The girl’s interests are usually limited to make-up, hair, boys and shopping. Movies such as ‘Mean Girls’ and ‘Clueless’ and television shows such as ‘Big Bang Theory’, ‘Home & Away’ and ‘Sex In The City” encourage the idea that teenage girls and women are ditzy, stupid and superficial. The movie Clueless (1995), for example, stared Cher (Alicia Silverstone), a rich teenager from Beverly Hills. She was blonde and beautiful, and enjoyed the "typical" teenage girl activities. Cher and her friends spent all their time shopping, doing makeovers and chasing after guys.
This leads to "women viewing their bodies as a never-ending project, with the goal of appearing as a younger woman" (Martens, in class). The more women are expected to appear youthful, the more society pushes these beauty standards which in turn perpetuates the issue and allows skin care companies to continue profiting off an abundance of anti-aging skin care products. Not only are these skin care products often expensive, they are almost exclusively targeted towards women rather than for both women and men. This perpetuates the double-standards of beauty for women and men. Men are not expected to purchase such products and are often praised for their aging, leading them to not having to worry about their skin or appearance as they age, while women continue to fork out money to meet unrealistic
Magazines such as Dolly, Cleo, Girlfriend and Cosmo all exhibit impossible ideas of ‘perfect’ in which teenagers perceive as the only acceptable image in this society. Teenage girls in this day and age are all exposed to sexualised concepts of women, and that thin and hot is the only desirable image for teenage girls. Many people don’t realize the impact celebrities and models in the media have on adolescents, they can manipulate the way they display themselves to others. These magazines send a confusing and misleading message to readers. Half the articles in these magazines tell you that you are beautiful no matter what body shape, then they go on to show images of size six super models; portraying them as the idealistic teenage girl.
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.
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.
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.
American Beauty ventures through the lives of a family and their contiguous society with very low self-worth. We see them struggle to find who they are and what they really want with their lives. In particular, the director Sam Mendes examines Angela who we see try to deal with her need to be anything but ordinary and we watch as she battles inside her mind to be sincerely happy. The director of American Beauty, Sam Mendes explores Angela’s desires and shows us how insecure a beautiful teenage girl can be and her need to be something everyone wants. On the outside, Angela seems to have very high self-esteem; she is beautiful, successful, and proud of herself and brags about her supposed sexual encounters with various men.
‘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.
They want to know more about tools so that they are able to use them when needed. But women are so intimated by men, and scared to become independent because of the laughs and rude comments that the men snicker amongst other men. So this party scene is designed for women who want to become independent; it’s a comfortable place for them to learn more about ‘man jobs’. Another interviewee from Nelsen commented, “When they realize that the women next to them at the party also don’t know what a Robertson head is they don’t feel so bad [or] intimidated by wanting to express themselves in their homes.” (Nelsen 39) Women are so intimidated by men that they base their whole life around how the men will judge them. Women consider themselves lower than men, because they are not treated as equals.
Modeling along with social media give girls the impression that they have to fit this idealized image to look thin and be beautiful, dress up nicely, and wear makeup or they will not be happy with themselves. The pressure to look a certain way has psychological effects on young girls. Changing the way they dress or eat changes and influences their identity. Unfortunately, womanizing photographers exist in the modeling industry; young girls are scared to speak up if their uncomfortable with how everything is going. No matter what their age may be,