A new study has shown that Miss America is getting skinnier and skinnier, and experts at Iowa State said the pageant, the media and society are setting a bad example for women.

The study, released last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, said winners of the Miss America pageant have gotten 12 percent thinner while getting only 2 percent taller since the pageant’s inception nearly 80 years ago.

The study was based on heights and weights of Miss Americas until 1990, when the contest stopped measuring those attributes.

Pam Thomas, director of the Women’s Center, said the fact that the winners are getting thinner reflects the image of the “perfect woman” that American society has.

“The whole issue is wrapped up in the idea of body imagery that society has today,” she said. “It’s very detrimental to have one body type and say, ‘This is what you all must look like.'”

Brooks Morse, director of the eating disorders program at Student Counseling Services, said the thin female image that is so common today is emotionally and physically harmful to women, especially for those with eating disorders.

“For many women who have eating disorders, the media and messages to be thin at all costs are contributing to them feeling bad about themselves,” she said. “If you see one size of woman everywhere you look in magazines and on television, that’s going to give you a bad influence.”

Thomas said women today think they need to be thinner partly because of society’s obsession with youth.

“America is growing older, and society has an illusion of what youth is supposed to be,” she said. “People think that being young means being small.”

Thomas and Morse both said a small amount of progress has been made, noting the popularity of plus-size actress Camryn Manheim, who has spoken out against the idea that women of average or more than average weight cannot be considered beautiful.

“She has taken her acting ability and made it a forum for the issue,” Thomas said. “She has created a backlash to the thin image.”

Morse said it is important that women strive for equality in all forms, noting that although females have seen much more economic equality, they still struggle with the preconceived notion that they have to be thin.

Thomas said she would support a rule that would screen out Miss America contestants who are too thin to “promote a message of healthiness,” an idea suggested by one of the researchers who conducted the study.

“There’s a misconception that if you’re skinny, you’re healthy, and that’s not true at all,” she said.

Morse said it might not be fair to screen out all women who are “too thin” because some contestants might naturally be that skinny.

“That wouldn’t be fair to them, but it might be a good idea to screen out people who are using dangerous methods to become thin,” she said, also noting it would be good to allow women of average or larger size in the contest.

Thomas said women are trying to combat the thin image more today.

“They are really trying to resist being put in a box,” she said. “People are usually very resistant to saying, ‘This is what you should be like,’ and that’s what we should do when it comes to women’s looks, too.”