I chose to explain the consequences of unrealistic beauty standards on adolescent girls through my photograph. Girls are being raised with these expectations on how they are supposed to present themselves in their everyday life. For example they need to have their hair and makeup done in order to be accepted by these standards. My photo is of my little sister who is starting to get ready for school in the morning. I chose this photo to take because I want to show how beauty standards affects the way she thinks about herself. When young girls are growing up they are taught they need to wear makeup and have a daily beauty routine. This beauty routine typically includes hair, makeup and hygiene. The first technique I used in my photo is framing. I made sure to capture some of her makeup she owns in the photo because this is a result that beauty standards has on young girls. By the age of thirteen many young girls already know how to do a full face of makeup. They have spent a lot of money on this makeup because these standards encouraged them to. This also has a negative impact on young girls because I think it’s heart breaking that they feel as they need to wear makeup to be “accepted” in society. The second technique I chose to include was making the picture black and white. I wanted to show how she feels in her daily life. The color explains that she is depressed she has to go through this “girl routine” to be accepted as pretty. The last technique I used in this essay is perspective. I included this as if society was looking up at her because she was wearing all of this makeup and following the typical beauty standards. When young girls grow up with these unrealistic beauty standards they can never be themselves because they are always trying to be like someone else. These standards have impacted my sister a lot, if she doesn’t have makeup on then she doesn’t want to be seen in public. My sister never will see what the “real her” looks like because she is too busy focusing on what everyone else wants her to look like. Many girls need to learn that they are beautiful even if they don’t follow these beauty standards. This photo relates to gender socialization because girls are being encouraged to follow these beauty standards in order to fit into society. In Lauren Greenfield’s photo essay “Girl Culture” Hannah is saying “I’ve been approached by people who think I’m older. Maybe because of the makeup, the way I dress, and generally, the way I look”. Many adolescent girls can relate to this because beauty standards are influencing how they should look.
Works Cited
Greenfield, Lauren. “Girl Culture.” GIRL CULTURE - Lauren Greenfield, v1.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/girlcult/greenfield05.html.
2 comments:
From: Brandon
In your “Beauty Standards with Adolescent Girls” photo, you used a good variation of creative elements for explaining the consequences of unrealistic beauty standards. One of the elements that stands out at first glance is the black and white filter. As you mentioned, this showed her mood of depression when trying to keep up with the trends that society expects girls to follow to fit in. For me, this also symbolizes how people are divided by labels today and that there are two main categories that young girls typically believe they will fall into such as being popular or an outcast. The other creative element that I liked in your photo was perspective. The facial expression your sister shown to kind of create this idea that when women are in the mirror, that they are in a trance like state. It is almost like women leave reality and search for this look that will transform them to what they believe in their mind, is what people want to see them become. I believe that women should be comfortable in their natural beauty and not that there is anything wrong with makeup but when it seems like you live in a fear of leaving the house without any on creates added fear and magnifies insecurities. Being the only boy on my mom’s side of the family, I seen how much society standards has affected them with wanting to meet certain criteria of the perfect hair, look, and size. Lots of significant time and energy spent on not just trying to please friends but also find a man. I tell them to find someone who will love you for the intangibles, things that cannot be touched like your morals, ideas, and values, and not based on financial circumstances and appearance. Overall this was a great photo and post!
From: Andrea
I agree with everything you said about your photo. I really liked this photo essay because I can relate to this and I believe many other females can also relate to it. Our society has created expectation for us to follow in other to be seen as being beautiful.we are not happy with what is expected of us, but we still follow these guidelines’ society has created because we want to fit in with everyone else. We are thought that if we want to look good or be accepted in society we can not be ourselves. We have to use makeup, change our hair color, straighten or curl our hair because that is what every girl has to do to look good. When we decide not to put on makeup or do our hair we are told we look a mess when we are just being ourselves. I believe the white and black picture represent how unhappy we are with the routines we have to follow to look good. The camera is mainly focusing on her which could be seen as the camera being society and it's looking straight up at her to see how she is trying to follow beauty standards. This is what happens in real life people look at us and judge how we look. We can also see that she has two mirrors this shows how important it is for her to see how she looks.
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