In the U.S., research indicates that American women tend to think that men want them to be thinner than American men actually like them to be.

The fact that the average magazine model appearing in American rags is 6" taller and 40 lbs. lighter than the average American female isn't helpful.
This is even true of "crunchy" femme mags like Jane, although somewhat less so for them than in mags like Elle.

Posted by: Michael Herdegen at April 11, 2006 2:52 AM

Sorry - I'm kind of thick in the skull this morning, oj. Who is "they", who is the lab rat, and what's the reward?

The problem isn't that magazines show skinny women. It's that real women take the mags seriously. The only time I see someone who looks like me in the media, he's billed as "Condemned Prisoner #3" in the closing credits. I draw no conclusions from this. So no problem.

women, men, nookie

women dress and diet for the approval of other women, not men. come on, this is life-101 stuff. that's why married women aren't as weight concious (as singles); they aren't immersed in that jr h.s. clique crap that perpetually single women are always wallowing around in. basically, a room full of 30+ single women is neurosis incarnate.

I don't remember where I read it, but it seems men all think they look like the guy in the Nordic Track commercial even when they are far off track in reality.

Women have the opposite problem. They think they're too fat, have bad skin and hair, etc. even though in reality, they're attractive people.

toe. A room full of sixty-something or even eighty-something women is no different, single or married, well educated or not, it's junior high all over again.