Effect of Fashion on Teenagers

Through TV influences people’s fashion, style, and makeup has slowly transformed from bright and bold to neutral tones over the years.

The people who are in charge of creating the school dress code don’t think of girls feelings, or their need to be an individual. There are also some unnecessary rules in schools, and what schools deemed inappropriate or distracting. The schools are taking some of the girls rights away. I believe that the dress code for the younger generation is too focused on girls, and it’s way too strict. Students should not have to wear school uniforms, some schools went for believing it would get rid of competition.

The Fashion Industry is affecting our body image in a huge way. They are the number one contributing factor in how we perceive ourselves and what is normal, especially in young girls. The following research shows some of the negative effects of the Fashion Industry. First, the negative effects of the media on body image and how it give countless an unrealistic views of what is normal. Second, how the Advertising and Magazines can affect our self-image in a negative way by using extremely thin models to promote sales. Eating Disorders will be looked at lastly, to reveal the high number of women and young girls suffering from anorexia and bulimia and how much responsibility falls on the Fashion Industry. The conclusion will end with the review of key factors and how the fashion industry has affected the self-esteem and body image of our society.

In Susan Bordo’s article entitled, “Never Just Pictures,” Bordo explores the driving forces behind the ever-intensifying, pervasive, and obsessive behaviors related to perceptions of and adherence to “acceptable” dictates regarding body image. Bordo’s insightful observations, examples, historical development, and logic shed light on how these dictates developed and from where they currently emanate, including the self-appointed societal, cultural, philosophical, and psychological “gatekeepers” of beauty in today’s society.

“Above all things physical, it is more important to be beautiful on the inside - to have a big heart and an open mind and a spectacular spleen” ― Ellen DeGeneres. Every person living on this planet has a weakness that could affect them in a dismissive way. One of the weaknesses throughout the youth is to feel accepted into the society’s ideal icon trend. Any of those people would likely willing to change almost everything about themselves, to feel self-assured by crossing any kinds of boundaries and standards in any meanings. However, in the book “The Pretty App” by Katie Sise, the main character, Blake Dawkins, has a vast advantage, easy, and different ways of dealing with these types of complications than any other regular teenagers would

In the article “Obsessed:...”, the author interviews a sixteen year old girl named Molly, she says, “‘As girls, we think we can't be pretty unless we are a size zero or look like a Victoria's Secret model”’ (Abbondanza).

In high school based television shows there are constant themes of insecurity and the division of popular kids and the outcasts. Unfortunately, that is how the world works, people are labeled and associated with certain groups. These labels force people into thinking that they have to look a certain way or follow popular trends. Just like Susannah Calahan in Brain on Fire, she suffers from an illness and during her recovery she criticizes herself based off of what society expects her to look like. Social norms are deeply entrenched in everyone’s life to the point where Susannah tries to hide her sickness and put on a strong face just to avoid being labeled as abnormal. There is a sense of her fear of being ridiculed and alienated from her loved ones since she does not fulfill the common image society has on women. Susannah is embarrassed by her actions, her appearance and she refuses to accept that her new-self is even a part of her identity. Susannah does not view her post illness appearance as acceptable despite having no control over the outcome. Identity is in fact a matter of social construction since Susannah’s self esteem and perception of herself deteriorates as she finds herself deviating from what is considered normal.

Teens and smartphones are killing teen-fashion retailers by using social media to make fashions popular or unpopular. In the article “How teens and smartphones are killing teen-fashion retailers” by Suzette Parmley, a reporter philadelphia inquirer, emphasizes that teen that are on social media who are killing fashion retailer. Parmley states that according to Garrick Brown, the vice president of Cushman & Wakefield “this generation ( the first to have grown up completely on smartphones) are poised to put growth to shame” (par 9). She is basically saying that before this generation they didn't have smartphone that did things they do today, phones now a day have a lot of control and every kid uses a phone and social media is running a lot of

“The more time you spend on the internet and social media, the more likely you are to suffer from mental health issues”(Dubé). There are many violence computer games on the internet. A lot of students like to begin to play games when they were young. Most parents still don’t know the risk that their children play violent games or first person view shooting game. This kind of game might lead a children’s mind to extreme and distorted one’s version of reality.

Dress up was one of my favorite activities as a kid. You could pretend to be anything. I would often choose to put on these fancy heels and a really poofy dress. Then run to my mom asking her to put makeup on me. She would promptly tell me to “stop growing up so fast.” And of course all I wished was to be older. I wanted to wear fancy clothes and apply tons of makeup.

During our life we construct many different identities of who we want to portray ourselves as to the rest of society; fashion plays a vital role in generating who we are. With the ideas from Storry and Childs they state that “the way that we dress can either serve to confirm or to subvert various facets of our identities, such as our gender,

People also utilize fashion as a way to be judged - or not be judged. Some people dress in high-end, fashionable clothing to show that they take care of themselves and want to stand out in a positive way. Others may wear clothes that allow them to hide - plain jeans and tops that allow someone to blend into a crowd. This shows that both making a statement and trying not to make a statement actually do end up making a statement - although trying not to make a statement states that you don't want to be noticed.

Society is constructed in such a way that some people become inferior to other people because of how society treats certain individuals. Fashion has become a catalyst that leaves a gap between the lower class and the upper class; this brings out the aspect of social structure as it ranks categories of people in a hierarchy,( Macious & Plummer, 2008).Bourdieu’s concepts of field, habitus, social capital and cultural capital gives an illustration of the elite and the lower class in terms of their fashion taste. This essay consists of three parts; the first part will look at the London Fashion Week applying Bourdieu’s concepts, the second part will describe the difference sorts of capital required for elite women to join the ‘secret club’ of

Women have let the idea of looking beautiful take over their self-confidence and life. Healthy Place, an online magazine teaching women about living a healthy life, says that, “today's fashion models weigh twenty-three percent less than the average female, and a young woman between the ages of 18-34 has a seven percent chance of being as slim as a catwalk model and a one percent chance of being as thin as a supermodel.” So why do women push themselves to be excessively thin when these models are anomalies? They do it because the media tells them that this look is the only look that can attract men. Even if a woman is “beautiful” according to the media’s standards, she will always find something about her body that she hates, whether it is her hair or her belly button, no women is completely satisfied. Our society is very accepting of different religions and lifestyles, so why can we not accept different types of beauty as well?

A large contributing factor to this problem is that many people in the fashion world encourage the use of overly thin models in editorials and fashion shows. For example, as Kathryn Shattuck, What's On Today: [The Arts/Cultural Desk], mentions that Kelly Cutrone, world renowned fashion publicist, encourages, “Clothes look better on thin people. The fabric hangs better” (1). The fashion industry’s emphasis on being thin and its use of extremely underweight models in unacceptable. Many people would agree that the fashion industry plays the majority role in eating disorders, but Lisa Hilton, British Vogue writer, disagrees. Hilton argues, “Its objective is selling clothes, and the consensus remains that in order to achieve this, models need to be thin . . . Fashion is about fantasy, about impossibility, about, dare we say it, art. Most women can’t tell the difference” (1). Hilton condescendingly continues to refute the criticisms that models are too thin and the fashion industry encourages eating disorders.