My adrenaline was pumping. I had been waiting for this day. At “Get ready, set, go!” I began pulling with all my might. I wanted to win. It might just have been one of the most simple field day activities but this was war. Tug-of-war. I could tell all the girls were trying their hardest. The dirty, yellow bandana tied in a sturdy knot in the middle of the rope was swaying between the orange cone markers. Suddenly, there was slack from the opposite of the rope. In an instant the team heaved. Yes! We were gaining on the boys. The girl’s team swelled with confidence, but the boys weren’t going to give up that easily. The competition was fierce. Whenever the boys started gaining on us, we gained ground too. At one point we almost lost footing and …show more content…
This is the disadvantage girls experience in the world. Society is playing tug-of-war with girls across America. Since social media sites like Instagram and Snapchat have become popular, the American society has established the ideal girl: model size and height, fair skin, a small nose, thin lips, and bone straight hair. These features and others are accepted widely throughout America. The people in the limelight, who claim to be role models for young girls and teens, embrace and promote these ideals by engaging in provocative behavior clearly showing girls that their self-worth depends on others’ opinions. Stars encourage body shaming by physically altering their bodies through botox, plastic surgery, and surgical implants. One of Hollywood’s most prominent characters, Kim Kardashian, exemplifies and enforces this behavior by wearing revealing clothing and posing for inappropriate pictures. I suggest people remember, especially those whom have captivated the media’s attention, actions speak louder than words. So...what are we saying to young …show more content…
Hillary Clinton was one of the powerful women who just joined the all girls team as the first female nominee for one of the major political parties. If we get enough girls to join this powerful team to fight against public stigma we can change the common standards. The dirty, yellow bandana might be closer to the adversary’s side now, but don’t be presume that we won't act if we detect any leniency in the rope. I’ll admit tug-of-war is a fun and exhilarating game, but it should stay that way. It should not be a constant struggle between embracing yourself or embracing the likes and opinions of
Female beauty ideals are an overwhelming force in teen media. Approximately 37% of articles in leading magazines for teen girls emphasize a focus on physical appearance. This is none to surprising considering two of the top contenders in this media genre are Seventeen and Teen Vogue. CosmoGIRL and Elle Girl were among the ranks of popular teen magazines, but in recent years have become exclusively online publications. Add in a dash of publications Tiger Beat and Bop, and it becomes glaringly obvious that girls are charged with the prime directive of looking good to get the guy. The story becomes more disturbing when the actual audience, which includes girls at least as young as eleven years old, is considered. In a stage when girls are trying for the first time to establish their identities, top selling publications are telling them that their exteriors should be their primary concern of focus. Of course, this trend doesn’t stop with magazines. A study conducted in 1996 found a direct correlation between the “amount of time an adolescent watches soaps, movies and music videos” a...
Societal constructs of bodily perfection have a massive influence on both genders and on all ages. If you look at any magazine, you will see women constantly being compared to each other, whether it is in the “who wore it better” section or in the “do’s and don’ts” part of the magazine, comparing body images and overall appearances. All parts of the media that encompasses our daily lives are especially dangerous for young and impressionable teens because they see people being torn down for trying to express themselves, and are thus taught to not only don’t look like “don’ts”, but also look like the “do’s”. This is dangerous in that women in the magazine set very high standards that teens want to emulate, no matter the cost to themselves or their health. Celebrities have the benefit of media to make them appear perfect: Photoshop and makeup artists conceal the imperfections that are often too apparent to the naked eye. Viewing celebrities as exhibiting the ideal look or as idols will, in most cases, only damage the confidence of both young teens, and adults, and warp the reality of what true “beauty” really is. It makes teens never feel truly content with themselves because they will be aiming for an ideal that is physically impossible to attain and one that doesn’t exist in the real
The media and how it affects our society has changed tremendously over the past few decades. Our population of children who spend a lot of time in front of the television or on social media continues to increase, creating a superficial view of themselves and who they should be. This superficial outlook has been created by the media because it preaches to our society that looks matter. Not only are there millions of advertisements saying to lose weight and buy certain products to be beautiful, but there has been a specific standard of beauty set for models and actresses to obtain. These standards include big eyes, volumino...
