What different messages are being sent to young females on what it is to be a woman?

Answer 1

I believe that there are really two main messages being sent toy young girls today. The first message is that thin = beautiful. The second message is that beauty is directly connected to sex.

Society defines beauty in pounds and dress sizes. If you weigh over a certain amount you are automatically seen as unattractive. This theory is proven just by the amount of young girls who come onto Yahoo Answers asking if they are "fat". Society teaches young girls that to be thin is to be beautiful; often leaving out that inner beauty is just as, if not more, important. For example, consider models like Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss. They are both physically beautiful according to society, both very slim women. However, when you think of either of these two, that’s what you think...beauty. But, does anyone recall Campbell's domestic violence accusations or Moss' drug problems? Proof that to society and Hollywood, outer beauty takes precedence over inner beauty. With role models such as these, no wonder our young daughters are being sent the wrong message.

Then there is the sexual aspect. I have seen more and more young girls walking around in public with next to nothing on. I'm talking mini-mini skirts, low cut tops, thongs (read up on Abercrombie & Fitch and their idea to market thongs to young girls), and push up bras. As if that isn't bad enough, they are strutting around switching their hips like a grown woman. Young girls are subliminally taught that sex = beauty. Many celebrities pose for magazine articles and such in sexually suggestive clothing and positions, and these are the celebrities that many young girls look up to. With the addition of stripping, prostitution, pornography, and other female defimation, it is a wonder any normal woman matures to adulthood confident in who they are and what they look like.

Parents need to wake up and realize that this isn’t the society they grew up in. They need to open their eyes and educate themselves on the dangers of society's effects on their little girls. Society most likely won’t change so it is that parent’s responsibility to shield their children from the social ills that plague it. You cannot shield your child from everything, but you can teach them what true beauty is and help them feel good about who they are.

Answer 2

Young females are given the messages:

1. You can be anything you want to be, but you have to conform to societal norms to be valued.

2. People should like you for who you are, but if you're pretty, it doesn't matter who you are.

3. A woman can do anything a man can do, but to get a man's attention you have to debase yourself and dress like a whoore.

4. You should expand your horizons into science and math, but no one will really care because a woman is valued by how she looks, not what she can do.

5. The only way to be considered pretty is to be extremely thin, wear lots of makeup, and have clothes that show more skin than they cover.


That is why young women have so many problems. They are told that they can be and do anything, but they are also told (in not so many words) that how they look is more important than anything. Society will value a slim, sexy rock star more than a fat, dumpy woman who cures cancer. It's "appearance" versus "integrity." I'll give you an example. Ask any junior high girl who Madame Curie was, than ask her who Britney Spears is. I'll wager money that many more will know Brit-Brit than know the woman who discovered radiation.

Answer 3

There's so much to this. For one, years ago in the black community Braids, Afros, baggy cloths, funky hair styles were in. This was embraced by Blacks all over. Even perms were in. Today, weaves, wigs excessive use of relaxers is like saying "You hate the natural you" to some Black people. It's not different to White girls who wear extensions or wigs. I understand that Black people majority want to feel like all of us love who we are and don't want to be a concept of beauty that is that would make us being black not look Black at all. But hair doesn't make you a better looking black person. Hair, straight whether weave or relaxed doesn't define that you are another race. So I see no problem with women or Black women who like wearing these things in their hair.