Sociological Imagination On Low Self-Esteem

Women’s Body Image (www.wellesley.edu/Health/BodyImage) helped demonstrates the young influence of magazines. Those days when girls strive to be something they weren’t, were probably the most crucial days in body imaging. They succumbed into the pressure of looking how everyone else wants them to look. Such teeny bopper magazines sell to many young girls the idea of beauty. Teen Magazine is the princess of that royal court. In every young woman, or man’s mind, there is this longing to be desired. To be desired, you must be attractive. To be attractive, you have to look like that girl on page seventy-one in the latest Teen Magazine (Women’s Body Image).

One similarity between my middle school self and my current self is my personality. Throughout middle school, I was always upbeat and very outgoing. I loved talking to new kids and making people feel welcome. Positive reinforcement was definitely my forte. At any sporting event, I was the girl cheering the loudest--and usually losing her voice. In middle school, I would express being outgoing by performing ballet and doing forensics. I also would sing at my church. I am proud to say that I am still like this today. It is such a pleasure to be able to brighten someone’s day, which is why I am so happy that, in this case, I have not changed since middle school. Besides my personality, I also look very similar today as I did back in middle school. My hair is still black and very straight. My height, sadly, is also pretty much the same as it was a few years ago. I have been sporting the five foot two inches stature for a long time now. Makeup has not come into my life quite yet on a daily basis. In middle school I never wore makeup for a few reasons: I was too lazy, my mom did not want me to wear it, and I flat out did not know the first thing about makeup. Now, I am still too lazy to put on a full face of makeup, and I do not have the knowledge as well. So, I choose to just not wear it. Additionally to my similarities to middle school and now, my friends are the same. My best friend, for the longest time,

At five foot six, size 7 shoe, and size 4 clothes…okay, really a size 6, my curves were in the right places. I didn’t have any eating disorder issues. But keeping it real, I was not going to put anything too fattening in my mouth. Like most teen girls, I was conscious of my appearance. So when Brandon told me I was beautiful, he had me melting.

When I was 13, I decided to grow out my pageboy style. This decision was not difficult (but unfortunately for me, not timely). I decided this after looking at my seventh grade yearbook picture. I was smiling into the camera. My hair was pointing in five different directions from my head, screaming "I wanna be a star!!"

My second way i’ve changed since i’ve came to middle school is the way I dress because i’m getting older I can’t be walking around with a Barbie shirt on if you're like fourteen that would be embarrassing and people would probably make fun of me and call me names so that’s why we wear like

At the time, I found myself constantly comparing myself to women in magazines like People or Cosmo. The tall lean actresses and models were always ideal, always looked content with who they are and what they did. On top of that, so many people looked up to these celebrities and their perfect Hollywood lives. I felt so inadequate compared to celebrities like Emma Watson or Olivia Wilde, that I tried to model a life style that would help aid me in my pursuit for a thin body, long curly hair, and confidence in my

When teens go online they are faced with edited photos of their idols, or even people they don’t know. Popular social media sites such as tumblr, instagram, twitter, and facebook all have photos of “perfect” girls. Teens log onto these sites are immediately immersed in photos of everything they want to be. Instagram provides the opportunity for girls to edit their photos in such a way that a person would hardly be able to tell who it is anymore. Adding lighting, blurring the background, getting the picture at just the right angle. Teen girls are practically becoming professional photoshoppers at this point. “Encouraging” pictures flood the feed on the social media sites. Examples are “Every time you say no to food, you say yes to thin”, “Skinny jeans. Skinny shorts. Skinny for life.” and “Every time you skip dinner, you wake up thinner” (Marin,

I was nervous to meet them and changed from my standard jean shorts into long dress pants in a parking lot despite the desert heat. I took my eyebrow ring out and smoothed my wild curls into the best haphazard bun I could manage.

That ideal body image that these Medias create can be very hard to develop. Philippa Roxby, a health reporter from BBC News, she visited different schools and talked to 12- and 13-year-olds about their social media and how easily images could be altered, and have added effects to improve themselves. She explains, “’I ask them to shut their eyes and put their hand up if they have ever enhanced an image on Facebook.’ They usually all put up their hands. One girl said every image she uploaded had been altered” (Roxby). By allowing teenagers at a young age create their social media accounts, it can cause them to access a point where they are not content with the way they look. If people access social media at too young of an age if can build them to lose

For example, I picked on a lot of other kids because I was in the “cool” crowd. I know now that what I did was wrong, but even to this day I can be excited by others and do things that I wouldn’t normally do by myself.

The struggle of growing up hideous. My childhood was ruin because I came out my mother's womb ugly. My mother always tried to hide the truth. It was pretty obvious, I mean what's so wrong with not having the right looks? I personally thought being ugly was a gift from god. That’s what made me a unique human being. The past experiences I had was fairly funny. Back in my days being ugly was worse than smelling bad. The memories of people seeing me as an ugly version of Chris Rock. Looks can be deceiving……. I guess there was a reason why I was born in the month where all the monsters come out. My mom never had to spend money on a Halloween costume because I was an original monster. I've always thought because I was so different from my other classmates

The flip side of that coin is demonstrated by the aspiring models - many of whom spend more time checking out how they look in the mirror than they do actually working out. Males, and females, with unnaturally hard bodies and an equally unnatural desire to look ‘date ready’ while working out, strutting around, parading like peacocks, wearing the most popular matching brand name outfits can always be found hording mirror space and assisting gravity by holding machines down with their bottoms while exercising their ability to text using only their thumbs. Although generally amicable, this group of fitness center members is regarded with the most disdain; taking up valuable time and space to make fashion statements.

This was one of the unwanted gifts mother nature gives us. The others include acne and raging hormones.Later I begun to recognize myself and see the flaws. This awkward moment of life can be an unwanted tempest. It destroys the peace of childhood by pestering with emotions, and desires. Self doubt soon pounces on you and all that is in the mind is it better to be anyone but yourself. The desire in your heart can not be fulfilled so you turn to self hate because of it. There is no feeling worse than seeing your greatest enemy as the man in the mirror. Though I do not remember how, I started to learn more about philosophy and astronomy and that spark an odd

Some young women have even taken more drastic measures by turning to plastic surgery to alter their appearance. However, unlike makeup, plastic surgery is definitely something that can be taken too far since it is permanent. Women should not have to feel the need to undergo plastic surgery at all: unless it is for reconstructive purposes. Sadly, last year alone, facial plastic surgeons recorded 64% of their patients under the age of 30 had undergone cosmetic surgery or injectable treatments (Matthews, 2016, para. 8). Some surgeons, including Matthews, have credited this increase in cosmetic procedures to the “Kardashian Effect” or “Selfie Mania”. Thus, demonstrating how powerful social media’s influence is on a woman’s decision to undergo

If that was not enough to deal with, I also have red hair and freckles so I was constantly teased about my appearance. All this contributed to my own lack of self-confidence and a feeling that I was not as good as my peers.