Today, young girls are shown on social media the beauty standards they must follow the unrealistic ways a girl should look. We stenotype a person daily based on how they look. Media has mad women change the way the look to fit into societal norms. That they need to be skinny and pretty to be loved or seen. They need to have “great assets” like a pretty face, the perfect makeup, nice butts, or boobs. Growing up, you want to be loved and look good enough to be noticed because they are told from social media that this is the only way to be seen. The images in Girl Culture represent how girls “have” to look or act. That the only thing that is going for you is your looks, your looks are the only thing that will get you somewhere in life. Models are set to a certain standard of having to be tall and skinny and if you are not, you cannot be a model. The average weight of a model is 113 pounds, which is only 23% less than the average of women. This representation of women leads to mental health disorders; anxiety, depression, and even eating disorders.
The photo taken shows how the average girl measures herself constantly to fit into medias norms. How their jeans must be under size 2 and if they are not, girls must squeeze into them. The measurement of their waist has to be 24’ or below. These sizes are their deciding factor into the world. Even, if you look like that your intelligence is questioned, “oh she’s pretty she must be dumb,” or “she’s a blonde, she must be just a dumb blonde.”Growing up in a world like this is detrimental to a young girls health. In Girl Cultures images, you see that these young girls looking at themselves in a mirror trying to make her boobs look bigger or having to pose in lingerie. Sara, “Life is definitely easier—while your beauty lasts. People, especially of the opposite sex, treat you better. But if you’re a beautiful girl, there’s a tendency for people to assume you’re not intelligent.”
Greenfield , Lauren. “Girl Culture .” GIRL CULTURE - Lauren Greenfield, 2001
2 comments:
From: Taylor
This photo does a really great job of representing how girls and women act to be able to fit in to society, making sure that their bodies are skinny and perfect like represented in the media. Girls always feel like they must do everything they can to fit in to society. The first creative technique that I noticed is the color of the photo. The photo is in black and white which represents sadness. Girls and women get so upset and depressed when they feel like their bodies and their looks do not fit into what society represents. The color is a great way to show that the girl in the photo is upset with her body or stressed about keeping her body the way that it is, everyone is perfect in their own way. Another creative technique that I noticed in the photo is symbolism, the girl’s waist and the jeans being unbuttoned with the measuring tape represents that the girl is trying to fit into the social rules on how women’s bodies should look. It shows that women are always worrying about their weight and making sure they fit into that size 2 or under jeans to fit in with what media represents as the women’s perfect body. One of the last creative techniques that I noticed is foreground. The girl’s body is in the foreground in the picture taking up all the space, so this is showing that the focus in the photo is the girl measuring herself making sure she fits in. This photo is a great representation of what women go through in our society.
From: Tea
I think it's important that you brought up how even when a female meets our society's standard of beauty she is still assumed to be lesser in one way or another for doing so. The idea that a woman who is considered beautiful must therefore be dumb is one that demonstrates how women are stuck in this losing loop where we are always not enough. This definitely demonstrates how young girls are growing up in a demanding and toxic environment. I can also draw a connection between what you are discussing and the idea that women who dress to fit our overly sexualized standards are too "slutty" but those who don't meet said standards are too "uptight". This too represents this loop that women are stuck in. The ideas of beauty involve too much of this and not enough of that with no real balance or realistically obtainable ends. I think it is also important and good that you brought up what these unrealistic standards lead to as far as depression, anxiety, and eating disorders because far too many girls at far too young of ages suffer from these issues. I think your image represents this well as it reminds me of the countless times my friends and I have sat together in front of mirrors complaining of too many or too few curves. I think another point to bring up is also how society expects the curves that come with more weight but without the weight, demonstrating once again the unobtainable expectations for women in our society.
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