girls or college women.

In contrast to college women, the high school girls reacted very strongly to ads promoting drug/supplement use, cigarettes, and alcohol. Their reaction to these products surpassed any concerns about stereotypes or specific brands. Comments made during personal interviews indicate that the girls' parents, teachers, and counselors have made them well aware of the dangers of drug use, smoking, and drinking.

College women, on the other hand, seem more aware and concerned about how subtle stereotypes are used to sell these particular products. This study supports previous findings that indicate young women are accustomed to seeing ultra-slim models, and they do not readily perceive the danger in the "thin ideal" portrayal of beauty and success.

A study conducted in 1997 found that one of advertising's "unintended effects" is the impact highly attractive models have on female pre-adolescents and adolescents. It found that young girls compare their physical attractiveness with that of the models and their self-esteem may be affected depending on the motive for comparison.

Other research has shown this stereotypical portrayal may contribute to eating disorders. Because the findings supporting the "thin ideal" are often overlooked or accepted as a social-cultural norm, the investigators believe the imperceptible nature of the the stereotypes makes them even more dangerous to young women.

The thin ideal is but one potentially harmful stereotype. There are many other stereotypes and "unintended effects" of advertising that may adversely affect women, the elderly, ethnic groups, and individuals that deserve attention and concern by advertisers and their agencies.

The two studies have proven to be important and useful to Ball State. Students participated in both projects and learned about conducting and analyzing research. Both Mark Popovich and I have used our research to teach undergraduate and graduate courses. And both studies have received national recognition.

by Robert Gustafson