Barbie isn’t the only one who has proportions that are medically impossible. Researchers from the University of Liverpool have found that mannequins should also be taking some heat.
A new study published in the Journal of Eating Disorders is arguing against the size of inanimate female figures presenting fashion. The tiny scale of female figures on display in clothing stores across the UK and in other places, it found, is unrealistically thin.
In fact, a similar study done in 1992 discovered that female mannequins from the 1930s-1960s were so small researchers concluded “real women of a similar body size would be so thin that they would be unable to menstruate”.
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What’s being done about this problem? Not much. Some stores are currently adopting the use of mannequins that display more realistic body types. Look around though, and you’ll see that the practice isn’t being followed everywhere. Which is too bad.
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Here are the stats. In the U.S, according to National Eating Disorders.org, more than 20 million women will suffer from a clinically significant eating disorder at some point in their life. And sadly, 42% of girls in the first grade want to be thinner than they are.
While obesity is a growing problem, reaching a healthy constant weight should be a goal- not an impossibly skinny frame.
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How can adults teach children that a healthy body weight is somewhere between a crazy-thin mannequin and being largely overweight? At home. And maybe when the stores selling their family tonnes of clothing stop hawking unhealthy ideals, alongside.
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