ipl-logo

Lookism Influences Adolescent Girls

1066 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Beauty standards and how they affect

How Lookism Influences Adolescent Girls Lookism is defined by Merriam Webster Dictionary (n.d.) as the "prejudice or discrimination based on physical appearance and especially physical appearance believed to fall short of societal notions of beauty." The issue of lookism has inundated our youth through the many forms of media including magazines, music videos, and daily television. Girls are often on the receiving end of lookism with the expectation being that they should be attractive and that there is only one definition of attractive. Mary Pipher (2008) describes it by saying "In early adolescence girls learn how important appearance is in defining social acceptability. Attractiveness is both a necessary and a sufficient condition for …show more content…

As a culture and a society there is need to reassess our views on women and their purpose. The constant barrage focused on the appearance of women has created an objectification of women that permeates even the youngest in our society. Without a conscious effort to reconfigure our views and redirect our expectations, girls will continue to get the message that they serve only an aesthetic purpose. As a mother of a seven year old girl I feel I have a personal obligation to attempt to have an impact on her vision of herself. Though I believe I can have a direct impact on some of the messages she receives from media by limiting it in our home, I know more has to be done. Gibson and Jefferson (2006) stated that "affiliation with community groups, such as school, church and athletics, is important to the development of self-concept as they offer multiple opportunities to develop connections with others who have similar experiences in a safe environment." This concept can be applied to the effects of lookism as well. Finding friends, clubs and programs that support your views can help make a personal and direct impact on an individual. Teaming up with friends and family to create an environment that is safe to express oneself in all areas is a way to start changing the views that lookism has perpetrated on society 's

Show More
Related
183 Words | 1 Pages

It’s an argument we’ve all heard before and there are more than a few books that have tackled the subject. But what’s different from even the last three years is just how widespread the media has become. Today’s teens spend an average of 10 hours and 45 minutes absorbing media in just one day, which includes the amount of time spent watching TV, listening to music, watching movies, reading magazines and using the internet. This is a generation that’s been raised watching reality TV – observing bodies transformed on Extreme Makeover; faces taken apart and pieced back together on I Want a Famous Face. They are, as Tina Fey puts it, bombarded by "a laundry list of attributes women must have to qualify as beautiful.”

Read More
193 Words | 1 Pages

Stephanie Hanes’s article “Little Girl or Little Women?” , is more of an emotional piece of writing that controversially adds in the Disney Princess effect that the young girls unknowingly participate in. The author then proceeds to the concern of sexualization while nearly failing

Read More
1393 Words | 6 Pages

In Ray Bradbury’s, Something Wicked This Way Comes, the book focuses on many different topics. Good v Evil, Fear, ect. Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway go on a dark and twisted adventure to stop the evil carnival. They grow up, faster than you can say wicked. The author uses the innocence of thirteen year old boys to teach the lesson of inner vs. outer beauty with, expectations, reality, and truth.

Read More
1012 Words | 5 Pages

Societal pressures such as unrealistic beauty standards fetter teen girls and women

Read More
879 Words | 4 Pages

Girls are beginning to see a deep gender bias from very young ages. The media perpetuates this bias by editing women to be inhumanly perfect. Advertising is set around people’s insecurities. This is giving girls the idea that the only thing that matters about them is the way they look and how men perceive them. Women are said to spend more money on beauty than they do on their own education (Netflix).

Read More
462 Words | 2 Pages

“Social relationships are central to human well-being and are critically involved in the maintenance of health” (Andrew Steptoe). And while some are able to cope, in many instances the majority of extreme isolation cases has caused more harm than good. In short story “55 Miles to the Gas Pump” by Annie Proulx, clearly shows the mental and physical effects of living in an isolated area and what it can do to unstable lonely minds. Common sense, the most vital rule taught since birth are easily neglected. Stated in article "Solitary Confinement.", one of the most important reasons why, “Extreme solitary confinement combines physical and emotional discomfort…A factor that psychologists argue is a major factor in driving people to insanity” (Ed.

