Women, as all research suggests, are much more critical of their
appearance than men—much less likely to admire what they see in the mirror. Up
to 8 out of 10 women are dissatisfied with their reflection, and more than half
may see a distorted image. Men looking in the mirror are more
likely to be either pleased with what they see or indifferent. Research shows
that men generally have a much more positive body image than women—if anything,
they may tend to over-estimate their attractiveness. Some men looking in the
mirror may literally not see the flaws in their appearance. Why
are women so much more self-critical than men? Because women are judged on their
appearance more than men, and standards of female beauty are considerably higher
and more inflexible. Women are continually bombarded with images of the "ideal"
face. And constant exposure to idealized images of female beauty on TV,
magazines and billboards makes exceptional good looks seem normal and anything
short of perfection seem abnormal and ugly. It has been estimated that young
women now see more images of outstandingly beautiful women in one day than our
mothers saw throughout their entire adolescence. Also, most
women trying to achieve the impossible standards of female beauty have in fact
become progressively more unrealistic during the last century. In 1917, the
physically perfect woman was about 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighed nearly 10
stone (英石). Even 25 years ago, top models and beauty queens weighed only 8% less
than the average women, now they weigh 23% less. The current media ideal for
women is achievable by less than 5% of the female population—and that's just in
terms of weight and size. If you want the ideal shape, face etc., it's probably
more like 1%.