Interesting quote from an essay on body image - how do we measure up to Barbie?

Girls are indoctrinated at a very young age that 'Barbie' is how a woman is supposed to look (i.e. no fat anywhere on your body, but huge breasts).

 

 NOTE: If Barbie were life-size, she would stand 5’9” and weigh 110 lb. (only 76% of what is considered a healthy weight for her height). Her measurements would be 39-18-33, and she would not menstruate due to inadequate levels of fat on her body.


Perhaps most disturbing is the fact that media images of female beauty are unattainable for all but a very small number of women. Researchers generating a computer model of a woman with Barbie-doll proportions,  found that her back would be too weak to support the weight of her upper body, and her body would be too narrow to contain more than half a liver and a few centimetres of bowel.  A real woman built that way would suffer from chronic diarrhoea and eventually die from malnutrition. Jill Barad president of Mattel (which manufactures Barbie) estimated that 99% of girls aged 3 to 10 years old own at least one Barbie doll.

Still, the number of real life women and girls who seek a similarly underweight body is epidemic, and they can suffer equally devastating health consequences.

Interesting?! Made me smile.... !

Reference:

http://duncanmackenzie.net/Blog/Interesting-quote-from-an-essay-on-body-image