She glances up at me, and I briefly shift my glare into a weak smile. I envy this woman, but I am not alone. Many other women envy her too. Many women, just like me, are unhappy with their less than perfect bodies. 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.
They compete against other contestants for an award of money, pageant titles, trophies, and a big sparkly tiara. However I don't approve of the parents position to put their child through this, and how they treat their daughters throughout the competition. Not only are they exploiting their five-year-olds for their own personal gain, they are putting their child through so much misery to look beautiful. They live through their daughters fame and glory, and make their daughters look very high maintenance. The Toddlers and Tiara girls go through hours of make-up, to different hairstyles, and wearing big fake wigs.
Her mom continues to remind her how overweight she is and says things like “Look at you! Enormous!” (Carmen, RWHC). Carmen tells her she would be beautiful is she lost weight. Ana doesn’t listen to her because she knows there’s more to a person than just looks. There is even a scene where she strips down to her lingerie at work, where they were all women, in front of her mom.
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.
The mirror reflected the woman’s face as she applied her mask. Foundation, powder, eye shadow, liner, mascara, blush, and lipstick are all applied as she satisfies her need to appear beautiful. In Susan Sontag’s passage, Women’s Beauty: Put Down or Power Source?, she explains the definition of beauty and the plight of contemporary women with respect to beauty. Women are overly concerned with superficial appearances and they do not express who and what they really are. Although beauty was once considered a virtue and can be considered a form of power, it is really a form of oppression that leaves women objectified and constantly working to be attractive.
The slender, “beautiful” women are regarded as influential, successful, and erotic. This being said, it is very much so based on facts and reason, also known as logos, in the aspect that real life is often viewed this way. Throughout Elementary school up to High school, no one wanted to be best friends with “the fat kid”. As the world already knows, girls and women in general seem to stress over their physical appearance and have been especially concerned about weight for many years now. 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.
What would Alice Paul and Snookie even talk about, would they become enemies or best of friends? Snookie in my opinion is weak minded and I think that Alice Paul who was an intelligent human being would probably convince Snookie to fight for women’s rights. Snookie is perceived as a drunken woman who has no respect for her body in more than one way would really discourage Alice Paul. Alice Paul would see that all of that pain and suffering she went through it all for nothing. Women still do not respect themselves especially since Snookie is so popular among viewers of television and other women want to be like Snookie.
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.
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.
Society’s perception throughout history has put extremely unhealthy looking women in the media spotlight as the ideal image of beauty. “The desire to fit the cultural ideal of thinness drives many women to diet severely. In some vulnerable young women, this leads to bingeing and purging or self-starvation,” says Terence Wilson a psychologist at Rutgers University (Smolack). “The general public seems to have an unhealthy obsession with celebrities. The media is constantly bombarding us with images of celebrities with extremely thin bodies.