The media is a fascinating tool; it can deliver entertainment, self-help, intellectual knowledge, information, and a variety of other positive influences; however, despite its advances for the good of our society is has a particular blemish in its physique that targets young women. This blemish is seen in the unrealistic body images that it presents, and the inconsiderate method of delivery that forces its audience into interest and attendance. Women are bombarded with messages from every media source to change their bodies, buy specific products and redefine their opinion of beauty to the point where it becomes not only a psychological disease, but a physical one as well.
If a teenager or pre-teen is focused on particular celebrities and their goal is too look like them, it is not difficult to slip into acting like them as well, or at least being influenced by their behavior and perceived attitudes. The media abounds with bad examples of celebrity behavior, from Justin Bibber driving recklessly to Miley Cyrus parading around scantily clothed, and although every celebrity is not a terrible role model, a disproportionate amount of them can be found to have shaky morals and seem to have let the attention that they receive affect their behavior. In addition, the perfect bodies that most of them display are not realistic and in some cases not even naturally attainable, thanks to the modern tools of plastic surgery, augmentations, liposuction, and other cosmetic surgeries. The media too contributes to the unreal portrayal of models and famous people by using airbrushing on pictures and other editing that lead regular people to compare their bodies to images that are not even humanly possible. The Barbie-like models that girls compare themselves to and the ripped and muscled men that boys compare their bodies to are often completely unnatural and the people who have somehow attained them are,
“According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, about 70 percent of girls grades five through 12 said magazine images influence their ideals of a perfect body, a fact that’s plain to see in the online world of teenage ‘thinspiration’” (Krupnick 1). This quote explains that girls in grades five to 12 are more likely to have a lower self esteem because of the idea of a perfect body beinging spread through social media. Models enjoy sharing their work with their fans their instagram and twitter accounts, which isn’t wrong. However, sometimes the pictures they post are exposed subtly, this causes for the pictures to get under someone's skin before they notice. These models, like Kylie and Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid, are idealized but billions of people and have millions of followers on social media but all they do is post pictures of them living the luxury life that everyone watches. These posts could either help influence teens to work harder or cause them to try to achieve what they want in a harmful way. Having weight and height limits will lower the self esteem of others because they put out an image that most people think they must look
The media portrays girls as scrawny, by doing this it has damaged several girls’ self esteem levels and has altered the way people perceive and respond to their own and others body image. This has harmed masses of people in extreme ways such as disorders and mental illnesses and even death. It has also caused bullying which has also damaged and separated several people. The girls might have worried about being "bikini-prepared" each Spring as soon as the bathing suit magazines would hit the shelf furthermore the boys may have completed several additional push-ups after seeing football players, ABS in the sports magazine, however social networks have kids exposed to a steady talking of bikini bodies, six-pack ABS, and exact hair all day and night. And it's not just famous peoples' impelling idealized images of human flawlessness, but teens posting portraits of themselves for others to remark on and gossip about. Countless of these instances are captured apparently unintentional, escalating kids' unease about appearing
Many teens today are faced with unrealistic body standards. Social media has an huge influence on how teens see their body. They may see a model or their favorite celebrity and ask themselves why don't they look like that, or how can they look like that. These body standards can cause some to body shame others. As social media continues to deem what is attractive and what is not, the number of women dissatisfied with their body will increase.
