After several years of objections like Leo's, advertisers found a new angle. Tommy Hilfiger's campaigns, for example, promoted an upbeat, preppy look. In March 1998, Klein too refocused his advertising campaign by using color photos of smiling, active models instead of the blank-faced models of heroin chic.

Even though heroin chic no longer dominates the market, women remain uncomfortable with the media’s depiction of their bodies, according to Moffatt.

Though women speak up about this dissatisfaction, they still "seem to be getting less and less happy with their appearance," Moffatt says.

photo: foxworld

"Ally McBeal" star Calista Flockhart has been accused of having anorexia.

beyond models

"It's interesting that everybody is so interested in whether or not [Calista Flockhart] has anorexia nervosa," says Brumberg of the public debate that arose in 1998 around the super-thin star of the Fox sitcom, "Ally McBeal."

"It indicates that we have a national fixation on certain people’s bodies," Brumberg says. "There are lots of girls in America that want to think that other girls and women in America have eating disorders."