Media Impact on Girl's Weight: Japan Edition (with pictures!)

WARNING: Post may contain triggering material for those with sensitive body issues. Please read at your own discretion. 



Click on the images to make them larger.

Popular in our blogging subjects is the effects of the media on girl's body image. It is a worldwide problem. Models are portrayed as an ideal, whereas the many different body types in the world are not taken into account, and the fact that many models are sick because of the pressure to be thin and what they have done to their bodies to get there. A big culprit of this is Japan, and so far, there is virtually no backlash on this issue.

Everyone, meet Tsubasa Masuwaka. Tsubasa is arguably Japan's most known model and idol for young adults and teens. She is always on the cover of some magazine or product ad, and she has her own make-up and colored contact lens lines which are insanely popular.

Here are Tsubasa's measurements.

Tsubasa is 5 feet tall and 83 lbs.
Her BMI is 16.2.
At the age of 25, she is dangerously underweight.

And yet, she is the norm, which millions of Japanese girls and women see advertising their products every day. The thinner, the better, and girls and women alike are hurting themselves to reach low ideal, despite the fact that Japanese body types vary just like they do here.

I like to read a Japanese fashion magazine, called EGG, which caters to girls roughly 16-25. All of the girls in these magazines are thin, tan, made-up and flawless. There is always a weight loss section:

Do either of the girls in their "Before" photos look like they need to lose weight? And yet, the magazine boasts that Girl One went from 94 lbs to 81 lbs.
Girl Two, at 5'2, clearly needed to lose those 33 lbs, didn't she? She went from a healthy 127 lbs to a celebrated 94. In my opinion, this is so, so wrong.

It's sad what girls have to go through in many different cultures. Everyone is on a diet, everyone needs to lose those pounds.. when these girls should be told that they're perfect the way they are!