In modern society, many adolescent girls are becoming young adults under the pretenses of false selves. When dealing with issues such as divorce, sex and violence, drugs and violence, and mass media, girls are learning to create a false identity in order to live up to stereotypical standards of beauty, popularity, and success. The book Reviving Ophelia, by Mary Pipher, Ph.D., discusses the accounts of several different girl’s therapy sessions, conducted by Dr. Pipher, which deal with aggression, disorders, and insecurities that are causing mental, physical, or emotional issues within adolescent girls trying to overcome the systematic oppression placed upon them. Throughout the book, several different girls’ stories were relatable to my own personal experience of adolescents in relation to the unrealistic expectations that create social, physical, and mental issues for many adolescent girls. One of the main hardships I was able to relate to throughout the book that Pipher describes as creating depression for girls, is divorce (Pipher, Pg. 136). My parents got divorced when I was 6 years old, but did not send me to therapy for the divorce until …show more content…
For a short period of time, I didn’t even recognize who I was. I was acting out in ways I did not enjoy, dressed in styles I didn’t agree with, and created a personality that I thought would make me more popular. I tried so hard to be the superficial person people wanted me to be, because I valued their opinions more than my own. One of the best decisions I ever made for myself was when I made a new group of friends. I was able to act and look like my true self and they accepted me for me. It made me a lot happier in my life and I was able to find my voice and make decisions for myself, instead of for society. This was the turning point for me in my adolescents that awakened me to the superficial expectations that adolescent girls have to fight
Adolescence is a time when everything we've ever known is being changed. Relationships, friends, thoughts, and other things that shape who we are become more awkward and confusing and are changed from what they have been in the past. Consequently, we will change also because all these things shape who we are. During a period of such change, it's hard to know who we really are. Adolescence is the time when we find out who we truly are, but not until we know who we aren't. Adolescents use common words, actions, and rivalries to try to define their unique personalities, goals, and ideas. They label
Recently, Jennifer Siebel Newson had found out that she was pregnant and was having a baby girl, but despite the happiness of the joyful news, she was worried on how her daughter could grow up to be emotionally healthy in the culture, which consisted of the misrepresentation of women in the media, that we have in the world today. She also worried about how she would make sure that her daughter didn’t fall into the trap that she had fallen into as a girl. When Newson was 7 years old, her older sister died causing her to blame herself for her sister’s death. This resulted in Newson trying to fill in as 2 daughters for her parents, leading her to vulnerably accept peer pressure. She then went through an eating disorder as a teenager because
As a teenage girl, I understand and can empathize with the ins and outs of daily stressors, peer pressures and insecurity. The short story “Virgins”, from the novel Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans describes the life of the narrator, Erica, as she embarks on her journey into womanhood. Throughout the short story, it seems evident that she lacks love and high self-esteem. Erica and Jasmine find themselves searching for acceptance and affection in all the wrong places.
I am still reading the book called Ophelia Speaks, by Sara Shandler. In the book now the essays people are not writing about eating disorders anymore. They are now talking about their stories with drug and alcohol abuse. I really do not like that the author compiles all the different stories together to make a book. I feel like if the book was just one person’s story I could get into the book more than I am right now. The book just kinda skips by really fast because of how short the people's stories are. I just cannot really connect with any of the stores that are written. I probably cannot because of the lack of description they have because the stories are only like a page long. Overall I just wish this book was just one person’s struggles
The book, Reviving Ophelia, is about the hardships girls go through when they are growing up and trudging through puberty. As the author Mary Pipher states it, adolescent girls tend to lose their “true selves” in order to fit in and comply with the standards that society sets for women. Pipher, a practicing therapist, uses her own case studies to show how pressures put on girls forces them to react in often damaging ways. In most case studies she tells the audience how she helped these girls heal and regain control of their lives. It seems that her primary goal is to warn people of what certain effects can have on girls and what not to do. The one thing that Pipher tends to overlook is what parents can do right to raise healthy
Mary Pipher, author of the book Reviving Ophelia, has made many observations concerning young adolescent girls in our society. She wrote this book in 1994, roughly eleven years ago. Although some of her observations made in the past are not still accurate in today’s world, there are many that are still present in 2005. The primary focus of Pipher’s comments is to explain how young girls are no longer being protected within our society.
