40pct of women unhappy with their bodies: Study

WASHINGTON - A survey conducted by Glamour magazine recently has revealed that 40 percent of women are unhappy with their bodies.

The survey found that 71 percent of the women felt fat, even though only 46 percent of them are overweight.

On ‘The Early Show’, Wendy Naugle, executive editor of Glamour magazine, Katherine Schwarzenegger, the author of ‘Rock What You’ve Got’, and Crystal Renn, a plus-size model, discussed the issue.

Naugle said that the survey showed there’s a lot of “body snarking” going on now.

“It’s happening in the tabloids, on MySpace, Facebook pages really like there is a great weight watch happening in the country and it’s very hard for women not to internalise that message. I think that’s what stat reflects,” CBS News quoted her as saying.

Renn, who has been criticized for not being thin enough and later not being heavy enough for modelling, says it’s important for women to find “your medium”.

“I think that, you know, I will never be thin enough or big enough for anybody. So I think through this whole thing I had to just really be happy being who I am, and that’s when I found health,” she said.

Schwarzenegger, who is the daughter of famously fit California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and journalist Maria Shriver, said having a healthy body image means that you are beautiful inside and out.

“We as women we look in front of the mirror and automatically jump to everything we hate about ourselves, wish we could change, we’re so overly critical of ourselves,” she said.

“I think that (Glamour) statistic really shows, and I think women think that if you look beautiful on the outside you are totally fine and have the most perfect life, but I think the reality is you have to be beautiful both on the inside and out,” she added. (ANI)