Why do women generally have poor self-image? What causes it and why do women buy into it?

Answer 1

Wow, that is complex to think about. Poor self-image is so very much. It can be several reasons for this. Here are some reasons I think have an impact on low self-image with women in general:

Communication between girls. They are very critical towards other girls when chatting together. They may be illojal to each other so that sometimes they dont know what their friends say when they are not around to hear for themselves. They are afraid of being talked about, so they have to do everything to look nice, act nice, smell nice and never tread on any other girl's feet.

Communication between mother/daughter especially in teens: Mother tries to control her little girl in a way. Mother doesn't recognise that her little girl is changing; habits, way of thinking, needs and so on. Mother wants her little girl to be safe and not get into truoble so she wants to know everything and she wants to control whom to meet, to see, to be with.

Mass media: TV, newspapers, fashionmagazines. They all show beautiful (maybe even retouched) women. These women are made to look perfect; pictures are often manipulated into impossible to live by images. Hair, legs, waist, breasts, looks everything.

The madonna/whore complex: Men wants women to be willing, sexy, big ****, flirting and all that. Men want women to make them feel attractive and wanted. On the other hand; the woman he wants to be the mother of his child should not have all these attributes. She should be nice, calm and beautiful so that she is not a threat to him. Other men shall not want her even though she must be an attribute by his side.

Well; this was just a few things. Im sure there are more. Imagine why women have low self esteem trying to live up to all this with hair that curls, a little extra weight around her waist, legs too short, feet too big for those cute highheels, butt too flat and neck too short.

Answer 2

Some of the answers make good points about women's idolizing models and competing with other women, but enough with the everybody-else-bashing already. See that word in the question? SELF-IMAGE!!! How you think about YOUR self. If you have good self-esteem then there is nobody who can convince you otherwise. The key word here is self. How YOU think about yourself. Not how others think you should think about yourself. If you think you are too fat, or have too many freckles, or aren't wearing the right clothes, or don't have the right accessories then the only person to blame is YOU. Here's a tip girls: guys don't give a crap about what brands you wear. We don't. We care about what's underneath of those brands. If you look good, we don't care if you're wearing a pair of off-brand shorts and white t-shirt. We don't. You are the only ones who think that. Do you know why all of those clothing companies that people rail against are doing so well? I'll give you a hint girls. It's not guys. It's YOU. Women are far and away the largest group of shoppers out there. You keep those companies that promote unhealthy images in business. You do that. Not us guys. YOU! Get a grip and realize that it's not guys' fault, or the media's, or clothing companies' fault. It's your fault. Be a man about it and suck it up. :)

Answer 3

Well just look at what we do to women.

We select an image of the "beautiful" woman and portray her on every bill board, magazine cover and TV commercial.

I almost never run into women that look like that. They must all be in photo shoots when I'm out.

Most women are just nice, wholesome, caring and compassionte people who just look normal. Maybe a few pounds to many, or maybe a few pounds to few.

I hate to say it, but its us men that push women into that poor self image/esteem that a lot of women have. By buying those magazines and watching the porn we are basically saying that "this" is what we want and anything less is second best.

Answer 4

Women have poor self images just do to the fact that we compete on a level of beauty. People put out there what the general population calls "beautiful" and it's like a brainwash...we believe it. So, we can't be happy because we don't look like that model on tv, and we always find something wrong with ourselves. Pretty much, we can never be happy with just who we are and what we have. Some of us, anyway

Answer 5

Where do i begin....well for starters like some of the girls said, we compete against each other like a life long beauty pagent. no matter how old we get it will always be like that, theres also the billboards and magizines and ect that cause us to feel like we should look like they do. like we have to be as skinny as they are and have perfect hair and makeup like they do. men also make us feel this way when ur with someone. they tend to look at other girls who are better lookin and have everything we wish we could have. men are pigs and can't help themselves when other women are around. i have the same problem with my husband and let me tell u what jelousy takes over and is not pretty but in my case its totally diffrent, but anyways, like i said men are pigs and usually think only of themselves and not the person that there with. when i'm around other chicks i am awed at how god makes us envy every women around us and how we react to someone who is prettier than we are. its gonna be a life long war so we better just get use to it unless ur into plastic surgery, then u can look like u want to. i may have self image problems but i will love my self for who i am cuz i know that i am diffrent from other women and nobody can take that away from me and it will always be like that. well unless ur a twin then u have more problems to work out with the whole self image situation.

Answer 6

there is such a huge pressure for women to look a certain way. Most women, even the ones considered beautiful and slim feel they have flaws and are under pressure to change themselves. I always said I would never change myself for anyone else but I always seem to be on a diet or I always seem to be buying some product that promises great things. I don't know why women buy into it but I am guilty of it too!

Answer 7

Because of the role models they have to live up to. The corrupt world teaches that a body like Britney spears is what its all about. I personally think inner beauty is the best . I do feel for the Lady's of the world who no matter how hard they try can never succeed. My personal belief is Satan is corrupting what beauty really is I someday hope to find a girl and make her see the inner beauty verse what really is phony. So all you Lady's Know those girls in the magazine were photo shop . Not to spoil the hopes of being healthy but the hopes of someday looking photo shoped (lol) Sorry for being bold but somebody got tell it how it is.

Answer 8

I'm an older woman and ive learned that, it's all that stuff that woman do cause that feeling, women try to hard to change themselves,hair,makeup, pushup bras, nails, so much,to much and men they don't do any of that they just be themselves and if we like them we like them. Woman need to start being like that stop spending so much time and money on all that, and if we were all our natural selves no one gets fooled when it all comes off. Ya know along time ago I heard this joke about this couple got married went on the honeymoon, he was in bed waiting for her, she took off her wig, her eyelashes, her fake nails, and he told her hey when you get to the part I want just throw it over here. Thats about how it is.

Answer 9

The media causes it \Women buy into it because magazines, tv, movies, billboards and other things featuring "perfect" women are all around them. Therefore, women can't help to feel inferior compared to these women.

Answer 10

Because we are constantly comparing ourselves to other women. We have a love-hate relationship with women who we know are more attractive, intelligent, etc. than ourselves, and spend way too much time scrutinizing people such as celebrities and models.

We admire them, but we are jealous of them at the same time, and that causes us to judge ourselves more harshly because we compare what we don't have to what they do have.

Why do we buy into it? Who knows!