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Communication Research
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The Role of Racial Identity in Responses to Thin Media Ideals

Differences Between White and Black College Women

Yuki Fujioka

Georgia State University, jouykf{at}langate.gsu.edu

Erin Ryan

University of Alabama

Mark Agle

YMCA of Metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia

Melissa Legaspi

Edelman Canada

Raiza Toohey

Stryker Corporation

A survey of 286 White and Black female college students examined the racial differences in perception of thin media images and its relation to personal importance of thinness and fear of fat. Consistent with the intergroup literature and social identity theory, this study demonstrated that Black women rated thin media images less desirable and endorsed thinness less strongly than their White counterparts. Perceived desirability of thin media images was related to greater personal endorsement of thinness among both White and Black women but related only to White women's, not to Black women's, fear of fat. Racial identity interacted with race in predicting personal endorsement of thinness, with the highest ratings among high White identifiers and the lowest ratings among high Black identifiers. It did not, however, interact with perceived desirability of thin media images in predicting fear of fat.

Key Words: racial identity • audience responses • thin media ideals • fear of fat • perceived desirability • intergroup • college women • social identity theory

This version was published on August 1, 2009

Communication Research, Vol. 36, No. 4, 451-474 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0093650209333031
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