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The effects of body image on adolescents
Body image and self esteem among adolescents
Media and the effects on women
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Recommended: The effects of body image on adolescents
Have you ever stood in front of the mirror and not like what you see? 67% of girls between 15-18 years old struggle with their body image. Have you ever wanted to change something? 48% of girls don’t like the way they look. Have you ever wanted to be someone else? 50% of girls wish they were someone else everyday. As a 15-year-old girl, I know what it is like to have to meet “society” standards. Every move you make, people are watching you and judging you. Every decision you make, people are waiting to put you down. In my opinion girls should not be judged on their physical appearance, what they eat, or what they wear.
When you first see a girl, what do you notice? You notice what she looks like. The first thing that pops into a guy’s head when they first see a girl is if she is attractive or not. In my opinion this is not ok. A girl should not be completely judged on the way they look. In society, we see these gorgeous models with the perfect skin, the perfect makeup, the perfect body, the perfect hair, etc.
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They’re unstable. Or when you see a girl wearing very tight clothing, you think she is provocative. A girl should be allowed to wear what ever they want and not be afraid to be judge on their style. We should be able to walk outside our house with anything on and be able not to get weird looks walking down the street. Everyone should be allowed to express how he or she feels. Most girls our age express themselves with their clothes. Waking up every morning and deciding on what to wear is hard. What you wear tends to have an impact on what people think of you. In society, its seems you cant wear the same clothes twice in the same week, or you can only wear sweatpants once or on Wednesday you have to wear pink. All of these rules have an impact on what we think about. We should be allowed to express how we feel and dress the way we want and not get looked at
First of all, if students want to attend class in the clothes that make them feel comfortable, then they should be able to do so. In the 2015 article on The Atlantic on The Sexism of School Dress Codes, stating that "Many of these protests have criticized the dress codes as sexist in that they unfairly target girls by body-shaming and blaming them for promoting sexual harassment. Documented cases show female students being chastised by school officials, sent home, or barred from attending events like prom. "
“Attractiveness is both a necessary and sufficient condition for girls’ success.” It happens too often that girls are defined by the way they look. A beautiful girl that acts different might be described as “quirky and cute,” but if a less attractive girl acted the same way people would think she was weird or attention seeking. Being raised to fit the role of a typical woman teaches girls that the size of their waist is more important than their character. Young girls are told to avoid positions of power, voicing their opinions, and generally being strong and
Almost all of our decisions are based off of society. When you go to school what do you wear? Is it okay to wear a tuxedo coat with a pair of bright neon green pajamas? Most likely, people would give you weird looks and it would make other people uncomfortable. That’s because we have social norms. If we break them, then it is considered awkward and makes people feel uneasy. You wouldn’t walk into a five star restaurant with jeans and a t-shirt. I do not fully understand why certain norms are in place but I know if you break them you are looked at as different. One of the first videos we watched
People should be allowed to wear whatever they want to. No one should be forced to change what they believe in. Also, no one should be forced to wear someone that they do not want to wear. In the Marie Clair article women where being attacked for being fully clothed and looking different from everyone else. This example shows how people can hurt you and be completely rude to you because you are dressed differently.
“When she seemed more comfortable in her own skin, she became more appealing to others” (Flora). Women have to learn to accept themselves before anyone else can accept how they look. If women do not feel comfortable about themselves, others will sense this when they are around them. “Psychologist and counselors recognize that a negative body image has a powerful impact on self-esteem, our assessment of our value as individuals” (Maynard 101). The way a woman looks on the outside can affect how they feel on the inside. If women think they look bad, then their whole mood will begin to change. Women should always feel comfortable with themselves and how they look. Just because someone else does not like it does not mean it is wrong. Each person in the world has their own opinion about how they feel about different things. The positive side about people’s opinions is that they truly do not matter. Another person’s opinion can not be proven as a fact or it can scar anyone for life, because in reality anything anyone has to say is irrelevant, unless you show emotions for it to be thought of as other wise. A woman’s mood should not be affected by something so simple as an appearance. Women are constantly worrying about how they look. “Too many women have a “too” syndrome, whether they perceive themselves to be too big,
“Maybe if I dropped a few pounds, I would actually look good in this dress,” the girl in her perfectly healthy body says, wishing she looked like the models she watched last night in the “Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show”. They say that its what’s on the inside that matters, but the media tells us something different. It’s almost impossible for today’s teenagers to not endure the struggles of body image. We are constantly surrounded by the promotion of unrealistic bodies wherever we go. The rise of social media over the past 10 years has lead the way for the increase of problems involving teenage eating disorders, depression, and serious declines of self-confidence in high schoolers.