A majority of the models displayed on television and in advertisements are well below what is considered healthy body weight (“Anad”). In todays society, girls are growing up thinking that these women on advertisements are healthy and the ideal body image. As girls get older, they look up to the women on billboards and on magazines as the “ideal body”. By trying to achieve similar bodies, girls are becoming bulimic, anorexic, and damaging their bodies in many other ways. When girls see these unrealistic images, they are being exposed to unrealistic views of beauty. When girls do not appear the same as the models in magazines, this causes them to lose self esteem and feel bad about
“Body image is how someone thinks and feels about his or her physical self,” (Conway, 2013). Media throughout the years have really increased body dissatisfaction among male and female adults and adolescents. “Approximately 80% of U.S. women do not like how they look and 34% of men are dissatisfied with their body,” (Gallivan, n.d). Not only have adults been affected but so have adolescents, “53% of 13-year-old American girls are unhappy with their bodies. This number grows to 78% by the time the girls reach 17,” (Gallivan, n.d). Something needs to be changed in the media, 13-year-olds should not be worried about how they look, they should be worried about growing up and doing well in school. Dissatisfaction in body image is caused by how the
The mass media plays a large role in shaping a teenage and adolescent girl’s body image. By pushing an ideal body type that is uncommon and untrue to life, girls strive, and struggle to obtain this image. When the mass media only shows one type of body as desirable, they are alienating every girl who does not fit into that category. Pushing these ideal bodies onto teenage girls at an important developmental time in their lives can be detrimental to their bodies and their self worth. By showing what a girl should look like, the mass media is damaging the body images of young girls, and unless awareness is raised, could become more and more adverse on young women today and tomorrow.
In mainstream media the most beautiful are rail thin, long hair and perfect skin. If one is pleasing the eye, one is acceptable in society. Media is responsible for creating ideals about beauty and body image. Low self-esteem is one of the negative psychological effects that media does not take into a consideration when publishing. Media continues to depict models and celebrities throughout advertising in brand such as Abercrombie and Fitch and Victoria’s Secret. They want society to think of what is going on as a “trend.” Women watch celebrities and tend to follow their habits because they want to be like them. Women also continue to compare themselves to figures in the media. Actresses, singers, and models always seem to be perfect, and when women can’t achieve that, they begin to bash their bodies. In the article: “Am I too fat to be a princess? Examining the effect of popular children’s media on young girls’ body image,” the study was to examine the effects of exposure to popular animated children’s media in young girl’s body image and appearance-related behaviors. Those in the experiment were shown a video containing appearance-related clips from 10 animated children’s movies. The children also went through an interview where they were asked questions about their appearances satisfaction. The majority said they would change something about their physical appearance, hair, skin etc. almost all of them said that they could be a princess regardless their weight. Here are some examples of their response: “I’d need yellow hair”, “I’d paint myself white”, “I’d change from brown skin to white.”
The media can be very persuasive to many people. It is the opinion of many that the media business is a constant reminder that we are not perfect, but many celebrities are. They give us tips to become the girl portrayed in the glossy pages of magazines, with diets, makeup routines, clothing news, and photo editing advice for the perfect selfie on your next Instagram post. Young girls look up to those tips, and immediately start to think they are not beautiful, just by the opinions based on the biased media. Asking my fellow students around me what they believe to be beautiful portrayed in the media they said a multitude of things, all incredibly similar. Skinny, makeup, straight white smile, perfect hair, flawless skin, and an overall perfect face. Many women in today’s world feel awful about themselves when they see a campaign featuring a model, knowing they will never look like that, believing that is the only beautiful they can be. To conform themselves into such a small box, many girls go to horrible and severe measures. Eating disorders can spur from the self consciousness they begin to feel, such as purging or skipping meals to slim down to a size they believe they should be. Self harm is also a cause of low self esteem, due to the pressure and goal to be the pretty they are being spoonfed by all media outlets. It has been apparent by many different news articles, that the photography for modeling agencies or product are incredibly photoshopped and touched up. Before and After pictures have been shown for photo editing in different articles. The before picture looks like an average girl or boy, with flaws like everyone else. They have a little bit of wrinkles, blemishes, smile lines, scars, and marks. After the steps of photoshop, all of those are erased by the simple tools of a computer. The years of growth it took for the marks to
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.
“Oh my God Becky look at her butt! It’s so big”. An excerpt from a very popular rap song describes a fast growing number of girls who believe they are fat no matter what anyone else or the scale tells them. Since they can remember scantly clad models and celebrities have been parading if front of them on a daily basis. This is causing a widespread epidemic of impressionable young girls who do whatever it takes to look like celebrities such as Calista Flockhart or Lara Flynn Boyle. The majority of girls growing up today learn a false lesson at a very early age that unless they look a certain way, society will deem them ugly and fat.