Have you ever peered at a mannequin in a store and wondered whether it you were seeing things incorrectly or its body type was basically nonexistent. Well, if you experienced the latter, then you’re right. According to a new study from the Journal of Eating Disorders, female mannequins in stores are overwhelmingly underweight.
The study was conducted by researchers from the University of Liverpool, who visited two major shopping districts in the U.K. and found that 100 percent of the plastic models showcased underweight body types, which visually registered as “that of an extremely underweight human woman.” It should be noted that it’s unclear if researchers went to any stores selling plus-sized fashions.
Instead of actually measuring the mannequins outright, the viewers compared in-store mannequins to pictures of 10 human adults on a BMI-based scale. Researchers also confirmed that the comparisons between mannequins of the opposite sex were drastic with only 8 percent of male’s characterized as “underweight.”
“We of course are not saying that altering the size of high-street fashion mannequins will on its own ‘solve’ body image problems,” lead researcher Eric Robinson said in a press release. “What we are instead saying is that presentation of ultra-thin female bodies is likely to reinforce inappropriate and unobtainable body ideals, so as a society we should be taking measures to stop this type of reinforcement.”
Agreed!
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