Comparing The Stereotypes Of The Gibson Girl

And that the media is having a large negative impact on young and impressionable minds. Bordo explains how today’s society medias focus is pushing the thin, “Heroin Chic” look. Most females will never meet the standard of this look but feel pressured to do so. According to Bordo these pressures are contributing the widespread of eating disorders. Bordo mentions that not only are the women suffering from falling into eating disorders to look like the model in the magazines, but the males have also fallen into the trend. Eating disorders are morbid illnesses that don’t discriminate against gender, sexual orientation, or

It seems like every young girl dreams of becoming a model these days. Every young girl has the desire to get thinner than other girls in order to look like models on T.V, magazines and so on. The New York Times publishes articles for the majority of the audience to read, which is mostly adults. Mim Udovitch’s article, “A Secret Society of the Starving” talks about two major eating disorders that are anorexia and bulimia within many girls. Udovitch reports stories about three girls that are going through these disorders or have gone through them. The three girls Udovitch includes are Claire, Chaos, and Futurebird. Ken Jackson’s interpretation of

In other words, the more an individual is exposed to certain images – even alarmingly unhealthy ones – the more desensitized one becomes; in fact, what may have once been considered “ugly” may actually become desirable, if widely accepted and glamorized by the fashion industry. Furthermore, in the title of Bordo’s article, “Never Just Pictures,” we are given to understand that this prevailing cultural sickness is merely a “symptom” of more systemic issues. For example, Bordo touches on “deep anxieties” stemming from “Western philosophy and religion” which have been linked to eating disorders in America today; in fact, for those who are unfamiliar with her book, Unbearable Weight, a greater elaboration on this aspect would have been desirable. She also reveals other subtle messages underlying fashionable face-value images, many of which create powerful currents surrounding the development of eating disorders. According to Bordo, the endless barrage of images (regarding what the fashion industry deems perfection in appearance) serves to strongly communicate “fantasized solutions” to our challenges in life. It is a false narrative which goes something like this: “achieving the body- and beauty-ideal will magically make everything in my life right with the world; I’ll be beautiful, popular, strong, admired, in control, etc . . . .” Bordo’s point is that these types of fantasies may become potently motivational to the individual striving for “the cultural ideal” through starvation and other extreme

When we look at this piece, we tend to see the differences in ways a subject can be organized and displayed. This assemblage by Betye Saar shows us how using different pieces of medium can bring about the wholeness of the point of view in which the artist is trying to portray. So in part, this piece speaks about stereotyping and how it is seen through the eyes of an artist.

The Gibson Girls image was very feminine. They were tall, slender, and wore corsets to accentuate their hips and breasts. They had thin necks and wore their hair in loose curls piled on top of their head. Gibson Girls did not

Even though they talk about different genders, the short stories talk about how young girls and boys act. In “Girl,” the stories are a conversation between a mother and her daughter. Most of talking is done by the mother, because she is telling her daughter how young ladies are supposed to act. She talks about ironing her father’s khaki pants and doing chores around the house. The mother says, “be sure to wash every day”(114). A huge stereotype of women is they always have to look good. They always have to smells and look good regardless of what they’re doing. The most common stereotype for women is that women always cook. The mother says “this is how you make bread pudding; this is how you make doukona…” (115) the mother seems to be telling her daughter how to be a stay at home woman. Cooking is a major part of a stay at home woman. Due to women entering the work force and getting better jobs the stereotype of woman always cooking is slowly going

Society constantly redefines what beauty is in women, and yet women always feel compelled to conform to society’s definition of beauty. The insecurity of women today adhere to society’s definition of beauty. By conforming to society’s definition beauty they are rewarded with confidence. According to Bordo (1989), anorexia built bodies has become the norm for women today. Most clothing stores accommodate to these body figures by selling majority small and medium framed clothing. Tight and skinny bodies were defined as the next generation of beauty, where priorly in the social symbolism of a small frame was associated with being poor. It was known that those with a bulging stomach was a powerful

For the couture, we had to get up at 4 a.m. to be sewn into the clothes and there was huge pressure to be thin.” Models in the fashion industry have been getting thinner and thinner, with runway models being size 0 to size 4 and plus size models being between sizes 6 and 14, and they qualify for anorexia on the charts of eating disorders according to Rader Programs, an organization that helps treat eating disorders. Most models use extreme dieting methods such as eating tissues and lettuce to keep themselves thin. This is encouraged in the industry due to the need to stay thin. Because these dieting techniques work for the models, some teenage girls get the idea that they can do that as well.

