Advertisements that are shown on television and in magazines of tall, sickly skinny models gives girls the idea that it is okay to be very lean when, in reality, it is not. When young females see celebrities or their role models on commercials with really nice bodies, they think they have to be just like them. The author implies that it is not a good message to send out when females become to unnatural and skinny. Model agencies advertise extremely thin models because they just want their money. Nanci Hellmich explains that “Psychologist and eating disorder experts are worried about the same thing.
Some say Madelyn’s grown-up beauty is giving other young girls unhealthy ideas about how they should look and these people sure know what’s good and bad. Should our 10 year olds be exposed to the world in such a way? I think not. Girls under the age of 16 should not be allowed to pose for images or walk on the runway.
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.
In my opinion, the Gibson Girl is equivalent to the models young girls and women look up to in today’s time as inspiration to be strong-willed, confident, and free. This “new woman” image set a bit of fear in some for they feared this new ideal would disrupt the social order. Isadora Duncan is an example of one of the women who became a real-life example of these ideals. She was a popular entertainer and dancer and boldly undermined gender norms by dancing in bare feet and wearing short Greek-inspired tunics (Bowles, 2011 Sec 2.3). Duncan’s message was that she could achieve success without the help of a man.
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.
When women see a celebrity on the cover of a magazine they want to look just like the celebrity. Men also, think if they can get girl that looks like a celebrity off a magazine they will be happy. In reality the celebrity does not look like that in real life. There is no reason to be something you are not if the celebrity does not even look like that. Kilbourne shows a good point about this article and that is no women should ever be used to please people for their needs.
Although these people have a lot more challenges in their daily life, they always seem to make beauty the most important one. I think the reason for that is women are expected to act and to be seen a certain way in society. For example in the first few minutes of the movie Little Miss Sunshine a little girl named Olive was shown in front of the television watching a pageant show and imitating every single move the contestants made. In my opinion I think that she felt that she needed to act like the contestant in the Television instead of being her self and thinking she is not good enough to win the competition by being herself. Young Girls watch the beauty pageant shows and all they see is tall, skinny women walking on the stage with their swimsuit on.
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.
But things started changing when her photographer asked her to make sexual poses and then pose topless... as a teenager. It made her change the way she thought about modeling. She went to fashion shows and then she believed that she was too big to fit the role. She started hurting herself and grades began dropping. The toll that modeling has on people is so much.
Beauty pageants are exploitive; they have kids that prance around in skimpy outfits. These girls in pageants really don’t want to do pageants but there parents force them to do pageants. People may say that beauty pageants aren’t always about looks. The contestants are scored on beauty, personality, evening wear, athletic wear and over all perception of the contestant. Beauty contestant ages range from 2 years old to 60 years old.