What Girls Learn by Karin Cook In the novel, “What Girls Learn”, by Karin Cook, Tilden who is twelve years old and Elizabeth who is eleven years old, have been close to their mother all their lives. They were so close to their mother that they never lived with anyone else. Frances, Tilden’s and Elizabeth’s mom, moved all of them from Atlanta to New York, where their mother fell in love with a man who the girls never met, Nick Olsen.
Instead, she includes numerous expert claims that focus on how everyday media disrupts girl’s childhoods. This can result in unsettled confusion for the reader of what the
Hanes’ purpose is to provide facts to parents so they understand what will happen if they do not censor the images their young girls see. In the article, Hanes explains that these images will lead young girls “down a path of self-objection to cyberbullying to unhealthy body images” (483). The statistics listed in the article help the author grasp the attention of the reader, causing the reader to feel a sense of urgency when understanding this issue. Stephanie Hanes, author of the essay “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect”, explains that our society should be worrying about the increase in sexualization amongst young girls.
“Story of a Girl” is the debut novel by Sara Zarr, Salt Lake City resident and author of five young adult novels. It is a 2007 National Award Finalist in Young People’s Fiction and a Utah Book Award Finalist. This story along with her subsequent novels portray angst, coming of age, disappointment, and ultimately love and forgiveness. It is young adult contemporary realism at its finest. “Story of a Girl” is about Deanna Lambert.
Most teenage girls fall in love so easy, and end up with their hearts shattered in the next couple days. When they are going through these types of situations, girls often overthink everything, and they always chase the ones who are not worth the time. In the poem, Advice to a Girl by Sara Teasdale, the author talks about a young girl who is emotionally torn after losing the one she thought she loved. “No one worth possessing, can be quite possessed…” (Line 1).
HBO television series Girls have received criticism for its representation of the four young female characters, but it has also praised for its more realistic approach to illustrate the females’ way of coping life. Girls portrays the influence of media on young women and their views on gender differences. This indicates that the show is defined as postfeminism. Girls addresses the representations of the female characters in Girls through a historical viewpoint in relation to feminism and the impact of media. Girls portrays feminist issues that helps form an understanding of the American culture.
Artists like Molly Soda and Amalia Ulman are part of the first generation of adolescents and young women to share their poignant, private moments and thoughts through the growing trend of online diaries, which still have a confessional character but exposed to the world. (Priganica & Cagnon, 2017) Amalia Ulman has turned Instagram into a site of performance art. In her project, a five-month-long performance she documented the life (relationships, mental health, etc.) of a woman who just moved to LA, dissolving the obsession we have with our image. Amalia’s work often reveals we're just the caricatures of our real selves. She argues that it is ‘another kind of cliché, in the way society is structured;’ (Petty,
These texts were particularly interesting to me as I believe that the issues are so relevant to our current society as we are constantly surrounded by social media. The article focuses on the magazine Seventeen, which is aimed at a young audience, and how it reinforces society’s expectation that girls should be more concerned about their appearances and ability to gain approval from men rather than developing their own place in the world. To communicate the negative influence of media, Phillips uses techniques such as expert opinions from people like Professor Carol Gilligan from Harvard University and bias information to add more credibility to her arguments and support her views on the issue. She also used simple language instead of high vocabulary as to appeal to her target audience, young
The media bombards teenagers with images and trends and defines popular culture what the trends are, what people should be wearing, what they should be listening to, how they should act and what they should look like. The media does this through movies, television, magazines, catalogs, billboards, fashion and music. Society is shaped by, among other things, two major components: gender and popular culture. ... These actions help to define gender in that although women may not like their domestic roles and may want to be with someone who assumes the domestic or female role in the home, society teaches us that it is against the "normal” If Magazines can be called a barometer of popular culture, what modern cultural trends do they show?
Today’s world revolves around social media with teens spending hours every day on social media applications such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat, our generation has become dependent on electronic devices for entertainment. We no longer rely on libraries or newspapers for information because everything we need can be found with the tap of a finger. Teenagers use apps to stay up to date with the world and often find themselves caught up viewing the lives of the rich and famous. Social media posts by celebrity figures being viewed by teens creates false body perceptions and images of what our everyday lives should be like. Social media displays images of perfection and happiness that are unattainable.
In society, children and youth overtime have been known to be cute, innocent and loving human beings, but at the same time, society pins children as immature reckless individuals in the media. Since the emergence of media, we as a society wonder how youth interact with the media they are exposed to and how youth are defined in society. In addition, seen as we are now a part of an information society, where the media is where we get most of our news, beliefs and ideas, we need to be aware of how the media not only shapes society, but how the media shapes youth. In the media there have been many stereotypes that revolve around women and young girls but the stereotype that relates greatly to the article I will discuss is the sexualisation of young women in the media. On the other hand, the media tends to portray men as powerful and more successful individuals.
Imagine a world with no social media in which people can revert back to real life connections. No more Internet trolls, safeguard bullying, or your teenage daughter crying because Betty Smith bashed her on social media for everyone to see. There's no denying that along with the perks of connecting people across the globe, there will be baggage to carry. The downside of social media is the simple fact that our teenage years are so delicate and vulnerable to another's opinion. Especially when it comes to teenage girls, as one simple use of the word “ugly” or “fat” can go racing through this innocent, developing mind.
Presely describes this audience as “digital natives” (Boyed, Presely,2014, pp.13), in association with their character raised in the 2.0 era of digital media. As it is a significant factor within many youth’s identities and the way they are raised, affecting the way they portray themselves to others, as they are exposed to this digital world from a young age. A result of this upbringing gives them the knowledge to be their own agents, portraying of media consumption. Sharing similar experiences to friends through vast instances of, synchronous communication to large numbers of people, i.e., Facebook, snap chat and Instagram. Surrounded by a culture where youth regularly need to see peoples, fulfilled lives, thriving on the visibility of these,
"My sophomore year I struggled with anxiety and depression and social media was definitely a trigger for that because ... I was always looking at everyone else's trying to understand why were they so happy and why was I not," (Thorbecke). Girls look up to all of these famous actresses,singers, and reality stars and begin to realize that they don't have the same exact body as them. They start to believe that that is how a woman's body is supposed to look. Social media has hurt young girls and boys greatly, not only depression but also eating disorders have
Tyria Wickliff Kathy Hayes College Writing 101 D 27 September 2017 Depictions of Women In the Media The media plays a major role on how some women view themselves in real life. They start to see whats accepted and whats not through society which causes them to mimic what they see women doing in the media. Those young women who are displeased with their appearance most likely can trace those feelings back to images they’ve seen in the media whether on television, social media sites, magazines, blogs, etc. These images mess up some young women’s views of their own identity.
