Fashion also affects our ideas of what an ideal appearance is. In recent investigations, men and women were shown pictures of women and asked to rate them in terms of attractiveness. Women in the study rated pictures of thinner women as more attractive. This shows the power of advertising in fashion. Female models are usually much thinner than the average female.
We all want to be attractive, but there are negative consequences to the pursuit of beauty as defined by the fashion industry. One is eating disorder. People with and eating disorder often think that they are fat when really they are not fat at all. This leads them to dangerously limit the amount of food they eat. Eating disorders were once very rare, but they have increased since the 1960s. They are common among women; young women aged between 15 and 19 make up 40 percent of new cases in the US. By comparison, they are rare among men. These disorders have the highest rate of death of any mental illness.