It's a strange world.

It's an age-old question - does art imitate life, or life imitate art?  Do films and TV shows, for example, show violence, because that's what happens in real life, and they are simply reflecting it, or do people watch violent films and TV shows, and then go out and indulge in violence as a result?  The question has arisen again somewhat obliquely in relation to a new report that found that most young people - girls especially - are dissatisfied with their body or appearance, and (according to the report) the blame for this lies with the media - particularly teenage magazines - which insist on publishing images of "perfect" women, which girls then try to mimic and potentially damage their health as a result.  But look at it the other way - these magazines only thrive because they are giving their readership what they want.  If they are printing pictures of "size zero" models, then that is because that's what sells their magazines - in other words it's what their readers want to see.  So we have the somewhat bizarre and circuituitous situation whereby readers are apparently being disturbed and depressed by seeing images which they themselves have voted for by paying to see them.