Why is the public opinion of female beauty so far away from reality?

Recently, the local media have been full with news about the local reality "Find your next great, amazing top model"-show. So much, in fact, that I shall spew my little piece to this ordeal.

Personally, I wish they would stop that altogether. I do not know about the shows themselves, but I assume they are pretty much like any other casting show. From what my wife tells me, a charity counteracting cruelty to animals should get active there.

What comes out of that format, however, makes me worry about my and coming generations of young women. Essentially, they advocate an obscene thinness bordering on anorexia that puts many girls under pressure of becoming that body ideal.

In my tastes for women, I would call myself a typical guy and aside from the random outliers that always exist (in "both" directions), most of my friends are typical guys. When talking about topics related to this one, not a single one of them finds these women attractive. Not one (!?!). Amusing phrases such as "This looks horrible! Do you reckon it's contagious?" or "Ah well, this one won't survive the next winter." are far more common comments than straight out admiration for their great body. Quoting another friend of mine: "I find it hard to believe that men find this attractive. Only fashion designers must do as they have hundreds of walking, animated coat hangers at their disposal who carry something around they care about. Their clothes." (I disarmed that quote a little. There were a couple more curses and insults in there)

All these borderline comments aside, I worry about the message that these shows send to women. I can't imagine the pressure they have daily to conform to a body ideal achieved by women who hunger themselves to something that is medically most likely unhealthy and who are then for the magazine covers photoshopped to an even smaller size. How can young, impressionable women get down to this size, when even the professionals need digital help to get to such a shape? Ever since that "little faux-pas" with Demi Moore's cover page, we all know that Photoshop is an integral part of photographs in magazines.

I won't go into the medical effects. Only suffice it to say that Barbie, another one of those apparent men's wet dreams if real, would apparently be unable to stand. She would just fall flat on her face every time she tried to stand up.

I just wish that women would take the opinions of the people around them (not necessarily their parents) a little more serious. That way they would save themselves a lot of unnecessary hunger-filled dreams and get a little bit more quality out of their lives while still meeting Mr. Right.