One day at one of my friend’s house her little sister walked
into the room to hang out with us. She’s only about 15 years old but when I say
her she looked older. She was wearing so much makeup that you should see the
line of makeup around her neck and thick black eyeliner. Her shirt was very low
cut and tight, just like her pants. I remember when I was younger my mom would of flipped if
I even tried to go out of the house like that. While we were talking to her I
had to ask her why she was dressing like that and putting so much makeup on.
She told me that’s how she dressed every day and so did all of her friends. The
media provide girls with images that are not appropriate for their ages. It
gives younger girls the impression that everyone should dress this way and
always be made up with makeup. I don’t think I was even wearing makeup till I
was 16 and when I did it was very light. Young girls want to be perceived as
beautiful so they try to imitate what they see how television and in magazines.
They need to realize that this does not make them look more attractive, and
they are fine how they are. Her parents just shook their heads while driving
her to the mall with her friends to hang out. We decided just to go with them
and try to should my friend’s little sister how to put makeup on without over
doing it, and helped her pick out some better clothes. Parents need to be more
involved, meaning if their child is doing this they should at least try to fix
their makeup and show them how to use makeup without going over board and how
to dress so they do not give the wrong impression.
6 comments:
I completely agree with you. I feel young girls are pressured to dress they way there friends are dressed or how the media says you should dress and put on makeup. I do believe parents need to be more involved with their kids and teach them the right and respectable way to to dress and put on make up so there child does give off the right impression when they are in public.
I think this is an important topic, especially in regards to what I interpret you discussing in your post; how the media, peers, etc impacts young people during their developmental years. I think it’s interesting and sometimes a little upsetting to remember some of the pressures I felt as a young person, to fit in by means of specific social, materialistic, and often shallow obstacles, that were considered - the “norm”.
I also think your topic may be particularly relevant now. You mention that if you had tried to go out dressed the way your friend’s sister is dressed when you were her age, your parents wouldn’t have had it. I think many people who were teenagers even only several years ago (myself being one of them) would say the same thing. It seems that within a short period of time; young people (possibly young girls in particular) are being encouraged to dress and behave in ways that are not only sanctioned; correct based on their gender, but also often seem inappropriate for their ages.
I have a couple of friends who have worked with kids between the ages of twelve to seventeen for the past couple years. They themselves are only twenty-two and twenty-three, and have both mentioned on separate occasions how taken aback they are at times due to the very “adult” behaviors, interactions, language, fashion trends, etc of some of the youngest kids there.
I don’t fully understand the recent emphasis and glamorization of growing up - or what young people are socialized to think means “growing up”. I can however think of a number of designers, TV shows/networks, and magazines that initially marketed to older crowds than they seem to now. This possibly provides evidence of it being the result of sales gimmicks; corporations trying to create a broader consumer base. Regardless of the reasons, I think that these pressures to hyper-focus on fitting in, regardless of what that entails, is a potentially destructive way to encourage young, impressionable people think.
I really do think that some parents need to take more of a stand with their children if the child in question is dressing in a provocative way but I also know that at 15 her parents are probably the ones buying or funding the buying of then clothes and makeup.
I know that when I was 15 even though I was in the 11th grade my mother would never let me go out looking like that, however she was also very critical about the way that I dressed and insisted that I dress in a feminine manner as even then she and my father were saying things along the lines of "no man wants to marry a woman who looks like a boy."
Post a Comment