Exactly, very bizarre practices that woman go by to feel better about there appearance rather then their health. For example, seeing today’s issues for beauty; models and movie stars all over the media show how being thin is the “hot” look as the expression came forth, “thin is in”. Woman all over the world view magazines, articles, television, movies etc, and with more people expressing vanity, many others confidence level has decreased. Everyone wants to look perfect. Everyone wants to be beautiful and wanting people to find them attractive which leads
Jill Stark’s opinion article, appearing in The Age 19th Jan 2008, outlines in a concerned and direct fashion, that most stereotypes seen in glossy magazines have a negative and dangerous impact. She contends that there is a growing trend for woman to produce magazines, promoting healthy and realistic figures, empowering the female. The headline ‘Sick of impossible princesses, real girls fight back’, indicates to readers how fed up the author is with these unrealistic stereotypes. Stark informs the reader that the traditional content of glossy magazines, with “extreme dieting tips and air-brushed waifs in micro bikinis”, is being questioned by ‘real girls’ who are “fed up with images of emaciated models and a celebrity culture pushing them to be thin, sexy and silent.”. Confronted with these images, the reader is encouraged to sympathise with the author’s contention.
Peggy says that the girlie girl culture we are living in is increasing issues like eating disorders, body weight issues and unsafe sexual behaviour. The author says “According to the American Psychological Association, the girlie-girl culture’s emphasis on beauty and play-sexiness can increase girls’ vulnerability to the pitfalls that most concern parents: depression, eating disorders, distorted body image, risky sexual behavior." (Orenstein, 6). Society expects females to beautiful and always strive to stay thin, therefore Peggy is going against those stereotypical views and saying that those unreasonable expectations are resulting in self-conscious girls with eating disorders, unsafe sexual practice and depression. Further on in the book, Peggy discusses how the emphasis on girl’s beauty from the culture that we live in is greatly inspired by Disney princesses promoting the idea that girls should be “the fairest of them all”.
“The construction of gender stereotyping of both males and females in the media is based on outdated and unfounded beliefs and therefore has had and continues to have a detrimental impact on society.” (Yes!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUyfD1F7k1I Women are subjected to many stereotypes in today’s society. Movies and television shows suggest that all women are airheads, whose sole purpose in life is to please men and rear children. Magazines and other advertisements push photographs of very slender, over groomed and “sexy women” into our minds. Men’s magazines write articles on how to seduce a girl into sleeping with them.
“It is not enough to say that women are being sold a lie by advertising, magazines and cinema” (Page 30-31) This is probably the most painfully obvious reason as to why women in today’s society strive themselves on looing like something that horrifically opposite to them. This contributes greatly on their health and lifestyle. Women go through so much effort to change themselves. For example: Botox, facelifts, pretty much anything that to them, they would think ‘enhances’ their appearance. On another note, it is very rarely would you see an Australian woman go to the extreme to idolize a particular celebrity and clone their appearance and lifestyle.
I know how we always want the next new makeup or hair product that’s going to make s look like the model in the commercial. Women can’t just run to the store in sweat pants because they value their appurtenance too much. Women don’t feel as confident when they don’t look nice, but men don’t really care either way. In the reading, “Do thin Models Warp Girls Body Image?” I agree with Nancy when she says thin models on the runway or on TV can cause very young girls to become anorexic or bulimic. Nancy says, “Girls are being bombarded with the message that they need to be super-skinny to be sexy.” (Hellmich 706) I believe that is very true when she says that but what young girls don’t realize is that you could be beautiful and sexy with any body type that you might have.
Consistently, women are diminished by advertisers to pretty body parts used to sell products, a practice that perpetuates the glorification of this unreasonable ideal of beauty. Women’s bodies have not only become a huge money-maker for advertisers, businesses have picked up on women’s insecurities about their bodies and have capilatized on these insecurities. On one hand, advertisers heavily market weight-reduction programs and present young anorexic models as the paradigm of ideal beauty; on the other hand, the media floods the airwaves and magazine pages with ads for junk food. In 1996, the diet industry (as in diet foods, diet programs, diet drugs) took in over $40 billion dollars, and that number is still climbing (Facts and Figures 1). Young women seem to be especially affected by our culture’s obsession with weight and beauty.
There are a number of women who have eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia trying to look like Miss USA when really it just might not be their body type. Women who starve themselves and call themselves fat on a regular basis. Well they would have nothing to compare themselves to if we as a society weren’t constantly flashing slim women on TV or in magazines. I wonder if there was a Mr. America pageant if men would start to doubt their body types and conform to what is socially accepted for a mans body. All in all I was shocked when I read this and think it is very sad that on national television there is a body type this is accepted.
Youth Culture is summed up by the beliefs, behavior, styles, and interests of adolescents. Youth culture also has a huge impact on today’s society, and affects many teen girls today. Sociologists have discovered a uniquely American disease that they call “affluenza.” This term refers to the stress and related disorders that develop from Americans need to constantly spend money on materials and possessions to better self-improvement. To be considered ‘pretty’ you have to be a tall white woman with blonde hair and blue eyes. “I am on this stage because I am a pretty, white woman, and in my industry we call that a sexy girl,” says Cameron Russel on her Ted Talk.
Who decides what is beautiful and what is not. I feel that the media has a lot to do with how women, in the United States anyway. With all the magazines showing thin, almost anorexic women on magazine covers young women feel that that is what they should look like. So then these young women starve themselves and/or binge and purge themselves. Some even die because of trying to fix a certain mold of what is beautiful.