In my opinion, Americans tend to think that their appearance is everything and go to great measures to get their desired looks. I also believe that people in society are always trying too hard to make them self look like their ideal celebrity. I feel that men and women have different standards when it comes to appearance and how they view it. I also agree with Nancy Hellmich in her article, “Do Thin Models Warp Girls Body Image?” as she says that girls are becoming skinnier and skinnier as the years go by. I think as society tends to focus on their appearance more, it also becomes more dangerous.
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.
In today’s society women are always worrying about their appearance. Their perspectives on how they should present themselves are imposed by everything around them. Friends, celebrities and the media are the main reasons why women fee the need to live their lifestyle a specific way. Sometimes, celebrities don’t even need to say anything to have an effect on one; women in today’s society are already provoked on changing just by feeling intimidated by them. In Nina Power’s text, ‘One- Dimensional Woman’ the author also argues that you don’t need superficial things to feel good about yourself, or to even look like perfectly thin stick figure to be a feminist.
ENWR-105-BX 18 November 2013 In the essay “Female Chauvinist Pigs” by Ariel Levy, the author argues that women participate in practices that are responsible for their oppression. Levy’s argument is that women participate in “raunch culture” as means of embracing sexism and exploitation toward the idea of gaining empowerment. While some woman like Sheila Nevins, feel empowered and liberated by aspects of raunch culture, other woman like Tyra Banks, co-producer of ANTM, is discussed in “Ghetto Bitches, China Dolls, and Cha Cha Divas” by Jennifer Pozner using racist stereotypes in order to gain power. The judges in the show say they try and promote inclusive beauty standards actually reinforce racial stereotypes. Women are willing to participate in practices that oppress them because they want power.
She does this in order to show how the obsession that the girlchild has with her own body was one of the largest factors in the suicide. Another one of the stereotypes that Piercy draws upon is their behavior. Piercy describes how the girlchild was told to “play coy.” This describes the societal pressure of what is stereotypically “lady-like.” She was “advised” to act as other ladies would act, and she tried to the furthest extent she could manage. She attempted to act demure and sweet, which was the only thing society allowed for. The term
As a teenager there will be a time where breaking the bonds of childhood, entering a world of rebellion, and being obsessed with popularity will be normal. For teenage girls, in order to acquire this popularity they need to be thin, busty, and wear revealing clothing while gossiping about peers and spending time worrying about boys and parties rather than their academics. But, where did this image of how to be a popular teenage girl come from? For decades, teen films have portrayed popular teenage girls this way and the film Mean Girls is no exception. This film not only displays how the world expects teenage girls to act, but also how difficult it is for teenage girls to resist acting this way.
Whether we realize it or not we are constantly surrounded by images of sex; in the media, advertising, movies, and even in schools, sex is everywhere. So it is not uncommon for us when we open a magazine and see images of half naked women and barely legal girls posing provocatively in order to sell a product. In Jean Kilbourne’s article, “Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt” she explains how much women are objectified and dehumanized in advertisements like this. Constantly in the media there are women who are looked up as sex objects rather then actual women. Kilbourne describes how when you depict men or women as sex objects rather
She is to turn her attention to lady-like hobbies. Women are merely objects of display and necessary utilization. Scout is treated as a “girl” not only by society but also by her brother because that is his opinion of females. “I was not so sure, but Jem told me I was being a girl, that girls always imagined things, that is. Why other people hated them so, and if I started behaving like one I could go off and find someone to play with” (Lee, 119).
‘The Beauty Myth’ is an obsession with physically looking ‘perfect’ and traps the modern woman in an endless cycle of hope, self-consciousness, and self-hatred as she tries to achieve what society has deemed "the flawless beauty" regardless of whether it is realistic or not. Naomi Wolf censures the exploitation of women by the fashion, beauty and advertising industries, particularly in women’s magazines as we delve deeper in to the chapter on ‘Culture’. She claims that as a result of being sequestered from the world and isolated from one another, the only real women’s space in modern mass culture where women can seek solidarity is through women’s magazines. Ironically, it is through the same myth that women are brought together and driven apart. These women may not share any particularly close relationship, but develop a sense of solidarity through sharing similar interests, agenda, or worldview.
Young women seem to be especially affected by our culture’s obsession with weight and beauty. America today is a girl-destroying place where young women are encouraged to sacrifice their true selves in exchange for false selves that are more culturally acceptable. “More than any other group in the population, girls and their bodies have borne