ACNielsen report: Majority of global consumers find female fashion models "too thin"

Excerpts from an online survey of 25,000 individuals in 45 countries (Jan. 30, 2007):

Female fashion models are “too thin” reported by:

• 81% of all people sampled.
• Close to 90% of people in the fashion capitals: New York, London, Paris and Milan.
• In the U.K.: 89% of people, 93% of women, 93% of women in the age range 35-39 and 97% of women in the age range 45-49 (Note that the overwhelming majority of the women in the age range that have the most disposable income to spend on designer clothing finds female fashion models too skinny).
• 89% in Brazil and Canada, 88% in Austria and Spain and France, 91% in Argentina, 83% in Italy, 87% in U.S.A.
• 94% of Norwegians, 92% of New Zealanders and Swiss and 90% of Australia.
• 59% in Vietnam, 64% in India, 63% in Japan, 65% in Lithunia, 72% in Russia.

Comment: The low figures in Vietnam and India may be partly related to the weak physical build of their people, whereby European high-fashion models may not look too weakly built to them.  Alternatively, these people, along with Eastern European nations, do not have much of a high-fashion scene and may not be sufficiently exposed to the norm among Western high-fashion models or their own fashion models may not, on average, be as skinny as Western ones.

Nevertheless, it is clear, once again, that people should not be referring to the “societal obsession with being skinny” to explain why the highest status female models, namely high-fashion models, are typically skinny because there is no such societal obsession.  Women in Western societies typically want to be slim, not skinny.