Sexual Maturation, Social Class, and the Desire to Be Thin Among Adolescent Females

Abstract

Veblen's 1899 hypothesis that associated a female desire for thinness with the higher social classes was tested with data from a representative national sample of adolescents, 12 to 17 years of age, in the National Health Examination Survey. Controlling for the actual level of fatness, adolescent females in higher social classes wanted to be thinner more often than those in lower classes. The greater female desire for thinness was not the product of health information nor of sex differences in the level of fatness. The thinner the female, the greater the impact of social class on the desire for thinness. During puberty, adolescent females negatively evaluated the body fat associated with normal sexual development.