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For those of you who feel the country is on a downward slope, I guess this will support your view

I'll vote for the downward slope. With all the talk about female "body image," I still think that the ubiquity and danger of this phenomenon is not fully appreciated. The cause is culture-wide and includes everything from "reality" TV shows to the explosion of pornography and sex-drenched "women's magazines."

With all the talk about female "body image," I still think that the ubiquity and danger of this phenomenon is not fully appreciated.

I'm not sure I grasp your point, but I'd like to understand better.

Could I ask what phenomenon is "dangerous"?

(I hope I don't sound snide or argumentative -- I honestly want to understand your point. Thanks.)

The cause is culture-wide and includes everything from "reality" TV shows to the explosion of pornography and sex-drenched "women's magazines."

I don't think it's that simple. The women out there who are comfortable with their body image are the ones who don't care what anyone thinks of them - men or women. You have to think more of yourself than what other people think of you just to be happy.

Believe me, women are harder on each other when it comes to body image than real men (not boys in men's bodies) ever would be. Most of our lives, socially, are set around approval. If that approval isn't there, we set out to change that. For example, I have longish hair. Most women (including a sister and my grandmother) are after me to cut it shorter. Nope. Ain't happenin'. I'm trying to attract other women and short hair is too much work. This has caused many a fight.

Approval for teens is peer oriented and right now and their taste hasn't been molded at all. That's part of it. I think to an extent security and self-worth (not self-esteem) is pretty low right now. Where this comes from, I'm not sure, but I'm willing to bet that part of it is mothers with careers.

What do I know? I was just once a teen-age girl who watched friends go through anorexia and bulemia, had the opposite problem myself for a time, and learned the hard way that you have to think more of yourself than what you see in the mirror. Otherwise, happiness will never be.

I'll vote for the downward slope.

I won't. In centuries past women used to bind thier feet for beauty, file down thier teeth to make them more white, and purposely infect themselves with tapeworms in order to stay thin. The world has always had its problems and right now is no different than before.