The
photo shows Christine, a seventeen year old girl, being shown by the media what
a woman is supposed to look like. “Physical attractiveness is important for
both sexes, but it is particularly emphasized for women as a requisite for
attracting a mate. Women the world over are pushed toward impossibly high
standards of beauty and receive strong cultural messages that their bodies are
unacceptable as they are, thus promoting a variety of body-altering practices”
(Rudman and Glick, 240). As this quote says, women are pushed to live up to
impossibly high beauty standards. The magazines in the picture represent the
media, surrounding Christine and backing her into a corner, showing her what
she’s supposed to look like. These standards lead to many harmful body-altering
practices, including eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. The open
toilet seat is alluding to the practice of purging, showing what these beauty
standards can lead young girls to do to try and live up to them. The scale also
alludes to this, with the impossible body girls are shown is beautiful leading
to them being obsessed with their weight. The picture was taken at an angle,
looking down at Christine to show how powerless she is in a society that
teaches her that her body isn’t good enough. Her hiding her face and the fact
that she is curled up and takes up a small amount of space also emphasizes this
point. The lack of color in the picture shows the mood of hopelessness, with
Christine having no way to live up to the standards society sets for her.
1 comment:
In this image the girl is sitting in a corner not looking at the camera. The picture is black and white representing how black and white the idea of girls struggling with body image is because of the societal standards we show to younger girls. The girl is depicted with several magazines and a scale. The girl is representing the emotional trauma girls go through in trying to meet society standards. Girls believe they need to be stick thin but have big boobs and a big butt. The image also has the toilet open representing the idea of bulimia. Younger girls are very likely to have eating disorders due to body image issues.
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