In a world where teens are exposed to all the messages shown in media, there is a developing self-conscious to change oneself for the people around them. Unquestionably, we have all taken a look at ourselves and thought about changing something. Wanting to gain popularity and likeability, just the fear of being pointed out and being different somehow turns people away from being themselves. However, changing oneself must first be evaluated and thought through in order to have its benefits.
The first selected reading relies on second-person narration to show how girls are affected over time by societal expectations that internalize feelings of inferiority. By describing the action of the girl in second-person, the reader experiences the decline of confidence and individuality in a girl’s personality. The contrast of past and present self, told through anecdotes, emphasizes the progression of shame and degradation of self that a girl faces in society, particularly in school. The author shows that society’s treatment of girls affects their self-worth. After being called too “vicious” for having a competitive spirit, the story relays the experience of muting one’s personality to fit the desired role of girls (Findlen 3). Another incident by the
Growing up I was pegged as the fag, the one who from the age of nine was “destined” to be an outcast. I was teased, ridiculed, and harassed on a regular basis to the point where I didn't want to be here anymore. I had no motivation to go to school, All I could do was cry because I knew they didn't want me.
In recent years, the attention has turned to adolescent girls and to what psychologists call “relational aggression,” or the kind of behavior depicted in the film Mean Girls(I liked that movie though). These girls’ cliques spread rumors and lies, exclude and sometimes show outright physical aggression toward other girls. Their targets are usually girls who haven’t yet started developing physically, who dress differently than others, or who just don’t fit in. counselors who work with girls tell horrifying stories of girls’ cliques and their behavior toward other girls. For example, A mother of an 11-year-old writes in to GreatSchools complaining that girls are teasing her sensitive daughter because she hasn’t developed.
The first being that I am extremely clumsy, and the second being that I had no idea who I was and in an attempt to create an identity I distanced myself from my friends. As a preteen I was two things. Polite and humble. Wrapped into one word, noble. These three words I would hear incessantly, until it drove me absolutely crazy to the point where I thought I needed to be known for something else instead. I became sarcastic, superficially charming, witty, and even uncaring. I blended all these things together and came out with the me of a few years ago. With my jokey, happy go-lucky nature I could make more friends who were attracted to outlandish personalities. With my sarcastic and uncaring personality I learned to pretend to manipulate people in an attempt to keep myself from caring too much about them while getting all the attention I wanted in return. However, I soon realized it wasn’t working. I noticed people didn’t like me for who I was. They liked me for who they thought I was. There lay the problem; I didn’t even know who I was at this point. I opened up to some close friends, and brick by brick they learned to break me down until the noble core returned. They shared encouraging words, thoughts, and helped me overall realize who I really was, am, and will be. All of these events still come back to me and make me realize one thing. No matter how smart I think I am, there are some things I can’t do on my own. My family, friends, and teachers have helped me figure this out. Even then, they all had their own little lessons to teach but overall the main point remained. You can’t go through life
Now, almost a decade later I have learnt what is really important to me. It is important to step back and listen to yourself instead of looking at others. Today, with a bigger distance to my highschool years I can see what was happening to me and why I acted the way I did. I was fantasising about who I could become to be loved and acknowledged by the people around me. I thought defining myself would make me feel more secure about myself. Looking around me I can see the phenomenon of the search for identity almost everywhere.
“I do not know, my lord, what I should think. POL: Marry, I will teach you. Think
According to merriam-webster madness is, “a state of severe mental illness.” There are several motifs throughout William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, however the most prominent one and evident motif is madness, which ultimately leads to destruction. Love, desire to revenge, death, and loyalty for his father are causes of madness. These themes are evident throughout the play. Ophelia’s madness was driven by both love and death.
Ophelia is another one of Shakespeare’s tragic victims. Throughout the years, her character has been analyzed in a multitude of ways. Arguably being one of the main characters in Hamlet, Ophelia is known for being one of the least developed. In her literary criticism piece, Representing Ophelia: Women, Madness, and the Responsibilities of Feminist Criticism, Elaine Showalter goes through countless interpretations of Ophelia’s character.