Women 's Emotional Health Of Young Women

In our society, we tell little girls to love and to be true to oneself. As they grow up, this message begins to disappear because our culture contradicts this idea. As girls enter the world, they are already confined with how the media set unrealistic standards for the female population. This leads girls to harm their own body, including eating disorders such as bulimia, and anorexia. The most prominent cause of these acts is advertisements. Advertisements are everywhere and they have the power to promote, sell, encourage, and give unrealistic ideals of the common people. Advertisements and media images have a negative effect on the way women view their body image which leads to self-harm.

Throughout today’s society, media contributes to almost everyone’s daily life. From informative news channels to comical television shows, media proves to be effective in advertisement, releasing messages and informing the audience. Although media proves to be wildly effective in advertising, releasing messages and informing the audience, periodically destructive and misleading messages are provided to the audience and directly influencing women. Cultural critics widely agree that media tends to negatively influence women and all the critics point to research which supports the belief that women are portrayed as subordinate to men, having no

Social media has been a platform for misogyny and rape culture to propagate. Women are constantly reminded of what they “should” look like through photo’s shared and spread around the internet. Social media has the power to influence many things such as disrespect towards women. Although it is not highly recognized

Women have never been treated fairly in society, and the media, which is meant to give a voice to the population, reflects that. You’d think that today women would have a better representation in the media, yes? Unfortunately you’re wrong. How women are represented in media is very harmful to the population, and I’ll tell you why.

Depression is when an individual has feelings of hopelessness and has very little energy to accomplish tasks; many people have tremendous trouble sustaining an interest in life. In today’s culture, girls have become more depressed in adolescence compared to boys (Stice and Bearman). One of the major influences on why girls are frequently more depressed than boys, is that girls struggle to obtain the perfect body in their own eyes. Findings show that, compared to teen boys, teen girls have higher body shame. Fifty-three percent of adolescent girls reported being dissatisfied with their body after the study (Knauss). Low-self esteem, combined with depression, can potentially be very dangerous for young women.

First, Pipher blames the low self respect of adolescent girls everything from parents to peers, but mainly faults our society as a whole. We are all guilty of getting caught up in the media, television, and magazines. “Have you seen Rosie? She has lost so much weight!” “Oprah gained all of her weight back and more!” These are just a few of the comments that are made after watching two of the most watched talk shows. I know these comments sound harmless, but to a young girl who is struggling with the perfect body image these comments reinforce the importance of appearance. Pipher also points out that intelligent girls are more prone to depression because they are more aware of their surroundings and therefore more aware of the new constraints they face as they leave childhood. Our society idealizes tall, dark

In a recent survey done by the National institute on Media and the Family, fifth graders, ten year old boys and girls told researchers they were dissatisfied with their own bodies after watching a music video by Britney Spears or a clip from the TV show “Friends.”(4) If this isn’t shocking enough, the research group reported that at the age of thirteen, fifty-three percent of American girls are “unhappy with their bodies.” This grows to seventy-eight percent by the time the girls reach seventeen. Also, eating disorders are beginning to start at an alarming young age. Statistics show that girls are developing eating disorders at the age of six.(1) Young girls that are exposed to appearance focused television programs, and magazine shows feel that they need to look like the models that they see. Most of these girls are not even have fully developed bodies yet and are already trying to perfect themselves. One girl had even shared how one of her best friends discovered that her fifth grade cousin was bulimic. Girls at that age should not even be concerned with their bodies yet and eating disorders being developed is a harsh wake up call as to how young girls everywhere are being effected by the media each and everyday.

These young women feel an overwhelming need to make their bodies “better” in order to look like a model in a magazine. This may seem harmless, but it leads to young women turning to extremely excessive exercise routines and restricted eating in order to obtain their dream bodies (Fitzsimmons-Craft p. 144). Habits such as these lead to plenty of health problems, including dehydration, anorexia, and bulimia. The combination of body dissatisfaction and social comparison is toxic to young women’s physical and mental health.

With all the press people trying to live up to this standard in today’s society, this is why suicide and mental health issues is on the high. Recent research showed that, (e.g. Trust for the Study of Adolescence, 2000) states that despite the concept of ‘girl power,’ young women still have lower self-esteem in early adolescence, which they are unsatisfied with their bodies.

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

Imagine waking up every morning, struggling to get out of bed and hating to look at yourself in the mirror. Girl’s will look into the mirror for hours and criticize every last inch of their body with the words “fat, ugly, worthless” echo in their head. They think their body isn’t good enough and want to look skinner like the other woman in magazines or people they see on TV. The media has a big part in self-image toward young woman. The message being sent to these women on the media is that they are not pretty enough or thin enough. Which results in people having an eating disorder.

The media has played an important role in society. The media is what determines what’s popular and what’s not. The media requires women to have a certain image to their name. If a women image does not meet the media’s guidelines, then a woman will be viewed negatively by others. Achieving society guidelines is not easy for women.

As young women go through puberty, they begin to mature both physically and emotionally. Particularly, women begin to gain weight when they undergo puberty. Throughout their adolescence, women are exposed to harsh opinions others have on their bodies and how they should carry themselves. Most importantly, women are exposed to society’s values through the use of media. Women begin to value their body image and force themselves to conform to society’s idea of the “perfect body”. Personally, I think of body image as a trouble of mine because I struggle to come to terms with not having a flawless figure. Each day, I see women on social media with unrealistically perfect bodies. After being so exposed to the media’s opinion of a good physique,

Dove’s Self Esteem project was made for young girls because more young girls struggle with having low self-esteem between the ages of seven to seventeen than most people realize. Not having good self-esteem takes a toll on young girls and causes them to miss out on many opportunities while growing up. Dove stated “six in ten girls avoid participating in fundamental life activities because of concerns about the way they look”. I found this very