What Are We Teaching Young Girls About Life?

Even though media vaunts an iridescent image of what every girl should look like, the simple fact is just, it is impossible. It is because the pictures in the media are not true—they all have gone through lots of Photoshop. Only 5 percent of women have the body type seen in almost all advertisements. Besides, most of fashion models are thinner than 98 percent of American women. However, women still continue to do whatever they can in order to fit into that idea of ‘perfection’. Eating disorders have harassed who want to feel like they are ‘beautiful’, for years. Women are willing to do anything even though it can cause harm to their own self due to low self-esteem. Do you want your sister, friends or girl friends always feel depressed and doing harm to themselves, as they feel dissatisfied about their

The movie Mean Girls favors popular culture when it comes to fashion, music, and trends. When Cady and Janis cut holes into Regina’s tank top a majority of the girls also did so because the most popular girl so it was considered to be cool. Most people try to fit in to avoid being harassed by those who are popular and those who dare to not conform are more vulnerable to harassment. The girls who attended Cady’s school were more likely to make fun of eachother than the boys.

In this particular film, students are also treated in a like manner of those in The Breakfast Club. Social stereotypes are also present which hinders adolescents’ social development. This gives individuals a closed mind about the possibilities of other human beings. In Mean Girls, this issue is especially prominent in the scene in which the popular girls, otherwise known as ‘The Plastics’, reveal to their new friend about a burn book they have. This book categorizes every person in school and sheds negative light about each and every one of them. Doing so, causes an uproar in the school. Therefore causing students to lash out at one another. Eventually, these students also see a corrupted social system and attempt to end such a horrendous

Model’s work so hard to have the perfect body for magazines and other things but it is not enough for people they have to photoshop everything that is natural for a girl and it makes girls self conscious about themselves. The interest in this topic is that this is a serious problem,girls should be proud of there body but people think that if a girl is fat then that girl does not care and if a girl is too skinny that girl is trying too hard. In the 1840’s people were fat because it showed that that person was wealthy and could eat a lot, and if a person is skinny you could not afford to eat. But by the 1920’s dieting and calorie counting were apart of daily life. There is way too much pressure on girls to have the perfect body because girls think they are not as pretty as the girls in magazines, society is also the problem because society thinks if a girl is not skinny that girl is not pretty, they always try to change girls because nothing is

To contrast the two examples, in Mean Girls “The Plastics,” Regina George, Gretchen Weiners, Karen Smith, and soon Cady Heron, display the concept of a social hierarchy. They dominate North Shore High School and their fellow classmates wish to be them and crave interaction with them. “The Plastics” are generally unruly and have not much more to contribute other than their physical appearances and fashion choices. One girl claims that she was punched in the face by Regina George and “it was awesome!” This is practically absent in the genuine school scene, other than seniors taking the lead. No one knows and simultaneously worships a certain person or group of people. There are some groups or cliques of girls which tend to be more popular, although not to

People are very visual creatures. We look, we judge, and we make assumptions. Women should be able to look a certain way and love themselves for how they look and not have to worry about being made fun of because they may not be the tiniest or they may be a little skinnier than normal. Are the pictures that we see of women and their bodies reachable? We see images of models with perfect bodies plastered everywhere. We see them on tv, magazines, walking through the mall, and movies. People see these and make assumptions. The images we see are making our expectations of the female body skyrocket but in reality these expectations are most likely unreachable.

In Mean girls, the movie begins with The main character of the film, Cadi, a smart, and kind girl who has just moved to the United States from a completely different culture in Africa. She stumbles upon many different cliques in her new high school, although the most influential group is known as the “Plastics”. The Plastics represent what everyone wants to be; popular, rich, and pretty. Unfortunately, the plastics are also the meanest cliques in school. In the movie Cadi, slowly begins to gravitate to this clique and unknowingly becomes known as a Plastic. This movie gives a good example of how conformity can be displayed. She quickly learns that if she wants to admired by others she needs conform to all of rules in her high school hierarchy; such as being only allowed to wear her hair up only once a week, wearing pink on Wednesdays, and jeans on Fridays. If she were to break any of these rules, she would not be accepted by the Plastics and therefore not allowed to sit with them at lunch. It is clear that both centuries have selected a certain group of individuals and have put them on a pedestal for others to aspire to be like

When I say “new, healthier” norms, I mean we must stray away from the destructive thin ideals. Instead we should show how those picture-perfect bodies do not occur as often as they are portrayed. Once the young women realize these distorted “facts”, they will have less problems with a negative body-image. According to Richard Perloff in Social Media Effect on Young Women’s Body Image Concerns: Theoretical Perspectives and An Agenda for Research, Perloff states, “The theory is that once young adults understand that they hold erroneous impressions about the commonality of particular behaviors, the motivation to hold accurate attitudes and to fit into peer norms will propel them to alter their behaviors in ways that congeal with social norms” (373). Perloff then explains the once an individual has recognized the parts that aren’t true with the thin-ideals, those people can go on living their lives without needing to reach those impractical objectives of being

