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I'd say if there were a poll women would be far more influenced by the looks media portrays than men. Especially younger women since as women age they generally learn to accept themselves. But I'm in no way saying men aren't affected.
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And why is that?
What if I don't buy the prevalance argument? I don't think the dramatic effect that advertising and the media has on young women in comparison to the little effect it has on young men has much to do with the actual QUANTITY of media directed at them. As far as I can (not empirically) tell, the quantity is just about the same. The difference is that young men are not as influenced by it.
Could it be possible that women are simply worse at being happy with themselves? Or that they're worse at ignoring media or peer suggestions about 'who they should be'? To put it in a positive light, could it mean that women are simply better at knowing what their peers are looking at? What peers expect of them? Or that they're better at catering to others and changing themselves to meet expectation?
If you think about it, when you measure it from the outside (how many boys do I know who are externally modified by media vs how many girls do I know who are externally modified by the media) you're truly measuring a sum. The sum of how much is out there and how affected by it the individual is.
This argument enters dangerous territory, because the
politically correct version is that man and women are perfectly equal and equally as good at everything and anything. I'd like to see someone posit the argument that it
has just as much to do with how men and women INTERPRET and INTERNALIZE the media as it has to do with how much of it there is out there.