Many of us are familiar with the `90`s cult classic “Clueless”.
The other day it was TV and a scene that came on made me stop and think. One
of the characters Ty was obsessing over why a guy did not like her. She made excuses
like, “My hips are too big” and “I am too dumb”. This is a dramatic turn from
the Ty that we first meet, who was a bubbly and happy character who did not
really care about obsessing over guys, but somehow she was taught to care and
look at her looks for something the matter with her.
I think that this type of behavior, where women look at
their insecurities and vanity to make excuses for why they feel the way they
do, is a huge problem in our society and is being embedded into young girls in
our society when they are so young. Where does this insecurity come from? Why
do we have it? Who teaches us this? I think a huge factor that was discussed in
class is that the social media has so much power and influence over the stereotypes
that women need to fit into and encourage them through their television shows, advertisements
and even toys what they should be like. They start to ignore their ability to
be unique and start to form to society`s normative femininity, the idea of how
feminine they should perform their gender.
I think another factor is how impressionable young girls are
at young ages. When older women that we look up to complain about their looks
and weight, the young girls feel that is the normal. It begins to creep into
every aspect of their life when young girls start to base their worth off of
their looks. Then, when they reach puberty age and they compare themselves to
others, they begin to have the same problem Ty does and feel that their
insecurities with their looks becomes a huge part of what they base their relationship
off of. I know that for me personally I view it as normal to talk about insecurities as a reason to stop me from being who I wanted to be
and because I grew up with thinking that it is normal to feel that looks are such an important aspect to who I am, I do
not realize the impression that my conversations with other people might affect
my younger siblings and younger cousins who I do not want to have the insecurities I have had to grow up caring about. I think that today`s women have a chance to
make a new and stronger generation if we realize that we should always be aware
of our actions because we never know if a little girl is looking up to us.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ6tNNqgyRg
This is so true and very troubling. I have a thirteen year old sister myself. When she was a baby I already knew what these statements would do to a person. All the women in my family were always putting themselves down look wise. At the same time they would tell you how beautiful you were. It was so confusing. It is not just their faults but eventually I became anorexic. Then I got over myself and realized that I need to stop exercising 4 hours a day (everyday) and eating only a bowl of cereal for breakfast. It was hurting me and those around me. Another words, when my little sister was born I realized that I have to be very careful when I talk around her. Since then my mom and I have done the best we can. It is difficult because we are so used to doing it. Anyways, it is this huge cycle that keeps rearing its ugly head. We are all told to aspire to look like a supermodel. It took my anorexia episode to realize that there is no way I am going to look like those supermodels. The reason is that I will never feel like they seem like they feel, because I didn't like myself. Oppression needs to stop. Girls should love their bodies. We'll be in them for a long time yet.
ReplyDelete-Rachael Belcher