The Toddlers and Tiara girls go through hours of make-up, to different hairstyles, and wearing big fake wigs. They get spray tans, and even fake teeth known as flippers. The girls look so ridiculous for their age and at what a cost. These parents are spending thousands of dollars just to teach their kids that beauty is on the outside. This sort of behavior is only setting children up for body image and mental health issues later down the road.
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.
“The construction of gender stereotyping of both males and females in the media is based on outdated and unfounded beliefs and therefore has had and continues to have a detrimental impact on society.”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.
Toddlers and Tiaras is a fascinating reality television show that lets all of us average people in on the world of childhood modeling. Toddlers and Tiaras doesn’t show us just the modeling but also the blood, sweat, and tears that go along with all types of show business. In addition to these things, Toddlers and Tiaras also gives an air of confidence to all of it’s contestants. It teaches them that anyone and everyone can be beautiful, with several pounds of makeup, over-the-top fake tans and about ten thousand dollar dresses, that is. The preparation that is put into these child beauty pageants is vital.
The emotional effect media has on a woman’s mindset, or ethos, could very well send her overboard into what is commonly known as an eating disorder. The bar is already set extremely high for young girls these days. It can be as simple as a gorgeous movie star wearing your favorite brand of clothing. Now all that runs through your mind while in the fitting room is how much better the clothes looked on that tall, lean body of your idol because it’s someone you look up to and trust. The world is continuously comparing themselves to figures from the media that they forget who they even are.
A 2009 study found that 31 per cent of “girl” toys are all about appearance, involving plastic makeup and dresses. Meanwhile, toys targeted to boys encourage invention, exploration, competition, problem solving. These are all skills associated with highly desirable employees and leaders. I think that parents have to avoid walking exclusively down the Barbie aisle at stores, and instead provide your child with games and toys that encourage scientific discovery,
In her essay, Barbie’s Body May be Perfect but Critics Remind Us It’s Plastic, Angela Cain analyzes how Barbie and other media icons affects women’s self image in our society. Barbie, one of the most popular fashion icons, has been shaping the way girls view their bodies since 1959. Barbie, and her unrealistic proportions, has been the idealistic body type. Women have struggled at great lengths to achieve the generally unattainable, to look like Barbie. Studies have shown that over 60 percent of women were unhappy with their bodies, as they have been raised comparing themselves with Barbie and other various models of the fashion industry.
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.
When many people look at the successful super models, actresses or women in the advertisement marketing, they all fit the “thin ideal” (1101). “The portrayal of super-slim women as more fashionable, desirable, and successful can contribute to eating disorders that can kill, and the mass media has been identified as one of the most influential social cultural factors contributing to anorexia” (1101). How are young girls suppose to feel pretty and beautiful when by America’s standard they are overweight? For instance, “society tends to view distinctly overweight people as unattractive and lacking inner discipline” (Turfs University). Society’s perception throughout history has put extremely unhealthy looking women in the media spotlight as the ideal image of beauty.
The media works hard and goes to any extent when they attempt to gain capital in our capitalistic country. Take TLC’s (Television Learning Channel) popular program Toddlers and Tiaras as an example; this program promotes the use of makeup for “toddlers” in order to win a beauty pageant. This show is highly controversial because of the mothers that permit their children to use makeup at such a young age. Sherri Shepherd commented on the mothers who are