Girl Poisoning Culture Analysis

Society’s high expectations of females guide their everyday actions and decision making whether consciously or subconsciously. In Stephen Hinshaw’s essay “Impossible Expectations” he discusses what he calls the “Triple Bind” where girls are supposed to be good at both typical girl and guy things as well as conform to a specific set of standards created by society. These contradictory expectations shape girls’ lives and drive their decision making from what type of career they will pursue to how they dress. Hinshaw also explained that girls are supposed to fit a cookie cutter image portrayed by the media yet encouraged to break the mold at the same time,

According to Stephanie Hanes’ article titled “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect," she covers the story of Mary Finucane and her daughter, whom she observed and realized that she had changed abruptly from her usual playful self to a serious and more mature looking character despite her young age (509). Later she came to discover that this was because of the effects of the Disney programs that her daughter had begun watching. Hanes covers the issue of young girls growing up in a highly sexualized environment. Her article explains the influence that the media have on sexualizing the environment for kids through the biased images of women on the internet, books and even television. To support her notion, Hanes applies some

Pipher gives some compelling stories about the behaviors of some pre-adolescent girls she has encountered. Her cousin, Polly, was an energetic and opinionated girl when she was young. Upon puberty, Polly felt unable to connect to boys and girls her age until she became stylish and more subdued in her language. This gives the reader the feeling that Polly was not accepted until she changed her personality to fit that of her surroundings. It is possible that Polly’s friends no longer enjoyed being around a girl who was opinionated or who would insult those with whom she did not agree. This story does not qualify as a valid, concrete premise to show the connection between changes an adolescent girl and her ability to connect with others.

Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls, is author, Mary Pipher’s attempt to understand her experiences in therapy with adolescent girls (Pipher, p. 11). In the text adolescence is described as a border between childhood and adulthood (Pipher, p. 292). In her quest to understand adolescent girls, Pipher attempts to answer these questions: Why are so many girls in therapy in the 1990s? Why are there more self-mutilators? What is the meaning of lip, nose and eyebrow piercings? How do I help thirteen-year-olds deal with herpes or genital warts? Why are drugs and alcohol so common in the stories of seventh-graders? Why do so many girls hate their parents? (Pipher, p. 11-12). These questions are answered through self-reflection, stories from clients, and interviews with adolescent girls at different levels of maturation.

Teenage girls are at an impressionable time in their lives. Mass Media is a key idea in one of the factors of socialization that become important to teenagers. Teenagers look to the media for a sense of entertainment. Whether it is movies, magazines, or even some aspects of social media, teenagers get a lot of influence from the media’s message. The problem with this is the media has a specific way of doing things and can be negative to a susceptible teenage girl. Media’s way of portraying a woman can be skewed and unrealistic way from what reality is. Teenage girls then have a desire for this look or way. In this essay the three ways I will describe as to why the media can negatively affect a teenage girls body image is by showing

Adolescent girls growing up in today’s society endure many more hardships than in previous years. Adolescence is no longer a time of endless sunny days spent on the back porch with a glass of country time lemonade and a smile extending ear to ear. Adolescence for girls is now generalized as a dark and depressing period of life that often seems hopeless and never ending. Mary Pipher PH.D tries to illustrate just how drastically life has changed over the years for teenage girls through her best selling book “Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls”. Although Mary Pipher was once a clinical psychologist, she articulates very well for everyone to clearly understand her ideas and perspectives. One way

     Something that Mary Pipher has brought up in the first chapter of her book was how society is causing young women to suffer many different problems. One of the most common and worst problems that arise is eating disorders. The media may be the culprit for this issue. Girls who are striving to be thin, and fit the mold of a star may never reach their goal, under natural conditions. As a result

The author cites many studies, including a 2006 survey of more than 2,000 school-aged children that observed young girls feeling an increasing need to be “perfect” -- not only to excel academically, but also in extracurricular activities, sports, and friendships. She also reports that the number of young girls worrying about their weight increased between 2000 and 2006 as well, along with rates of stress, suicide, and depression. Orenstein quotes Susan J. Douglas from her book Enlightened Sexism to reconcile these studies: “We can excel in school, play