Self-esteem plays a big part of body image. People have to feel good about themselves and be comfortable in their own skin to be happy. In today's world, it feels almost impossible to be happy, this generation is all about the media which makes having self-esteem 10x harder. Millions of pictures are posted of expectations of how women should look. In an article written by Pavica Sheldon, she states that ”The average American woman is 5’4 and 140 pounds, whereas the average female model portrayed in the media is 5’11 and 120 pounds”. Women are placed into a box telling them they have to look a certain way and if they don't they're simply not good enough. Besides being put into a category women numerously get called nasty names like slut or whore if they show too much. Piggy and fatty if they're overweight. Or “stick” if she's too skinny. Nothing is ever good enough is what it feels like. For example, Kylie Jenner, if you grew up watching “Keeping up with the Kardashians” you know how she looked before all the plastic surgery she got done, she now looks completely different. An account wrote, “What are they giving Kylie?” and someone quoted the tweet and said plastic. So even if women try to fix their imperfections they still get shamed down for it by calling them fake.

Media is everywhere we turn. It’s displayed on billboards, commercials, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. It influences people to purchase certain things or even vote for a certain presidential candidate. Media tells us who we are and who we should be. Although media has its positive effects, like spreading the latest news quickly, it also has many downfalls for teenagers, specifically teenage girls, who are hounded with a stream of media related to body image. Today most women always feel the need to look in a mirror whenever they see one to fix their hair or makeup, or even compare themselves to an advertisement featuring an unblemished, blonde haired, skinny woman with perfect hair and skin. Every single girl has done this, but how can it possibly be her fault? For so long women have been trained to compare themselves to others. Girls see flashing lights on every corner that scream to them “they aren’t good enough” or “skinny enough”. Seeing those ads and their negative message that is sent, girls will go to drastic measures to fit themselves into this image of what society calls “perfection”, but advertisers are not worried about the person who is buying the product, they are just more worried about if they are going to buy it and often look beyond the point that their ads affect the way girls internalize their messages.

The problem with body image are the factors that influence it. One powerful factor, the media. The photoshop magazines we look at and the commercials we see. Studies at Stanford University and University Of Massachusetts found that "70% of college women say they feel worse about their own looks after reading women's magazines". Of course, when we're constantly exposed to these images, we will start to think that that’s reality.

Our body is what makes us who we are. Everyone is special due to physical traits. Even though everyone has an opinion about what his or her perfect body would be, changing one's personal characteristics would take away from an individual. Do you ever look in the mirror and wonder to yourself, “Am I good enough for everyone? Are my arms too fat? Does my face has too much acne? Do my clothes show my muffin top?” Well, you aren't alone. Many women struggle with body image. Rae Smith quotes “There is nothing wrong with your body, but there is a lot wrong with the messages which try to convince you otherwise.” Women feel self-conscious due to the media. The media pressure women to be overly concerned with their bodies. Media affected women significantly.

Adolescents are faced with many difficult life decisions which, when coupled with their lack of self-knowledge, cause identity crises. Not secure in themselves, teenagers must make decisions concerning how they will act, with who they will associate with, and what life decisions they will choose. Ultimately, the progression by which they determine their identity must inevitability be one of trial and error. In the book Reviving Ophelia, clinical psychologist Dr. Mary Pipher discusses the social and cultural pressures faced by today 's adolescent girls based on her individual clients’ stories. This paper will examine how gender role socialization effects girls more specifically, depending on the teenage girls’ developmental level. Another crucial theme to be analyzed is the idea coined as lookism and the American culture, which according to the book is a determination of a woman 's value based solely on appearance. Another common factor in each of the case studies presented by Pipher is the theme of resisting authority and shutting out parental guidance substituting help with media and peers. By analyzing these young girls’ stories, it is clear to understand why young girls find themselves going down the wrong path growing up.

Growing up we have been told that "It’s the inside that counts because beauty is only skin deep." And yet the media contradicts this idea every day. If looks don’t make a difference, or even matter, why are such a significant number of women hurting themselves since they're troubled with the way they look? Why air brush away our flaws? This is on the grounds that our general public has developed a specific self-perception that being sexy or beautiful is no longer about being yourself, it's in fact a long way from the normal average women size twelve. The ridiculous standard of perfect that women are brainwashed with, has caused many to developed "Body Dysmorphia." No women, child, or young lady should feel the need to look in a mirror for hours trying to fix something they feel should not be there whether it be a freckle they don’t like or how much tighter their clothes are compared to others. No person should turn to cosmetic procedures, dieting, changing the way the dress, or even their hair just because they want to look like the person on the cover of a magazine. The absurd so called ideal body measures shouldn’t exist. The idea that being perfect or sexy means that your thighs can't touch, your hair has to be long, have to be a size double zero, and your waist can't be as wide as your hips shouldn't exist. The media needs to develop realistic self-perception alongside the possibility that ladies of every ethnicity, shape, and size are excellent, not simply ladies who

In today’s society we let the media decide everything in our lives from what clothes we should wear, music we should listen to, and how we should look. One of the biggest problems that both men and women face is body shaming, because the media sets standards for young kids and young adults., they often times try and fit the description of “perfect” which leads these people to either be depressed because they do not look like people want them to look or harm themselves in order to achieve the desired look. The most common ways the media shames both men and women are by celebrities and how they are the “perfect” body, publishing magazines of what is the ideal man and woman, and by the people who believe being “too” fat is bad and being “too” skinny is bad.