Read More
266 Words | 2 Pages

In the entertaining article “Turning Boys Into Girls”, Michelle Cottle enlightens the readers of how unrealistic depictions in media and advertisements are increasing men’s attention to self image in order to show the damaging effects media has when targeting the insecurities of men and women. Michelle Cottle utilizes relatable language to inform the readers of the effects the media has on men’s body image and how it “levels the playing field” for women. Cottle writes words like “beef-cake” and “whippersnappers” to appeal to younger males. The word choice implements a conversational tone that youth will find easier to relate to. She targets young men and boys to reinforce how damaging media and advertisements are.

Read More
1033 Words | 5 Pages

A girl can be seen as beautiful and attractive, but continued to be shunned - all because they don’t wear the latest trends in fashion (but what if they like wearing solid colors or nerdy shirts from Walmart?). They may have a great personality that would attract many suitors in the nineteenth century, but if it is not up to the status of some people, they’re deemed unworthy. It is honestly one of the saddest things I have witnessed and experienced. Through The Body Project, Brumberg explains how American girls have shifted from judging a girl through her personality and internal character to judging through her appearance.

Read More
459 Words | 2 Pages

In Joyce Carol Oates, "Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?," the main character, Connie, is very concerned about her looks and making sure she always looks like what she would consider "pretty." As a young, fifteen year old girl, looking good and getting the attention of boys was her main priority. Although she is still technically a child, Connie wanted to look older and more mature, assumably to mimic the women she could see in advertisements and magazines. When kids reach their teenage years, they often long for the freedom of adulthood and want to be treated with the same respect adults get.

Read More
582 Words | 3 Pages

The topic of self confidence is a subject that is heavily discussed when it comes to girls of all ages. Journalist, Stephanie Hanes, examines the current trend of sexualization amongst young girls. In the article “Little Girls or Little Women: The Disney Princess Effect”, Hanes examines the current trend of sexualization amongst girls. She addresses the issue of desiring to become a women too soon. Hanes develops her article by using the literary techniques of pathos and logos to describe the emotions young girls feel when they see images of women with unattainable features.

Read More
468 Words | 2 Pages

The fight for women’s or people of colors rights is not new. Women and people of color have been fighting since the beginning of time for their systematic rights. Sojourner Truth said in her speech “to the Women’s Rights Convention,” “I have heard much about the sexes being equal. I can carry as much as any man, and can eat as much too, if I can get it. I am strong as any man that is now” (890).

Read More
711 Words | 3 Pages

Today's society is constantly besieged by the media, through advertisements and extolling the importance of female beauty and discrediting other virtues such as

Read More
1202 Words | 5 Pages

Beauty Pageants deprive children of their confidence and childhoods because they lower girls self esteem. In today 's society, many magazines, movies, and runways pressure women to look a certain way, and to act a certain way. Young girls, even girls as young as one years old, can be affected by today’s obsession with fitness and perfection. These girls can take drastic measures to change what they look like, even going as far as starving themselves (Freymark 29). Beauty pageants are notorious for highlighting outward looks,and to many girls who believe that they are not beautiful enough, being judged on one 's appearance can cause a devastating blow to a girl’s confidence.

Read More
402 Words | 2 Pages

This self-view can lead teenage girls to begin extreme dieting, exorcising or develop a full-blown eating disorder, such as anorexia (Berger 2014). Therefore, it is important for society to encourage young girls to know that they are beautiful just the way they

Read More
1164 Words | 5 Pages

Society 's Beauty Standards Hawkins (2017) stated that the definition of beauty has been shaped by society 's standards instead of what people actually look like. It signifies that the society sets up expectations of how we define beauty by manipulating beliefs of people to recognize that body shape, skin color, race, ethnicity, or anglicized features are what makes a person distinguish their beauty instead of what people actually look like in reality. This makes people believe that the beauty that they see, especially in films, is something that they need to attain in order to be considered as attractive. Unrealistic beauty standards affects physical and mental health Vitelli (2013) stated that content analysis of female characters

Read More

More about Lookism Influences Adolescent Girls

Related Topics

Open Document