Real Bodies on TV Make Women Feel Worse, Study Finds

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Which TV show is better for your body image: “How to Look Good Naked,” which encourages real women to love their bodies, or “America’s Next Top Model,” which parades skinny, young girls hoping to become the next Tyra?

Sound like a no-brainer? It’s not.

New research coming out next year in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, finds that TV shows promoting positive body image actually have the opposite effect—a conclusion most people wouldn’t expect.

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In the study, 120 female college students were separated into three groups: 40 students watched a TV show promoting positive body image (the British version of “How to Look Good Naked”), 40 watched a show promoting the thin ideal (“Britain and Ireland’s Next Top Model”), and 40 watched a neutral nature documentary.

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The researchers, led by YouBeauty Attraction Expert, Viren Swami, Ph.D., measured mood, body anxiety and body weight dissatisfaction before and after subjects watched each show. The nature documentary boosted happiness, “Next Top Model” lowered it, and “How to Look Good Naked” had no effect. But more importantly, “How to Look Good Naked” and “Next Top Model” both significantly increased body anxiety and body weight dissatisfaction. 

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When “How to Look Good Naked” premiered in the United States, it was the biggest premiere event in Lifetime network’s history. A rave review in the New York Times called the show “the greatest triumph of cognitive therapy that reality television has ever produced” and “an antidote to makeover programs that tell us flesh is what must be made over.” 

That praise was well-intentioned, but clearly a little misguided.  

The main problem, Swami says, is that shows promoting positive body image define two types of women: the thin model versus the so-called real woman. “They’re constructing an idea of what it means to be a real woman,” he says. “The real woman, they say, rejects the thin ideal but still feels the need to work on the body.” In other words, the emphasis is still on attractiveness.