You bring up some really interesting points here. This was one of the musings I was having this morning actually which is why this post caught my attention. But what I feel has the most influence on peoples notions of what's attractive or beautiful is the media and propaganda, to be honest.
I mean if you look at women over the last 60 years or so the image of what's attractive has changed a lot. I mean look at Marylin Monroe in the 50s. She had a lot more weight on her and was much more curvy than the stick thin, starving models of today. But that's what was considered beautiful at that time. And in the past being fat was a sign of wealth, and it showed that you had the resources with which to get there. So why is it that today women almost have to starve themselves just to fit into this idea of what's beautiful? This certainly isn't benefiting them, so who is it benefitting?
I really feel that these images are created for us to believe, but the questions we should be asking are why they're created? And for whose benefit?