Female attractiveness and eating disorders: Do children's television commercials play a role?

Abstract

The differential rate of eating disorders in males and females has been partially attributed to gender socialization. Media influences, even in children's programming, may contribute to the greater emphasis on physical attractiveness for girls compared to boys. Commercials from Saturday morning cartoon programming were analyzed for the number of male/female main and supporting characters, sex of narrator, sex of intended consumer, and appearance enhancement of person, doll, or animal. A majority of the commercials (60.6%) were for food products. Chi-square comparisons revealed significantly more male than female main characters and narrators in these commercials. Of those commercials (13.8%) scored for appearance enhancement, all male/female chi-square comparisons were significant with more female supporting characters, female main characters, female narrators, and female consumers. With the combined emphases on food and, for girls, on appearance, support for possible influences of commercials in eating disorders is noted.