Media and Body Image

Growing up, I do believe that gender stereotypes affected my development and learning in a negative fashion. Being a female, more emphasis was placed on the importance of my appearance from external and subsequently internal sources. Teachers always commented on how "nicely" I was dressed or how "pretty" my hair looked. I've always been into fashion and style and knowing that I was being observed made me more self-conscious. This emphasis on appearance, fashion, and weight can have more of an negative affect on girls than on boys. The media, more so than parents, peers, or members of the opposite sex, puts pressure on females to "look good." Advertising and media images that encourage girls to focus on looks and sexuality are harmful to their emotional and physical health.

I read a book a few years ago entitled Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. In the book, which is set in China circa the mid 1800's, none of the women, with the exception of Third Sister, knew themselves aside from being beautiful adornments for their husbands. They were indoctrinated from a very young age to believe that their sole purpose in life was to have their feet bound so that they could get a husband and be a servant to him and his family.

This, in my observation, is so warped; and yet, we see this same fixation with gender socialization and false perceptions of beauty for women/girls in our own American society. Media plays on this fixation with seemingly no regard. We're stuck on stupid when it comes to our looks. Girls as young as seven and eight are concerned with their weight and some are even on diets. The media is flooded with false and unrealistic ideas and images of what the ideal women should look like. There is an undercurrent of urgency and desperation to "get and keep a man" that is driving many women to the plastic surgeon's office in droves.

The media in almost all of it's forms teaches girls that they must look a certain way if they want to attract the attention of a man. Little consideration is given to ensuring high self esteem, self-worth and self-concept in our girls. As a society, we fail to indoctrinate them with the knowledge that they, girls who will grow into fine women, are our best and most coveted natural resources. In order for there to be a paradoxical change in the way women are viewed, mothers, fathers, teaches and coaches must teach girls and boys about being beautiful inside. Kind hearts and caring souls need to be cultivated, first and foremost. We have to exemplify for our girls, the change that we want to see. As a society, we all bear the responsibility for ensuring that future generations have more positive images and less restrictive expectations for women. We must hold those who control what the media disseminates to the masses accountable for the expressed and implied ramifications of it's portrayals of girls/women and their bodies.