Women feel several pressures in their everyday lives because they feel they need to compete and look their best.
Women look up to other women they envy, such as celebrities, models, or even their own friends. We feel these certain pressures to fit into the perfect role of a skinny, beautiful woman in society.
There are many different aspects women feel the need to look their best for and we stress these characteristics to try and fulfill them.
Women are influenced everyday by television, magazines and the Internet to be an unrealistic girl in society, as this media portrays what girls should look like or even what boys we should date.
Magazines play an important role in influencing young women to have amazing hair, good skin and having the “underweight” body type.
They often have articles about sex and what to do to make your man want you more.
There are several teens who also read these magazines which lead to more than half being insecure about their bodies.
Television, on the other hand, triggers females in a way that most magazines can not.
First off, the actresses in most movies or television shows today portray an unrealistic character with the perfect body. What most people don’t know is that these actresses have body doubles to show-off a perfect body shape.
Actresses and celebrities are also getting plastic surgeries that give them the bodies they have. This is leading to young women thinking it is the only way to have an amazing body. Because of this, more and more teens are resorting to these surgeries.
This type of role model in the media is showing young girls that plastic surgery is the easy way, or the only way.
Most women aren’t working hard for their bodies by eating clean or exercising, because that is not what these celebrities are setting examples for. Also, movies these days are portraying the “typical mean girl” in the media for young women to envision in schools.
For example, in the article “Teen Mean Fighting Machine,” on influence.bafree.net the movie Mean Girls was brought up, and how that movie comes off to young teens watching it
This movie portrays stereotypical “mean girls” in a high school clique. In my eyes, I do believe there are actual mean girls in most schools, but there isn’t really a “popular clique” anymore, or at least in my high school there wasn’t. The typical mean girl stereotype is definitely exaggerated in media such as this movie. I think it sets a bad example for young girls watching these movies because it could potentially make them afraid of entering the high school world, or any school in general.
Going along with television, commercial ads are giving off poor examples of what a typical woman really looks like. They show flawless skin, makeup and hair. Most adolescents don’t buy into these fads because they know that isn’t what you’re really going to look like if you buy their product. On the other hand, young teens are vulnerable to these ads and are doing anything they can to look like this woman they’re watching. They are more influenced to buy these products because they think they will work.
What they don’t know is that these women are photoshopped in these commercials. For example, in the mascara commercials, these women are wearing fake eyelashes to make it look like this mascara will come out exactly as shown. This makes me wonder if the mothers of these young women have any say in the choices they make to become “perfect” when they are only young adults. My mother would never give in when I tried to convince her that a certain product would actually work just because the ad said so. She knew better and I wish I had believed her at the time.
I personally know the struggle of being insecure, but I definitely don’t agree with taking a dramatic turn to look like the ideal girl. I think every girl should learn to be comfortable with who they are. If they don’t like their body type, they should educate themselves to find a healthy fix. We shouldn’t be influenced by our “role models” to go through drastic measures to be this girl we see in the media. Realistically, that is not what they look like in person, either. Be you, and be okay with it.
Brenna McCabe can be contacted at brenna.mccabe@ksc.keene.edu
Sources:
http://influence.bafree.net/the-negative-media-influence-on-girls-appearance.php