I do realize that magazines ads make women look like dead stick bugs and that they make girls throw up and feel bad about themselves. However shouldn't people just get over it rather than complaining about it. As hard as it is to believe some girls actually do look like that and there is nothing you can do to shelter young girls from seeing them and feeling like crap so why do we bother trying to change the way women look in movies, magazines, cartoons and dolls?
2007-09-28 14:12:34 · 8 answers · asked by nobody 5 in Social Science ➔ Gender Studies
You are so right gnu
2007-09-28 14:43:43 · update #1
I think it is far, far less important what sorts of ideal images are put forward (I won't even call them "standards", because that suggests it even makes SENSE to use these images as a basis for comparison), and far more important that attaining a standard of physical attractiveness is NOT the main basis a young woman has for judging herself. Even if women were trying to attain an ideal that fit 5% of the population rather than .0001%, it would still be destructive, because the important thing is to encourage young women to see value in terms of things like intelligence, talent, creativity, integrity, compassion, discipline, and lots of other values that so much of our popular entertainment doesn't emphasize at all. (And doesn't emphasize enough for young men either).
2007-09-28 14:35:03 · answer #1 · answered by Gnu Diddy! 5 · 3⤊ 0⤋
What you see as complaining, other people see as a way of trying to change the status quo. While some women do naturally look like the (anorexic looking) models (had a friend in high school that looked like that...she ate like a horse), most do not and unless it is your bodies natural shape and size than it is incredibly unhealthy.
It would be irresponsible to just "get over it" and let it go because then we are saying that upcoming generations of boys and girls SHOULD be subjected to unrealistic ideals. Not speaking out against something has the same effect as supporting it. Its bad enough that people value beauty over intelligence, conformity over creativity, external over internal, ect. Not speaking up about such an obvious issue which could conceivably create an incredible rise in anorexia, infertility, mental instability, depression, and a host of issues that occur with extreme dieting is paramount to simply killing off an entire generation of children.
2007-09-28 22:35:46 · answer #2 · answered by lkydragn 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I believe there is a difference between not sheltering people from things like that and having it shoved in our faces that it is the "beauty ideal". Part of me feels that women should just toughen up, but another part of me knows how it feels to constantly be bombarded with that image for beauty and wonder why it is the only one that is held in such high regard. Look at what happened with Spears. One of the biggest critiques of her VMA "performance" was that she was FAT!!! Yes, she wasn't in as good as shape as when she was a hit, but how can she be called fat? She looked great, and has the kind of body that regular women would strive for, yet she was blasted for being fat. What message is that sending? I would much rather see "fat" Britney's being touted as the beauty ideal instead of "beautiful" or "perfect" Paris's.
2007-09-28 23:09:13 · answer #3 · answered by littlevivi 5 · 3⤊ 0⤋
One thing we can do is continue to have a dialogue about it. If girls are going to be exposed to those images, then to balance it out, there should also be people sending the message that no, that's not realistic, and you should feel OK about yourself for what you are. So no, I don't think people should just stay quiet and "get over it."
Besides, some people have succeeded in changing things. In Brazil, there's now a legal limit on how thin a model can be for her height. I checked it out and it' seems like a fair limit. This was done after yet another South American model died of anorexia, so it's not only good for consumers, it also keeps standards reasonable within the industry.
2007-09-28 21:19:54 · answer #4 · answered by Priscilla B 5 · 6⤊ 1⤋
There have always been unrealistic standards of beauty around. Look at Lady Hamilton in her younger days. Some women can deal with it naturally, others go nuts. And in the middle, some go nuts, then get over it, and sitll others strive for an ideal, and wind up happier than they would if they let it go naturally.
2007-09-28 21:21:08 · answer #5 · answered by Madame M 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Lots of people complain about that but it still happens. That tells me that the majority of people either don't care or support it. I, on-the-other-hand, think that women on TV should not be all super skinny, super cute, etc. I actually saw a commercial recently that the women in it were not models. They looked like regular girls. I was surprised by that.
2007-09-28 21:55:52 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Some of those anorexic stick-insects, despite being made up to the gills and airbrushed like crazy, are REALLY ILL and they look it. They shouldn't be exploited like this.
2007-09-28 21:56:06 · answer #7 · answered by celtish 3 · 3⤊ 1⤋
You will have to go with the flow or you are going to be an outcast...
2007-09-29 01:34:51 · answer #8 · answered by gannoway 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