Model Diversity in Fashion Advertising: The Influence of Self-Model Congruity on Body Appreciation

Abstract

A majority of the women in the U.S. do not match the conventional standard of beauty. Consequently, they feel underrepresented in fashion advertisements and mass media imagery (“#Plus is Equal”, 2015). Using an advocacy/transformative philosophical assumption, the purpose of this exploratory qualitative study is to understand the impact of the lack of model diversity in fashion advertisements and media images on viewers’ self-perceptions. Ultimately, this study should aid in the process of revolutionizing society’s current definition of beauty by highlighting the importance and positive outcomes of featuring diverse models in advertisements and mass media imagery. This research introduces a new approach by examining the applicability of minority stress theory (Meyer, 2003) to understand the influence of media images on female consumers. The snowball, convenience sample included fifteen women from Chicago, IL, San Antonio, TX, and Minneapolis - Saint Paul, MN; with five women from each geographical location. This sample of Black, Latina, and White women represent ages from 18 - 71. This study was designed using the stimulus-organism-response framework (Mehrabian and Russell, 1974) and supported by self-congruity theory (Sirgy, 1985) and minority stress theory (Meyer, 2003). The negative effects of the lack of model diversity and the areas in which the interviewees would like to see increased diversity emerged during data analysis.