The "body beautiful": English adolescents' images of ideal bodies

Research on body image has neglected adolescents' ideals beyond thinness, particularly those of adolescent boys. Two studies are reported which examine a range of qualities in order to capture English adolescents' images of ideal bodies for same- and other-gender individuals. Study 1 used a qualitative approach, where 58 pupils aged 12-16 years discussed photograph arrays of "good-looking" media personalities of both genders and then chose descriptors for "ideal" women and men. Adolescents' preferences for qualities in either art "ideal woman" or an "ideal man, " and possible influences on those preferences, were assessed quantitatively in Study 2, which used a questionnaire with 458 pupils in the same age range. With few exceptions, all respondents were white Caucasian and roughly equally split between working-class and middle-class backgrounds. The main findings were that body-image ideals are multidimensional, show systematic gender differences, and become more conventional with age (closer to cultural ideals). Adolescents' own body mass is linked systematically to body-image preferences, but only with respect to the "ideal woman," where heavier adolescents of both genders (higher BMI) distance themselves from conventional notions of female beauty.