From: Chloe
The “ideal body” of today is not the same as it was ten, fifteen, or fifty years ago, but the
idea of a perfect body has affected the minds of every young girl just the same. Media is a huge
influence on young girls growing up which creates a danger as the things these girls hear, and
watch is harmful. Not everything on social media is real or achievable by most, and when it is
put on show it becomes idolized. The scale has become an enemy to all girls, making them feel
bad
about themselves because they do not fit a standard set by today's
society. For some, weigh-ins and frequent measuring by young girls has
become ritualistic, constantly checking their
bodies, and comparing them to those they idolize.
In the photo, the darkness creates a depressing and scary feeling, showing how these
adolescent girls feel trying to follow beauty standards. The scale is in the center of the photo
surrounded by piles of clothes, showing that weight and size are a first priority for girls. Instead
of clothes being enjoyable and self-expressing, it becomes a problem making girls feel worse
instead of happy when putting an outfit together for the day. In another part of the photo, there
are little hearts from pieces of clothing with the measuring tape running through them. This
symbolizes girls feeling the need to constantly fit a certain standard. In media, weight, waist size,
hip size, bust size, etc. are constantly pushed and makes young women and girls feel they need to
look this way and then they are comparing each other in real life with these very unrealistic
beauty standards.
Lauren Greenfield’s photo essay perfectly shows the effects of beauty standards on girls.
Cultures have written and unwritten conflicting messages of femininity using the body
(Greenfield) when a person's body should be their own and not have to worry about what others
will think or if they have the “in” style or “perfect” body. Styles and standards are always
changing, but no one is helping to change the effect on young girls and how to help them learn to
be self-expressive and not harm their self-esteem.
Works cited
Greenfield, Lauren. “Girl Culture”.
http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/girlcult/index.html. 23, October,
2024.
4 comments:
From: Julia
Looking at this photo and seeing the scale as the center of the photo really tells me that weight is a major influence on individuals’ expression and confidence today. I also liked the fact that clothes and measuring tape were either on the scale or around it because not only does the measuring tape help put into perspective the comparison people will make between them and the ones, they idolize but also the sizing changes in the different brands of clothes you wear. For example, going to one store you may wear a much bigger size compared to another store because of the cut of the clothes. Most people may assume they have gotten bigger, or those clothes are not made for their body type. I like the fact that it was mentioned how these beauty standards can affect young girls today due to the fact these standards society has created are super unrealistic and unhealthy. It's also crazy to think that our beauty standards now are different from the beauty standards ten, fifteen years ago. The dark background also adds to the touch of that sad and loneliness vibe. Since so many young girls do feel alone when it comes to trying to fit into society’s beauty standards and overall trying to fit in with the people around them. It's important to understand not everyone looks the same or will look the same in outfits and when young girls compare themselves to others, their outfit/outcome is much different than what they expected, this can add to that sadness they may feel.
I really like how you used the darkness of your photo to show the gloominess of this subject. The ambience is depressive and that’s how the reality of this beauty standard is. I also like how the photo is just a little blurry so you almost can’t make out that there is a measuring tape around the the scale, which have always been heavily associated with the toxic standard of disorder body checking. Especially with the revival of the 90’s “heroin chic” or women going into a “winter arc”, it is sad to see that many young women are feeling pressured to go into this habit of letting the scale control them , how they feel, what they do and what they eat. This picture also remind me of a photo from Lauren Greenfield’s photo essay, “Girl Culture”, where the inpatient patient, Erin, was being weighed by her dieticians, with her back turned away from the number on the scale. The tape measure around the scale is also very clever and reminds me of a pop culture moment that recently occurred, the revival of the original Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. The fashion show was evident of the back tracking of the body positivity movement, with mainly only featuring stick thin models, with 22-24 inch waists. It has created such mania on social media that there are girls as young as middle schoolers that have started dieting and using tape measures almost every day in order to “compete with the beauty standard”.
From Erin
Hi Chloe! You did a wonderful job at capturing how the media has such an effect on adolescent girls. Especially how it may affect them overall. I really like how you used the darkness in the room to display the scariness of what young girls may go through as they try to fulfill what society thinks is beautiful. I also really enjoyed how the clothes spread around the scale signifies how young girls idolize having this “perfect” body rather than everything else they have around them. Or how it could signify how young girls need the scale to fit into certain clothes to meet the expectations of society. The placement of the measuring tape was very symbolic as well to me because I think it can show how these kinds of stereotypes of this “perfect” body or lifestyle in a way marks young girls and can be seen if you walk into any public place, a group of young girls all dressed in same way of some sort, because of certain trends going on in the world. I also think the measuring tape can also show how wrapped up young girls get into fitting in. Another part I enjoyed was how you said that this standard is not what it was five years ago, or ten years ago, or even twenty years ago. The society is always changing the expectations of beauty for women and young girls and even though the characteristics change, the effect on young girls continues to be the same and its heartbreaking. Overall, this image really stuck to me, and you did an excellent job at capturing the “Dark Reality” of body image in young girls.
From: Angelina
This photo was as honestly touching to me as a plus size person and I love the work put into this project. I admire the fact of how you made the photo darker in lighting so make the scale light numbers really pop out. By adding the feature of the scale numbers being darker the message of how people “see only the numbers” is highlighted. Along with the “x” shape over the scale I thought personally it was a symbol to show where young girls need to step insinuating how focusing how our weight is that really matters for afab people. I love the use of hearts too! I interpreted it as the romanization of being skinny in our society. From my own personal experience, wanting to be thinner is so life-consuming and with the atmosphere you created, you captured the feeling very well. The wanting to be thinner or even bigger is something that people should not go through especially young girls, it feeds into the rooted racism, ableism, homophobia, and others of today. I read how the plus size black women are usually seen as “a predator” to white women and how that affects today's society too. With younger girls learning this by a capitalist government it is sad to hear how young black girls are learning to dislike their bodies because of fatphobia, they are also learning how to dislike their other features like hair and face. With that they are also seen as mean, loud, aggressive or they follow “the Mammy” stereotype. This glorification of the ideal size is hurting all our young girls, and it is scary how far it may go.
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