Image is huge in our society, with a constant bombardment of what you should look like from all sides in media and social media. Thankfully, as a society we are starting to become more aware of how the images we see everyday affect us and especially influence our younger generation.
Recent studies show that the impact of early exposure of sexuality to a girl’s development is indeed very harmful. A report by the American Psychological Association task force (APA, 2007), found that girls who are exposed to sexual messages from popular culture are more likely to have depression, low self esteem and to suffer from eating disorders. Unfortunately, we are only currently seeing the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the devastating effects of over sexualizing our young girls, especially with the advent of social media.
Where I work I recently set up a Facebook account to attract young people into working in apprenticeships – the idea being that by using social media we would communicate with our chosen audience. So I started to make ‘friends’ with local young people to promote our advertising.
Within a few days our company had connected with hundreds of young people. As I clicked daily and added and accepted friends I started to notice a shocking trend in nearly all the photographs of young women; there were hundreds of photos of young girls being overly sexual, pouting and posing for shoots – not long ago you would have only seen this look in a dodgy magazine with a caption reading “call me”.
Don’t get me wrong, I am all for a woman showing her body and being naturally sexy and confident in herself and in her physique, but many of these photos did not show a natural confidence or a feeling of being comfortable; whilst I glanced over photos there was an all too similar feeling of desperation. As I scrolled through I felt sad to see a large majority of these beautiful young women looking lost and needy. I was quite taken back and I had to ask my self, is this the norm for our young women? And if so, what have we done to allow this to happen? How come these young women’s faces staring back at me in their low cut tops posing seductively, actually felt so sad and empty?
Is it because they are missing themselves?
Is it because they have sold out to a lie of what they should look like and how they should perform in order to fit in?
Not that long ago these teenage women were innocent, honest, fun loving girls – what we are now seeing is the consequences of our girls being constantly fed a lie. This lie has been hanging around for far too long, promoting a demoralizing way of thinking that has become the norm.
From a young age, girls in many different ways are taught that they are valued for what they look like rather than what they say and who they are as a person.
All of us make up society and we are all part of it, so what is going on for us to buy into this facade? Why is there a constant need to look better? And why in our history as women has this actually gotten worse with time, not better?
When will we take responsibility and change or will we see another generation drip-fed with the same deluded ideas?
The images we see every day are more hypersexual then ever. We are constantly being bombarded with images that say we are not enough, that we need to be more sexy, more beautiful; these unreal expectations once swallowed are totally exhausting so no wonder suicide rates and depression rates have escalated in young women. Are we not accountable for letting this happen?
What can we do? We can start with small steps like saying no to buying and reading damaging material. I myself noticed that I would feel yucky and low after reading the average woman’s magazine, where I would be left with the imposed message that said I was not good enough or as beautiful as them. Let’s not be under any illusion, most of this material promotes and encourages bitchiness, gossip, competition and comparison (these traits can sure make us ugly).
In the past when I have looked at such magazines and also many social media sites I have looked at my own body more harshly and more critically and I have noticed I am more likely to judge another = what an exhausting waste of energy!
The constant disempowering of us as women has implications far and wide. It is time to wake up and choose to see beyond physical looks and look at the deeper issues of lack of self worth and how this can be addressed. Ultimately when we deal with our own lack of self worth we are able to inspire others and show them that the current ways have not worked and will not work.
By far the most effective solution is to empower young girls to inspire them to believe in themselves. Once we deal with our own lack of self worth and start to live in a way that celebrates who we are as women we are able to inspire young people to also love and respect themselves.
True beauty is found in all women in all sizes, in all ages and in all physical attributes. Truly there is nothing more beautiful than a woman who is content with who she is and radiates this joy as a celebration for all to see.
To the girls I see on the social media sites I want to tell them that they are beautiful, that they are all unique, no matter what shape, size, weight or race. I want to tell them they are strong, amazing, divine, sexy and sassy just being them; that there is no need to be anyone other than who they truly are. As wise claimed beautiful women we can inspire our young and not sell our selves out to a marketed idea of what beauty is; in doing so we send a strong message out to our young generation that they are all uniquely beautiful and that we are all, young and old, so much more than someone’s marketed idea of what beauty is.
by STC, UK
Reference:
American Psychological Association (APA) (2007), Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls
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