I was just doing some research for an essay I had to write for my college class and I stumbled onto this website. I found anlot of this disturbing. I put in bold the two that surprised me the most. Why is the idea of a "perfect body" so important that girls so young will diet so soon? (By the way this is one of what will likely be few serious posts in my name. I hate being serious almost as much as I hate writing papers and essays.)




What Size is the "Average" Woman?
By LB Lacey

The average American woman is 5'4", weighs 140 lbs, and wears a size 14 dress.

The "ideal" woman--portrayed by models, Miss America, Barbie dolls, and screen actresses--is 5'7", weighs 100 lbs, and wears a size 8.

One-third of all American women wear a size 16 or larger.

75% of American women are dissatisfied with their appearance.

50% of American women are on a diet at any one time.

Between 90% and 99% of reducing diets fail to produce permanent weight loss.

Two-thirds of dieters regain the weight within one year. Virtually all regain it within five years.

The diet industry (diet foods, diet programs, diet drugs, etc.) takes in over $40 billion each year, and is still growing.

Quick-weight-loss schemes are among the most common consumer frauds, and diet programs have the highest customer dissatisfaction of any service industry.

A recent survey found only 30 percent of 250 randomly chosen women age 21 to 35 had normal bone mass--the researchers concluded women are so afraid eating dairy products will make them gain weight that they are starving themselves into osteoporosis.

Young girls are more afraid of becoming fat than they are of nuclear war, cancer, or losing their parents.
50% of 9-year-old girls and 80% of 10-year-old girls have dieted.

90% of high school junior and senior women diet regularly, even though only between 10% and 15% are over the weight recommended by the standard height-weight charts.

1% of teenage girls, and 5% of college-age women become anorexic or bulimic.

Anorexia has the highest mortality rate (up to 20%) of any psychiatric diagnosis.

Girls develop eating and self-image problems before drug or alcohol problems; there are drug and alcohol programs in almost every school, but no eating disorder programs.