“The rise of consumerism led the body image industries to develop a sure-fire formula for success: promote a thin ideal of beauty that the majority of women can never attain and thereby create virtually infinite demand among consumers. The irony of the weight loss industry is that its very existence depends on the failure of its products. In what other industry would customers repeatedly pay large sums of money for products and services that do not work? The weight loss industry has been clever enough to sustain its market share by placing the blame on the consumer, with caveats that their products will only work if used in combination with ‘a sensible diet and regular exercise’.” (Williams and Germov 2008: 345)

Williams, Lauren and John Germov. 2008. “Constructing the Female Body: Dieting, the Thin Ideal and Body Acceptance”. Pp. 329–362 in A Sociology of Food and Nutrition: The Social Appetite, edited by John Germov and Lauren Williams. Oxford University Press.

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