realize this. They hold themselves u!
             p to these images and feel the only way they can live life to it's fullest is to look like these icons. Even if someone is as at their perfect weight, it's easy to feel like a failure when comparing to a movie star or to Seventeen's cover girl. The line between fantasy and reality is skewed by mass media.
             The media places much stress on obtaining the "ideal" body image. Society pays a signigicant amount of attention to body image, physical attractiveness, youthfulness, sexuality and appearance, "the minimum requirement for the sort of model who appears on advertising hoarding is a height of 5 ft 9 in a size 8 to 10" (Buckroyd 55). No matter how hard someone tries they will never achieve the look and figure of these supermodels. The problem of girls and women comparing themselves to "ideal women" has gotten more difficult in recent years, "A look at the measurement of Playboy centerfolds and Miss America finalists over the past 20 years shows that, although these women symbolize beauty, have been weighing less and less. In other words, society's ideal women keeps getting thinner and thinner and much more difficult for people to imitate" (Maloney 2). There is a healthy way for the female body to look, "but what we see on television is a special kind of thin. Most of us co!
             uld starve our selves down to slivers and still not look anything like those sleek bodies that flit across our screen day and night" (Valette 4).
             Leading characters in the current crop of TV shows are all thin. The TV shows with the highest ratings, such as Friends and Ally McBeal, have tall thin lead actresses. In Friends, there are three young, tall and thin leads. They are outfitted in tight shirts and mini-skirts. They all live good lives and have fun. In Ally McBeal, a young, tall and extremely thin actress portrays a successful law...