"Ally McBeal vs. Arnold Schwarzenegger": Comparing mass media, interpersonal feedback and gender as predictors of satisfaction with body thinness and muscularity

Susceptibility to appearance-related mass media, interpersonal feedback, and instrumentality were compared as predictors of body satisfaction and shape concerns regarding thinness and muscularity in a sample of 287 undergraduate men and women. Results indicate that both genders experience body dissatisfaction, but along different shape dimensions; susceptibility to appearance-related mass media and negative appearance-related feedback appear to operate in similar ways to affect men’s and women’s overall body satisfaction.