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.
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
Most women these days would do anything to look pretty and attract the opposite sex. This story gives us the importance of body image to women and they get judged about it. Amber the “finger throated sickness one”. She gets teased because of her anorexic appearance. This is a mental illness common to the young woman.
“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.
Eating disorders are becoming more common today in society and it is quite unsettling how young women arrive to that point where they get sick trying to fit in. Sharlene Hesse-Biber’s book The Cult of Thinness really elaborates on different reasons why young women specifically join the cult so
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
Anorexia: a sociocultural matter. Anorexia is a very serious eating disorder that develops when someone decides to stop eating. Many people have differing opinions on why and how this problem has developed. Some feel as though society and the media has played the impact for this. The teenage population all the way up to young women today ages 13-22 have been constantly brainwashed with the pressures that thin is beautiful.
There is always a low self-image body against women by media. The media is too much interested in about how the women would look in thin body. There are so many advertisements where the women’s body is very thin. Women begin to believe that they can never add up to the shown models in advertisements. This can lead to many eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, over eating and bulimia.
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.
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,