The media has set a standard of what girls should look like in order to be attractive. They are constantly flaunting skinny girls, with a lot of skin showing. This makes younger girls think they need to look and dress a certain way to fit in and be considered “pretty”. Most advertisements and magazines of women are photoshopped so this is why these beauty standards are called “unrealistic”.
I chose to take this picture to demonstrate the unrealistic beauty norms that the media places on women. This may look like a normal girl just applying makeup but you have to look more in depth to understand the meaning. The girl I chose to use is only 11 years old. As you can see in the picture she is in “booty shorts” and a crop top applying mascara, portraying she is more older then she really is.
I used Lauren Greenfields techniques of gaze, space, background and symbolism. In the photo the girl is seen looking directly at the camera. I have her centered right in the middle of photo with nothing in background. I chose to take the picture this way to have the viewers really focus on how young she is and they way she is portraying her sexuality by showing off her body. Her eyes are wide symbolizing she is taking in everything she has seen on the media about the way she should look.
Hannah is one of the girls in the girls featured in Lauren Greenfields photo essay, she is only 13. She makes the statement “I’ve been approached by people who think I’m older. I might look older than I actually am, but underneath it all, I’m only thirteen. It’s kind of scary. It’s a hard feeling to not know where you fit in yet.". This statement I chose to focus on a lot. I think it is sad that a thirteen year old girl feels scared because she doesnt know where to fit in. She feels like she has to put on make up and dress older to be able to fit in todays society. My photo is similar to this because the girl I took a picture of is only 11. She is seen showing off her body and applying make up to make herself look how women are portrayed in the media.
Cindy Margolis, another women featured on Lauren Greenfields photo essay is shown dressed in a tiny pink bathing suite, having gold heels on and her makeup and her hair done. She is very skinny and has large breast. She states that “Nobody helped me. You have to do it yourself and use your brain and your smarts—and of course looks are a huge asset". She was the most downloaded women according to the Guinness Book of World Records. If a young, naive girl would see this they would think this is how they have to look to make it in the world. In order to make it they need to show off there bodies and make them “sexy”.
3 comments:
From: Jamilah
In this photo I can see a little girl putting on makeup and this speaks more volumes because of the significant symbol behind this photo. Little girls are being taught at a young age to conform to beauty norms whether it is through toys, shows, video games, movies, or the media they are constantly taught that they have to be pretty. The media constantly shows girls in tons of makeup, high heels, dolled up hair and most notable, a small figure. I have also noticed that child celebrities are also shown to have a face full of makeup and a dolled-up appearance, it really sends a message to little girls about what society wants them to look like.
I believe this image showcases how pressured little girls are to look a certain way even at such a young age. Make up and other attractive accessories are highly imposed on young girls because the beauty norms are so strict, on top of that, little girls are treated in a way that is incredibly harmful. Younger girls get approached by adults because of how grown they look either naturally or due to trying to conform to the societal norms, this is harmful to our younger girls because of the terrifying impact it may have on them. When I look at this photo, I see me and every other girl that has been pressured into trying to fit into the beauty standards. I see the tears, the pain, and the confusion of trying to be something that you are not, I see what these unrealistic standards can and have done to young girls.
From: Karoline
I really like how you went about this project. The creative techniques you used, and the way you explained them made your submission for this assignment very successful. The point you made about her eyes being wide to portray the way that she sees society’s opinions on women’s beauty standards really stood out to me. It was at this point that I really connected your project to mine, which was about the different two cultures of childhood. In my essay I wrote about how different toys teach little boys and girls separate roles, and how society deems certain things right or wrong for each gender, this even includes different colors being gendered. Two of the toys I briefly mentioned for girls were dress up clothes and fake/play makeup. This ties into yours because this idea of girls wanting to look like the older women portrayed in the media can stem from the use of fake makeup and dress up clothes. I also like how you chose to photograph a girl for this assignment instead of a boy. As I mentioned in my essay, the equivalent of dress up clothes for boys would be superhero costumes. Men are usually portrayed as the strong, hero figures, meaning that boys do not really have to struggle with the idea of “fitting in” or following beauty standards, because they already have better or more positive roles to fit themselves into, which is very different from the experience that young girls have.
From: Kelsey
I really like the way you added a style of clothing to go along with the makeup. As if living up to beauty norms weren’t enough, now the young girl must try to find her place in society and appear older, by exposing her body and wear “booty shorts” and a crop top. Women showing off their bodies is something you see all the time on the internet. Men seem to be so attracted to these women that it seems like if you don’t show some part of your body, you and your brains will go unnoticed. I like how you used her eyes as a symbol for how she takes in norms from the internet. I agree that a lot of ads are unrealistic of what the average female should look like. These ads are put out there for a way to make money. Ads/magazines show tall, skinny women wearing bikinis all the time to show how that is the ideal beauty standard. They never really display plus size, although it is starting to become more common. But if this young girl sees that in the magazine while she’s just looking at it for fun, she’s going to see more and more women like that pop up. And before she knows it, she will begin to think this is what the ideal woman in America should look like, and try to achieve that look, and put herself down when she doesn’t. This is where the young girl would begin to achieve the look, and start dressing older to fit in, and suffer the consequences that society brings. I think this ties perfectly with your statement about Hannah from Lauren Greenfield’s photo essay, and her encounters with men because of her looks. It truly is a scary thing when you don’t know where you fit in.
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