More than 60 percent of young women in high school express dissatisfaction with their bodies.
In college, it’s 80 percent.
The obsession with weight starts early – 42 percent of girls in first to third grade express a desire to be thinner.
According to published research, 15 percent of women would sacrifice more than five years of their life to obtain the weight they desire. (REALLY? Yikes!)
There are at least eight million sufferers of life-threatening anorexia nervosa (reported in girls as young as eight years old), bulimia, and other associated eating disorders in America; 90 percent of these are women.
Since 1992, elective cosmetic procedures have risen a dramatic 198 percent.
Between 1990 and 1999 the number of facelifts in the US increased sixfold.
The diet industry has grown to a $40-billion-a-year business.
Popular women’s magazines contain 10 times more diet-promoting articles and advertisements than comparable men’s magazines. One out of every 3.8 advertisements sends some sort of message encouraging women to acquire a body that is “barely there”.
Somebody PLEASE tell me how we’re supposed to raise healthy daughters in this culture?!!?
(Information source: “Eve’s Revenge: Women and a Spirituality of the Body”)