Social Trends
"Mummy, I want to be just like you"
Every girl wants to feel beautiful but it's hard to do so when the media is literally everywhere. What is the "ideal" body anyways? Who is the one that defined that having a flat stomach, a thigh gap, and a size 0 waist as "perfect"? Such standards of beauty are almost completely unattainable for most women; they are below healthy weight (Serdar, 2005). Society poses so much different expectations of how women are supposed to look, and it is absurd how questions such as "why are women so insecure" are constantly being asked.
Media has plenty of control over the mindsets of women, which is why so many try to look like the women on television disregarding the fact that the women who are on tv, don't even look like what they are portrayed as. Even now little girls are starting to feel insecure. They look up to the older women around them, and if they see their big sisters and moms putting themselves down, they are inevitably going to get influenced and degrading themselves at such a young age. That is why there are beauty paageants now in
place not just for teenage girls but also for girls under 16 and even toddlers. There is a great debate over TLC's Toddlers and Tiaras because of the exposure of these young children. It doesn't only stop with tv shows, but also with the toys that little girls are playing with. With toys such as Barbie, Polly Pocket, and princesses, it teaches children what is defined as beautiful. As they are combing Barbie's long beautiful blonde hair and dressing her up with designer clothes, they are already getting a glimpse of society's expectations of women.
Once this manipulation starts at a young age, they will, without a doubt grow up as an insecure teenager and they would never feel beautiful about themselves. Although coming from a physocoligical perspective
when seeing these examples, they automatically program themselves to look down upon themselves. It's sad isn't it? Imagine your little girl at 5 years old already telling you that she doesn't feel beautiful because other girls are skinnier or taller or have blonde hair. With the influence of media, teenage girls are developing psychological problems that weren't even there to begin with. What it is, is that these young women are trying so hard to impress everyone else around them that they are suffering in the process of doing so. In this modern day society, it's as if everyone else's opinions is what drives girls to insanity. Although media influences are everywhere, what matters the most is that the feel beautiful according to the people that actually matter; friends and family.
Body Image
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