In today’s society, being the perfect size, weight as well as having the perfect hair and skin is constantly on the minds of all women. These women see incredible looking models in magazines and become jealous of their perfect looks (Bite
Even though society is aware of the uses of photoshop and it’s unrealistic effects, there are still a lot of real people such as models and actresses in runways, fashion shows, and real life that have the beauty and perfect body that everyone wants. These models, actors, actresses, and singers are all successful which goes back to the point of with beauty comes success and acceptance. People see models and strive to have the features that models have because those models look good and people want to look good themselves. However, many models are still not happy with how they look and still have unwanted flaws. Ann Simonton, a former cover girl, turned her attention to body activism after an incident in the dressing room with other models.
In American culture today, society's view of beauty is controlled by Hollywood, where celebrities are constantly in the lime-light. The media watches Hollywood's every move, and is quick to ridicule “A-listers” whenever they dare to gain a few pounds or to let an uncontrollable pimple show. The media has created a grossly distorted mental image of what should be considered beautiful, and with almost every junior high and high school-age girl reading and viewing this message, the idea has been instilled in them as well. This view of beauty is causing many teenage girls to become obsessed with a highly problematic and unattainable goal of perfection.
“Don’t you ever a let a soul in the world tell you that you can't be exactly who you are”, said Lady Gaga, singer/songwriter of pop music. This means everyone needs to be comfortable in their own skin and like who they are. In society today, social media plays a large influence in personality and how everyone should look and act. This influence take a toll on people, especially on girls because they are so pressured to look a certain way or else they will not be accepted by other people. Often we hear that people need to be skinny to be perfect and have clothes that are top of the line, quite honestly this is not true.
How do they expect us to find what we want to do if we are restricted to try new styles. When teachers restrict our clothes they restrict our style. Expressing yourself at a young age is very important. It helps us get an idea of what we want to do when we're older, and if we get restricted to do this how can we find what we love. If we get narrowed down while growing up at school we will be so lost in the real world.
That formulas end result is often the media’s interpretation of a beautiful appearance. Their covers and ads feature beautiful models, and their pages detail how-to’s of attaining the perfect hair, makeup, and the all-important body that model possesses. These displays pressure the public with headlines like “Get Pretty for Summer ” and “Work on Your Beach Bod.” After flipping through pages of these titles, many begin questioning how they can improve their own appearance to fit the media’s perfection standards. From extreme dieting to dangerous use of tanning beds, many people take drastic measures to attain that image, but is that model even truly perfect herself?
Some children are also uncomfortable wearing certain styles of clothing. Many girls for example, do not like to wear skirts or dresses, which most girls uniforms require. ’’ This shows that us kids find uniforms irritating because of how they feel on them. Schools should not have uniforms or dress codes because students can’t feel free to express ourselves.
Ellen Degeneres once said, “Beauty is about being comfortable in your own skin. It’s about knowing and accepting who you are.” Teens have been so worried about how they look and act because of the ridiculous beauty standards the media has put out that they end up not loving who they are. This has lead to the rising of our youth having low self-esteem in the World. Why are beauty standards so unrealistic yet so wanted?
The media tells girls their what their worth is based on one’s outward appearance. The mental perception of what their body looks like becomes distorted. This leads many girls to engage in risky behaviors just because they don’t measure up to the impossible goal of the ideal body. Self-concept issues can and have lead to eating disorders, drug and alcohol use, cutting, and bullying. The problem is this ideal body doesn’t exist. The images presented are airbrushed on models. Most of which weigh 23% less than the average woman. Even with this knowledge, teen girls believe these lies and commit to unhealthy measures to fit into that impossible mold. The National Eating Disorders Association explained in a survey that 70% of 6-12-year-olds want to be thinner and nine out of ten high school juniors and seniors are on diets even if only one out of ten are actually