One social effect of conformity in young girls is low self-confidence, which often follows into adulthood. Mary Pipher, Ph. D., is a clinical psychologist and author of “Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls”. Throughout Pipher’s writings she recalls personal and patient’s experiences that have brought to light the “destructive forces that affect young women.” (268). Pipher explains that as girls grow up, “They lose their assertive, energetic and “tomboyish” personalities and become more deferential, self-critical and depressed. They report great unhappiness with their own bodies.” (267) Throughout adolescence they are taught by plays, movies, books, and society that a woman’s purpose is to please others. Her favorite example

She mostly had students in her class right before they hit puberty, which eliminated many potential issues. Still, she noticed “girls tended to be better behaved. Boys [were] more of the troubled, really difficult one” (Huffman). Of course, studies have shown that, for most boys, “testosterone isn’t causing aggression, it’s exaggerating the aggression that’s already there” (Testosterone Rules). Carolyn also observed that “girls tended to be more studious; but a lot of the time really brilliant ones were boys. Girls tended to work harder, so more of them would have been better” (Huffman). This observation aligns with current interest in why girls perform better academically. The “last decade has seen a growing popular and academic obsession with boys’ underachievement” (Reay). Carolyn made specific efforts in her classroom to treat students fairly and equally, regardless of their gender or academic success. She also intentionally taught units on famous women and famous African Americans, hoping to ignite the same desire for equality in her students that she herself

Throughout the article, Bates provides the reader with many quotes and studies from girls with first hand experience. This adds to her credibility by showing the use of multiple resources and thorough

As years pass and the dynamic of what it means to be a girl evolves, girls are “told they can do anything, be anyone” and have taken the bull by the horns and are surpassing boys in schools, in all respects (Black). Furthermore, Black states that the “decades of conversation” allow girls to learn from others’ thoughts on what it means to be a woman and understand the “complexity of womanhood” (Black).

Sammons (2007) states that “In early intrauterine development male and female external genitalia (visible sex organs) are identical” and exposure to dihydrotestosterone the male genitalia will develop and its absence female genitalia will. Society then tells the child how he should act. Brenbaum (1999) “has shown clear differences in activities and job interests between adolescent boys and girls. But gender role behaviours[sic] may be influenced by the media.” Male adolescent gender role activities according to Berenbaum (1999) include working with engines and electronics, playing or liking football, hunting, washing or waxing the car, playing sports, fishing, and basketball. Female adolescent gender role activities such as thinking about becoming a secretary, needlepoint, going to slumber parties, collecting dolls, trying out for cheerleading, playing dress-up, and playing with make-up. These activities are not programmed into males and females at conception but by the society and the mass media. Parents tell boys to be tough and brave, not to cry or play with dolls; girls are told to be gentle and lady-like, not to play with trucks or play rough sports. Hollywood also perpetuates this idea but making movies with helpless women and tough guys though there are some cross-over changes but they show the men and women negatively accepted by their peers.

(Heubeck 2006) For many young people, especially girls, the ideal continues to chase them as they grow into young women. Young girls begin to internalize the stereotypes and judge themselves by media’s impossible standards. The power that the media holds in impacting the lives of young girls is detrimental and eventually affects their body image, their satisfaction of their own body, and portrayal of their body as an object.

However, people’s perception of gender due to society ignores these findings. Women who exhibit agency, or assertiveness in the workplace, are considerably less likely to be hired for a job than a man who has the same traits or a woman who is sensitive and motherly (Shibley Hyde). Gender stereotypes also affect young men in an even harsher way. Society believes that girls are more sensitive and more likely to have self-esteem issues. However, in Shibley Hyde’s meta-analysis, she found that there was almost no difference between adolescent boys’ and girls’ issues with self-worth (Shibley Hyde). This could potentially lead to boys not getting the help they need because society expects them to “take it like a man”.