The role of body image in women's mental health

This article was inspired by the Body Image Summit on 21 June 2000 in Londo n at which a panel, headed by Tessa Jowell, Minister for Women, led a discu ssion among representatives of the media and British fashion industry. The aims of the Summit were to consider the effects of advertising images on te enage girls and women and to develop a consensus from within these industri es to incorporate a social and ethical awareness in their promotional activ ities. A negative reaction to this forum was the main result. In this artic le I offer both a sociological and psychoanalytically based discussion of t he problem of body image for women. I also consider how society and women t hemselves could begin to counteract the pernicious effects of being sold un realistically thin, ideal images of womanhood continually perpetrated by co nsumerism.