The size zero debate and growing attention on skinny models has thrust eating disorders and the role the media plays in promoting certain body-types in to the public eye like never before. But How much effect does the media really have on society when it comes to issues such as weight?

It’s hard to say how much effect the media has. It’s very persuasive and the media is in our life all the time, probably from the moment we get up to the moment we go to bed. And the media does give us images of how we have to be in order to be attractive to ourselves and other people.

But yet the media only really has the most influence on people who already lack confidence or have low self esteem. Women have always valued themselves more for how they look than for what they do, which is not the case for men. And we can’t blame the media for the fact that women’s self esteem is very heavily connected to how they look. But the media does have a role to play, and people who are directing the media and setting trends in the media need to have some responsibility for the effect that this will have on the more vulnerable members of society.

What Is Size Zero?

Size 0 is a women’s clothing size in the US system equivalent to a UK size 4, with a waist measurement of a tiny 23 inches, the average girth of an 8 year old girl. Experts say that being this thin can lead to loss of periods, hair falling out, dry skin and even thinning bones. (Read More: The Skinny on Size Zero).

Could the size zero trend to idolise skinny models in the media really cause an eating disorder?

Eating disorders are never caused by just one thing; they have many roots like the roots of a tree, and some of those roots will lie in culture and in the expectation of how thin a woman has to be in order to look attractive. But there are other factors, for example personality and things going on in their families, like pressures from mothers or fathers to lose weight, comments that parent make about their own weight and size, and dieting behaviours in the home.

The editor of Vogue (Alexandra Shulman) has said that magazines simply sell images that people want to see, and that the public wouldn’t find a size 14 model attractive. What’s your take on that?

Unfortunately, there’s some truth in what she says. The evidence is that if we have very thin models or celebrities on our covers, people are drawn to these images and buy the magazines. It’s a sad fact.

I wouldn’t necessarily agree with her totally though. If there were magazines brave enough to put larger models on their covers and this continued over time, I think we would be just as interested and keen on buying magazines that had larger models within their pages.

What about magazines that highlight flaws as well as skinniness?

Because people buy magazines like Heat, it means there must be an appetite for the type of content where models or celebrities who have gained weight are beaten up, but at the same time models who are very skinny or have lost a lot of weight get a lot of attention and disgust.

I do believe that the solution to magazines such as this is to reach down to younger women and give them some understanding. What I would really like to see is young women being taught to read these articles with a certain degree of scepticism and emotional intelligence, being able to make their own mind up without being seduced by this type of content.

It’s important for young people to realise that women who are a size zero either have naturally unusually skinny genes, or are doing terrible things to themselves to look that way. Two girls might see a picture of a skinny model, and one will think, ‘That model is skinny, I could never be like that,’ and carry on with her life. The other will think, ‘That model is skinny; I am fat,’ and go and diet. That girl is the one who has internalised the size zero image as one she should live out, and she is the one who is vulnerable.

Is the media worse than it used to be, or are people just more aware of it now?

The ideal body shape changes from year to year, from age to age. It’s certainly very thin at the moment, but there’ve been very thin ideals in modern times going back to Twiggy in the 60s and then to the heroine chic of the 1990s when it was fashionable to be very thin, very waif-like and very pale. Now we have a lot of attention being given to size zero models. The ideal has always been various kinds of thin, it’s just been given a different name.

Deanne Jade, founder of the National Centre for Eating Disorders, has dedicated herself to the prevention and treatment of eating disorders for many years, serving on the European Council for Eating Disorders.

The National Centre for Eating Disorders is an independent organisation that aims to provide help to people struggling with eating problems, "binge" eating, failed or "yo-yo" dieting, bulimia and anorexia.

Visit www.eating-disorders.org.uk