Female shop mannequins are the size of severely underweight women and are promoting dangerous body ideals, a study has found.
The average UK mannequin on high streets was found to be “too thin” and promoting “unrealistic ideals”, according to research from the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Psychology, Health and Society.
The study was made by measuring shop dummies in two UK cities, where researchers found that all of the shop models were underweight in size.
The average mannequin size was also representative of a “very” underweight woman, compared to just eight per cent of male dummies classed as underweight.
The research found that the size of the female models would be “medically unhealthy” in humans.
In a blog post, Dr Eric Robinson, who led the study, said: “The ‘ultra-thin ideal’ is something that I, and many others across the world, loathe.
“Size zero culture and glamorisation of unrealistic and unobtainable body sizes has meant that the ‘ideal’ body size frequently and implicitly communicated to women is dangerously unhealthy.”
“There is no excuse for the continued use of emaciated mannequins.”
