Gender norms are a set of societal roles put in place by society to determine what a person of a particular gender should look like. Having big boobs, a small waist, a big butt and a pretty face to match it all is an ideal image of a woman. From a young age girls are taught to care about their bodies and appearance. For a little girl you are taught to have long beautiful hair. This sets a standard for young women that in order to be beautiful you need to have long hair. Young girls have stopped looking at the women around them to define a beautiful woman. Instead they pay attention to the
media and the tv. They see on tv that a man is calling a woman “beautiful” and all the camera is showing is her butt. This shows young women that in order for a guy to think you are attractive means you have to have a big butt and if you don’t then you are not. Being a woman is very black and white. You are either beautiful or you are ugly, fat or skinny, tall or short. Society hasn’t set a standard for the middle. If you are not a size 4 or below than you are fat, if you have to wear makeup for people to think you are pretty than you are ugly, if your bra size is below a C you’re not good enough. The idea of a “perfect body” in a lot of men's eyes is a woman whose smaller than a size 4, has a cup size of above a C and has a big butt and that is an unhealthy body image to install in young girls. Not only is this very hard to obtain but it could be very damaging to one's health. Society’s rules for women are creating self esteem issues in young girls where self esteem issues shouldn’t be. The results of these gender norms create bigger issues such as eating disorders, depression, body dissatisfaction, body dysmorphia and even suicide. Gender norms being put on women create unhappy lives and minds for women at an age where body imagine shouldn’t even be in their minds.
These societal rules can create an unhealthy image and low self worth in a female mind that should be able to be peacefully happy and confidant. A female mind, in today's world, is a vulnerable thing and as a society we have a responsibility to show the beauty in individuality. Like a flower, beauty comes in all colors, shapes and sizes.
1 comment:
From: Cait
The way that I’ve interpreted the things that we’ve learned is that gender norms are indeed the societal role that is to be played out and is expected of everyone. However, I do question in response to your post and other things we’ve read is if societal norms were actually forced or if they have been reinforced within society because time and time again little boys choose to rough house and like blue and little girls cooperate and like pink. Is it something that simply resonates in them and our media driven society feeds off of that? There is a public epidemic of girls and women being told they are “less than” which is a huge ploy to sell them products. The worse a women’s’ self esteem is, the more money she will spend. That is something that must be instilled in childhood. If a girl grows up thinking she is good enough, and adequate, and her self esteem is good, why would she let marketing change her mind? Growing up surrounded by everyone telling you “this is the ideal woman” and having your self fall short is very persuasive. I love the perspective of this picture because of all the aforementioned reasons you stated but also how the focal point, the feet and scale, are so tiny. This is kind of saying that girls are meant to feel tiny. All the leading lines in the picture make it apparent that looking down is how they should be looking if they cannot amount to what “ideal” is.
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