Body image
February 20, 2007
BBC Radio 1′s Newsbeat and 1xtra’s TXU asked 25,000 people, mostly aged 17 to 34, how they felt about their bodies. They were some worrying trends:
Women
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The survey found two thirds of those who are size 14 also thought they were overweight or fat, and a third of size 12s think they’re overweight or fat.
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Despite all the debate about skinny models, less than one per cent of those surveyed said they were a size zero, UK size four.
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Almost half of all girls say they’ve skipped a meal to try to lose a few pounds, while 8% had made themselves sick.
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More than half of females said they’d consider plastic surgery, breast implants were most popular with women and liposuction’s popular with both sexes.
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Half of women said they want to change a lot about their looks, while more than 10% “hated” what they looked like.
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More than half of girls aged 12 to 16 felt that their body image either stops them from getting a boyfriend or from relaxing in a relationship.
Men
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About 20% of those in their early 20s said that they have taken protein supplements in a bid to help themselves bulk up, compared with 11% of over 35s.
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Far fewer men than women said they were on a diet right now: one in five guys in their early 20s said they’d done it, but less than one in 10 men are on a diet at the moment.
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When asked to rate photos of differently shaped male bodies, almost 80% of men and 65% of women favoured a very muscular physique.
Entry Filed under: Media, News, Society, Statistics. .
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