Women's groups have blamed the media and the government for teenage girls' weight problems.
Earlier this week the Taipei City Bureau of Education released a report showing that nearly 20 percent of female first-grade high school students in Taipei are underweight.
Indeed, when walking around Ximending (西門町), a bustling shop-ping area frequented by high school students, it is difficult to find any girl who is not slender and well-dressed.
A 20-something male office-worker said that he has never met a local woman who did not talk about dieting, although he thought there was really no need for Taiwanese women to go on diets.
Meanwhile, a recent TV commercial for weight-loss medication has been the target of criticism.
The commercial shows a very thin girl and says that girl could lose another 5kg by using the medication.
"Commercial society is only too good at selling the slender image to women. Advertisements for weight-loss medication keeps telling women that a thin body means beauty and health, which is not correct at all," said Chi Hui-Jung (
Taiwan Women's Link director Tsai Wan-fen (蔡宛芬) also said that the media was strongly imposing the idea that thinness equals beauty on the public.
"The media often tells women how to slim down, saying women need to be thin," Tsai said.
"Meanwhile, the government is continuously saying that being overweight is not a good thing and is harmful to one's health, but it does not say that being underweight damages one's health too. The government really needs to reorient its health policy and reconstruct a correct image of what a healthy body is, instead of just warning about the disadvantages of being fat," said Tsai.
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