From: Mariah
I remember shopping for
countless hours in search of my perfect dress for the eighth grade formal. With
my friends by my side, we went through what seemed like every store in the
Annapolis mall to find our dress. It
was ridiculous, but at the time felt necessary; transitioning from eighth grade
into high school was obviously a big deal, and this dance was our last final
days as “young girls”. This photo of me and my friends before our big night
represents the effects of beauty standards on self- esteem at a young age,
along with gender norms in girl culture.
During our lectures in class, I realized most of my
adolescent life was riddled with low self- esteem due to gender norms. Instead
of taking a new photo for this assignment, it felt fitting to use a photo that
already existed and was real. Creatively, I cropped the photo around my friends
and I to show the obvious focal point. The mom who was took this photo, made
sure the background was one color to contrast with our dresses. These photos
were going to end up on Facebook, so they had to be perfect for all our other
friends to see.
On the far left is fourteen old me. My standard of beauty
was skewed, and shows within my ensemble. My short sparky dress shows how hard
I was trying to come off as older, along with my fake tan and straightened
hair. Although my friend’s appearance were more innocent and soft, I do not look
as comfortable as they do. Closed mouth smile to hide my crooked teeth and the
“hand on hip” pose looks unnatural.
On the far right is my friend Cheyenne. Notice closely
her shoes are too big for her. Even though dancing in big shoes would be
uncomfortable, she felt obligated to wear heals to feel pretty. We decided to
pose this way in the photo because the high school girls going to prom did.
They looked confident and beautiful like celebrities, and we wanted to appear
the same. Hips popped and chins up, you can see our adolescence beaming
through.
4 comments:
From: Jessica
In class, we viewed a photo similar to this. The girls in that had a very similar look- a look that suggested that they were more confident than they actually were. Your poses (for the most part) suggest this air of high self-esteem and happiness but when you truly examine your faces, the rigidity of your poses and the uncertainty that existed within your minds shines through. I think that that clashes very well with your surroundings. While the photo is cropped in a way as to frame your friends and yourself, the background still is able to be seen. The serenity that exists in your background is juxtaposed against the image of your friends and you standing on the deck. While everything around is pristine, we see by the expressions on your faces that inside of you, everything is the opposite- you don’t feel at peace with yourself. It is a very nice mix and I think it helps highlight the true nature of girl culture within our society.
From: Thara
In your photo “Hips Popped Chins Up” I noticed several elements that made the photo. I thought using a photo from your childhood was a smart idea, because you reflected on yourself with the knowledge from class you have today. First, I noticed the stance of the girls. This pose is very common for school dances and I also noticed how the order goes from tall to small. Looking closely to the background there’s a railing, there are vertical poles and they go through the photo. The girls are all standing the same and are uniformed just like the railing. This could represent the sameness within the girl’s and how they need to be a certain way to fit in. Next, looked at their dresses they were very innocent and bright colored, until you get to the far left which was Mariah, wearing the grey shimmery dress. With her dress being a lot tighter, and shorter you can tell she trying to look more mature than the other. Although she’s wearing the more different dress and trying to portray herself as “older” she doesn’t look as comfortable than the others. With these expectation being followed its possibly not something you want, or care about doing, but you continue you follow these in order to excepted.
From:Taylor
I have photos just like this one from when I went to my eighth grade formal just like many girls do. We all seem to do ourselves up and make ourselves looks so beautiful. This is more of a Self-Sustaining Prophecy because we give into this stereotype of having to do all this stuff to be “beautiful”. In this picture two of the four girls are wearing flowers, which is usually what younger girls wear. The one in the white dress seems to look more pure and innocent. The girl in the back seems to look more mature by doing the “super model” pose and smirk that makes seem older than the other three girls.
I think this is an example of stereotypes that are perpetuated through self-stereotyping, which means, “Voluntarily fitting oneself into the stereotype of ones group.” These girls are all trying to live up to the expectation that society says is beautiful. They put on make up, short dresses, and did their hair for their dance because that was “girls” do. They could of all went to the dance looking naturally pretty but instead they put themselves into their own stereotype by getting all dolled up to be “pretty” for their dance.
I think this is also an example of stereotypes that are perpetuated through social interactions and conformation because they “ behave in ways that actually elicit stereotype-consistent behavior from others.”
Like Mariah said, the “hand on hip” pose looks unnatural because they are so use to seeing models and celebrities do this kind of pose so they did it to mimic society’s idea of beauty.
From: Danielle
In this picture, “Hips Popped Chins Up” it is self-explanatory of self-stereotyping. When I was in middle and high school, I did not start to pose like that until I was surrounded by the other girls who were in my group. I would always be the one girl who just stood there and did not ever do anything but, stand there and smile. To me posing for the camera has never been mine thing. In the picture, the girl on the far left (being you) stands out the most compared to the other girls who are just there to help promote the beauty and essence of the girl on the far left. On page 132 in the it mentions “four types of gender stereotypes; self-stereotyping, confirmation, conformity, and permission.” Self-stereotyping is “voluntarily fitting oneself into the stereotype of one’s group.” On page 133 in the Social Psychology of Gender by Rudman and Glick, it states “Self-stereotyping for the sake of gender identity involves willingness to adhere to a set of gendered rules when making decisions about your life’s course and to forfeit genuine interests if they collide with these rules.” Young women now-a-days strive to live up to the high standards the media has portrayed on the world. Young women especially like me, believe that if they do not live up or look like the models in the photos in magazines like, Comsogirl, Seventeen, and any other popular magazine like those. These types of things help lower young women’s self-esteem in my opinion.
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