Mean Girls: The Cause Of Low Self Esteem

Self Esteem

“You’ve got your freshmen, ROTC guys, preps, JV jocks, Asian nerds, cool Asians, varsity jocks, unfriendly black hotties, girls who eat their feelings, girls who don’t eat anything, desperate wannabes, burnouts, sexually active band geeks, the greatest people you will ever meet, and the worst. Beware of the Plastics” (Mean Girls). The 2004 comedy Mean Girls, perfectly describes stereotypes and prejudices. The jargon stereotype and prejudice, used by all generations, are ordinarily defined as popular beliefs about specific social groups or types of individuals. These two concepts are often confused with many other different meanings such as standardized and simplified conceptions of groups based on prior assumptions. These examples

This brings me to my first point, causes of low self esteem. Low self esteem is caused by factors depending on the background and status of a person such as, a person’s surroundings, age, association with the outside world, and etc. Many victims of this matter are brought up dealing with negligence, excessive criticism, difficulties influenced by parents and family members, failure to achieve, physical appearance issues, and negative experiences such as child abuse. According to childhelp.org 84.3% of child abuse is caused by some form of neglect. The forms are physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, physical neglect, and emotional neglect. Studies have shown that children who experience child abuse and neglect are about 9 times more likely to become involved in criminal activity. In the United States 14% of all men in prison and 36% of women in prison were abused as children. Children are also likely to encounter bullying by their peers for reasons ranging from mental disabilities all the way to ones of physical appearance. According to Dosomething.org over 3.2 million

In order to be aware of the issues at hand, a person would need to broaden their knowledge on the matter. This can be done by researching online, talking to family and friends, sharing what you know and by listening to personal experiences dealing with low self esteem. Organized awareness conferences are held routinely. By attending, you may learn how to prevent future problems, watch for warning signs, how to admit you have a problem, and finally how to seek help. Depression and suicide due to low self esteem and bullying spread like wild fires! Schools are susceptible to violence by students therefore schools have created anti-bullying programs such as, peer mediation, team building exercises, and mandatory courses. Currently almost all schools provide anti-bullying