Lean is everything for teen girls: study
August 25, 2004
By Chatrarat Kaewmorakot
Highschool girls will embark on extreme diets to achieve what they
believe is their perfect weight and university students have no
qualms about taking diet pills, according to research conducted
by a medical and nutritional expert.
Dr Chulanee Thianthai, an academic from Chulalongkorn University,
observed and interviewed 36 students from five government high schools
and five universities during research on the attitudes of teenagers
toward their bodies.
“Almost all the girls we met were not satisfied with their
bodies and wanted to change at least one thing,” Chulanee
said.
Girls believe the ideal female shape is very thin and that large
breasts are old fashioned.
“This perception comes from modern fashions that consist
of sexy tops and miniskirts. They can’t fit into these trendy
clothes if their bodies are plump,” Chulanee said.
Teenage boys had the opposite opinion of girls’ bodies, which
they felt should have sexy curves.
While the girls in the survey were not concerned with skin colour,
the boys said they preferred paleskinned girls who look like they
come from wealthy families, Chulanee said.
Both teenage girls and boys felt the ideal man should look sporty,
with some muscles and stand between 175189 centimetres tall.
“We found that the respondents were less concerned with the
physical appearance of boys as they were with the physical appearance
of girls,” the academic said.
“When teenagers described their ideal man, other factors
such as personality and character were highlighted.”
Because the girls were concerned about their bodies, they tried
many ways to lose weight from diets to diet pills. Boys were happy
just to play more sport when they were unhappy with their bodies.
“Girls chose the easy way to lose weight and some of them
started dieting as early as elementary school,” Chulanee said.
The researcher suggested it was important to show teenagers the
correct way to lose weight and to change attitudes about the ideal
body, derived from thin celebrities on television.
Source:www.nationmultimedia.com
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