A late 20th century study revealed that women of all ages feel
dissatisfied with their current body shape. In general, women
feel more pressure to show a thin figure than men. And the
pressure comes from everywhere: magazines, peers, TV, sexual
partners, street advertising. No wonder, then, the surge in
body-shaping surgery. During the comparative study, Australian
women between 19 and 60 years of age were shown silhouettes of
women. The images showed a wide range of contours: thin figures,
normal silhouettes and heavily overweight people. Participants
were asked to choose the silhouette that best represented them
and to compare it with the ones they considered as most
attractive to the opposite sex. Curiously, most of them reported
they believed their figures were larger than ideal. In a similar
study, in Africa, both men and women were asked to choose the
silhouette drawing they considered the ideal shape of the
perfect woman. Men and women agreed on a particular body shape,
but most women felt their figure