Eighty per cent of Australian women are dissatisfied with their own body image, researchers say.

And 90 per cent told the University of Queensland researchers they knew other women who were unhappy with their shape…

While the air-brushing of models‘ photographs – the subject of recent debate – seems to matter little, there is a call for a greater diversity of body shapes in fashion magazines and advertisements, studies show.

“There have been calls to eliminate thin models and replace them with more average and realistic-sized models.”

Ms Fletcher said there had been little research into the topic, so she and research partner Phillippa Diedrichs had monitored an internet forum debate on the website of a popular Australian women’s fashion magazine.

They monitored 65 women debating models’ body shape in 300 separate posts.

They found there was a good deal of confusion about what constitutes a healthy female body shape.

There was also concern about the normalisation of obesity and the ways in which average-sized models are marketed.

Psychology honours student Jessica Ahern said most women were dissatisfied with their own body and wanted to see more diversity in the media.

She found that 80 per cent of the respondents to her study of 332 women were unhappy with their body image.

To read out the rest of this story go here

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/health/1011097/poll-finds-women-unhappy-with-body-image

Warm regards

Brent.T