Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA.
Body Image. 2013 Mar;10(2):255-8. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2012.10.009. Epub 2012 Dec 5.
Effects of visual representations of the thin ideal in the media have been widely explored, but textual representations of the thin ideal in novels have received scant attention. The chick literature genre has been criticized for depicting characters who worry about their body weight and who have poor body esteem. Excerpts from two chick lit novels were used to examine the effect of a protagonist's body weight and body esteem on college women's (N=159) perceptions of their sexual attractiveness and weight concern. Two narratives were used to minimize the possibility that idiosyncratic characteristics of one excerpt might influence the study's results. Underweight (vs. healthy weight) protagonists predicted readers' lower perceived sexual attractiveness. Protagonists with low body esteem (vs. control) predicted readers' increased weight concern. Scholars and health officials should be concerned about the effect chick lit novels might have on women's body image.
媒体中瘦理想的视觉表现所产生的影响已经得到了广泛的研究，但小说中瘦理想的文字表现却很少受到关注。小鸡文学体裁一直受到批评，因为它描绘了那些担心自己体重和身体自尊的角色。本文从两部小鸡文学小说中摘录了一些片段，以研究女主角的体重和身体自尊对大学生女性（N=159）对自己性吸引力和体重担忧的影响。使用了两种叙述方式来最大程度地减少一篇摘录中独特特征可能影响研究结果的可能性。与健康体重的女主角相比，体重过轻的女主角（与健康体重相比）预测读者的性吸引力较低。身体自尊低的女主角（与对照组相比）预测读者的体重担忧增加。学者和卫生官员应该关注小鸡文学小说可能对女性身体形象产生的影响。
