From: Karah
Gender socialization is very much pressured in our society today. As the photo represent how childhood and innocence is so easily left behind and forgotten. Girls are pressured by magazines like Cosmopolitan to grow up too soon. I remember reading "cosmo" when I was only 13 with my girlfriends and trying to relate to the articles and advertisements. They make it so believable that the flat tummy and the hottest boys are only a page turn away. All the pressure that a young girl could imagine is contained in one magazine. The construction of a girls life is composed, be skinny, be stylish, be seductive, fall in love, have sex etc. The tanning goggles represent the blinders that are placed over young girls eyes. They put their health aside as they lay in the tanning bed, taking their birth control, wishing they were 10 pounds less, and thinking about what kind of alcohol their going to drink with the boys tonight. Gender schemas as so easily produced by mass media and magazines that for a young teenage girl it is not questioned. They wish they were older so they can be just like the girls in the magazines and on television. So a young girl of 12 or 13 forgets about her innocence and acts 21. This is the world of a teenage girl, she has left her baby doll behind and is off in her red high heels.
8 comments:
This was one of my favorite pictures on the blog. I like how a lot of the accessories are surrounding the magazine in the middle. It almost expressed how society is the center of all that we have skewed in our minds about gender. I also liked how with the items encircling the magazine, it shows almost a progression of this influence. At the earliest of ages, we give our girls dolls to play with, then they begin to get older and all the latest magazines and movies and music videos begin to add the pressure and influence of being the girl we were “designed” to be. They are like props and we are all just acting and pretending to fit the part. Once again, I notice that most of the colors that stand out are the red and pink. Completely stereotypical of the “perfect girl”.
This picture is very true of young girls losing their innocence by conforming to what they see in magazines. The blinders idea is a very good thought. These young girls don't see what they are doing to themselves in the long run by acting older. Becoming older too soon is not a good thing. They can begin to experiment with things just because they want to look older.
I totally agree with what you are saying, I remember growing up wanting to be older then i really was. And now I wish I was young again, and seeing my little sister getting trapped in the world every teenage girl gets trapped in, makes me want to try even harder to change the world.
This picture reminded me of what it was like to be a pre-teen. You're still a kid but you want to be a teenager at the same time because of all the pressure your peers and the media including magazines including cosmo put on young girls.
this is very true i remember doing the same with my girlfriends when i was younger. Now days girls are blinded. Not just through tanning goggles but through everything. They look over the important things in life. Many girls go for what they want in life. This is a good thing but it can also be bad to because if they just want to fit in then this leads to sex at an eriler age.
This picture caught my eye today, even though I have passed it in the past. This is because while my little sister and I were at the store today waiting to get checked out I saw her reading a Cosmopolitan magazine. She is only 12 years old and she has no need to be reading that kind of material, I mean I just started reading the magazine about a year ago! I know that the magazine is geared towards women 18 and up but I wonder if the editors and publishers know that girls in the 6th grade are reading their magazine and following their trends.
i totally agree with this. girls are always looking in magazines to see what the latest trend is or how models are losing weight. girls should be who they want to be. do not try to be someone your not because society is telling you to be like other people because if your not then you are a nobody. that is what makes girls become depressed and not feel good about themselves.
I agree that magazines are such a huge influence on girls today. I find some of them to be very hypocritical. They will give you tips on how to dress any body type, but will only flaunt the skinniest and prettiest women on their pages. A lot of young girls pick up those magazines and get an unrealistic ideal of what they should look like.
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