I will draw inspiration from modern films that influence our culture today such as, Mean Girls, Easy A, Clueless, Ghost World, Dazed and Confused, A Cinderella Story, The Breakfast Club, Palo Alto, and The Virgin Suicides. I chose to draw inspiration from these films because they all portray different stereotypes of girls in all of them. Although they came out different times in the last 25 years, they are all prominent movies in my generation. This is much like Sherman because she models after films that came out 20-30 years before. I chose films that were focused at teenagers because I felt that age group is one I know well because I’m one myself. I believe it’s important to be able to focus on stereotypes of girls that impact my life and age group because not only is it something that I can connect to, but it is an important message for students who will view this exhibit.

To be frank, I also once had a view that only people who are skinny can be considered as beautiful. However, there is one incidence that changes my perception on the idea of what is the meaning of beauty and ‘perfect’ body. When I was in high school, I had a best friend named Alice—she was chubby and curvy. She was so obsessed with the America’s next top model shows. One day she expressed her desire to lose weight to me and I supported her. She also said that her boyfriend asked her to lose some weight to be more beautiful. She said that she really wants to look like the models and also to fulfill her boyfriend’s wish. After three months, she was hospitalized and I was so shocked with that news. She was hospitalized because there was something wrong with her intestines caused by her unhealthy diet. When I went to visit her, she looked very different—she looked sunken and sick. Begin on that day; I realized that it is really impossible to be like the models that we see everyday in the media and I also afraid on how good media is in order to distort society’s idea of beauty.

Treasure, Janet L., et al. "Images of Thin Fashion Models Play a Role in Eating Disorders." The Fashion Industry, edited by Roman Espejo, Greenhaven Press, 2010. Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in Context,

The fashion industry plays a huge role in portraying bad images of ideal beauty, which in turn affects today’s society perception of their own body image. Not only are women affected by what is seen and heard about how the perfect body should appear, children of young ages are now feeling insecure and obsessed with their bodies before they reach teenage years. This ‘ideal image’ the fashion industry continues to enforce only focuses on very thin models who seem to be in shape and are very healthy. Furthermore, many people think of the influence from the fashion industry as being human representations (models). Because of the rising problem with the image of beauty within the fashion industry, it is shown that even mannequins and non-human representations (mannequins, dolls, photoshopping) of bodies play a significant role in women’s body image; which causes problems to the individual. (Anshutz & Engels, 2010). Body image and self-satisfaction, eating disorders and non-human representations all can cause harm to the individual, if prolonged.

In a study done of female beauty icons, two time frames were studied, 1959-1978 and 1979-1988. In the research, the women who were portrayed as beautiful, and the icons in the media, were observed and over half of them had fit into the standards of having one of the eating disorders, anorexia nervosa (Vonderen & Kinnally, 2012).

While it’s fashion week in London, the size “zero” models start to prepare for the big show by purging to be as thin as possible. Most models starve themselves in order to achieve the “waif”, stick-thin figure; it becomes so addictive, almost like second nature that it further leads to serious eating disorders. From recent studies, today’s model weighs about 23% less than the normal woman. Clearly, most models do not depict the average woman. Men and women all over the world follow the influences that the fashion industry provides. They believe that the fashion industry depicts on what society should be acknowledged as, picture-perfect thin.

Photo editing to get the “perfect” body makes women turn to eating disorders to obtain that look