Growing up in America I’ve always struggled to find a good balance between strength and femininity in a society that is so stringent on having girls act delicate, friendly, and passive. For me, that has always been difficult. Growing up in a family with three men always around, I always wanted to be like one of the guys. Whenever my father and my two brothers would go watch a football game, or go outside and play catch, I would follow along and always try to beat them at the game. While other little girls my age were taking ballet classes, or playing with their dolls, I was on the soccer team and tee-ball team with all the little boys. On the playing field is where I found my comfort.
When I entered first grade my mom enrolled me in a gymnastics class at the YMCA. On the first day of class, I came dressed in dark blue clothing with a soccer ball on my shirt. As I looked around, I saw all the little girls, strapped to their mother’s legs and wearing nothing but pink spandex. Right then I began to see the difference between them and me. I hated gymnastics, and was often chastised by the instructors for jumping around and running and jumping on the mats. I couldn’t stand waiting in line to twirl and do somersaults, but that was expected of me as a young girl.
As young as I can remember I was always envious of my little brothers. Whenever they would burp or yell, my mother would always say, “Boys!” yet, I noticed whenever I would do the same thing my mom would snap, “Katherine! That was very rude! Act like a lady.” I never understood fully how it was normal for them to act in that way, yet more was expected of me. I found myself jealous of the way they were allowed to behave, and how I was expected to behave.
Through elementary school, but more so in middle-school, the true differences of growing up male and growing up female truly existed. In middle-school, many of the girls became tearing, conniving, beasts. I watched girls get ridiculed by other girls, whether through gossip, exclusion, or name-calling. Luckily for me, I had my niche of friends from various sports teams, and I enjoyed school enough that I really didn’t care. But I watched my female peers interact, and It was so different from the easy going boys that always joked around and didn’t seem to care about all the little things.
Today, growing up female is wonderful. Through the seventeen years I have been alive, I have witnessed tremendous growth within myself and the other women around me. I have seen the role and image of women shift from delicate, weak, and passive, to strong, confident, and active. Today I am especially proud to have developed all of those qualities. How Women want to be viewed vs. How women are actually viewed in the Media
We all know the stereotypes: women are supposed to be soft, sexy, supermoms, and submissive. Yet, for many women today in America, we have struggled to break free of some of the molds that society has placed us in. A major factor that has influenced the continuation of female stereotypes is the media. If we dissect the various parts of our culture from television shows, advertisements, cartoons, magazines, books, and many others, we can see that the female vs. male roles have been clearly defined though this mainstream method.
Magazines such as Seventeen and Cosmopolitan provoke several stereotypes just by looking at their covers. To the left, Cosmopolitan depicts women as thin, dirty, and sexy, while still maintaining a posh and pristine look of a beautiful and successful woman. While to the right, Seventeen shows an older woman as young, vibrant, flirty, yet sexy. The cover reads, "flat abs and a great butt!" referring to the particular exercises that women are expected to do to gain the "perfect" body.
Similarly, in advertisements, several stereotypes are shown, such as, women being objects, submissiveness, soft, weak, clueless, and thin. In the Calvin Klein advertisement, the women is shown as just an object to the man, who is dominant and controlling. The woman is clearly being passive and weak, as seen by the position of her body in relation to his. The Sketchers footwear advertisement, featuring Christina Aguilera, shows a fantasy related depiction of a hospital scene with a nurse and patient sporting the Sketchers sneakers.
The consequences of the media are excessive, especially in influencing body image, self esteem, and confidence in young women. Advertisements consistently show beautiful, thin, and "ideal" women to sell products and services. While advertisements are made to sell, they are also harming many youths, especially young girls in regards to their view of how they need to look.
In this day in age, it is evident that many women worldwide are ready to break the mold that they have been made to fit in by society. Women today are daring, courageous, athletic, intelligent, and competitive. We see people like Mia Hamm, Hillary Clinton, Ellen Degeneres, Michelle Obama, and many others that are taking a stand to show that women don't have to fit their intened societal "molds."
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What it has been like for me...
Growing up in America I’ve always struggled to find a good balance between strength and femininity in a society that is so stringent on having girls act delicate, friendly, and passive. For me, that has always been difficult. Growing up in a family with three men always around, I always wanted to be like one of the guys. Whenever my father and my two brothers would go watch a football game, or go outside and play catch, I would follow along and always try to beat them at the game. While other little girls my age were taking ballet classes, or playing with their dolls, I was on the soccer team and tee-ball team with all the little boys. On the playing field is where I found my comfort.
When I entered first grade my mom enrolled me in a gymnastics class at the YMCA. On the first day of class, I came dressed in dark blue clothing with a soccer ball on my shirt. As I looked around, I saw all the little girls, strapped to their mother’s legs and wearing nothing but pink spandex. Right then I began to see the difference between them and me. I hated gymnastics, and was often chastised by the instructors for jumping around and running and jumping on the mats. I couldn’t stand waiting in line to twirl and do somersaults, but that was expected of me as a young girl.
As young as I can remember I was always envious of my little brothers. Whenever they would burp or yell, my mother would always say, “Boys!” yet, I noticed whenever I would do the same thing my mom would snap, “Katherine! That was very rude! Act like a lady.” I never understood fully how it was normal for them to act in that way, yet more was expected of me. I found myself jealous of the way they were allowed to behave, and how I was expected to behave.
Through elementary school, but more so in middle-school, the true differences of growing up male and growing up female truly existed. In middle-school, many of the girls became tearing, conniving, beasts. I watched girls get ridiculed by other girls, whether through gossip, exclusion, or name-calling. Luckily for me, I had my niche of friends from various sports teams, and I enjoyed school enough that I really didn’t care. But I watched my female peers interact, and It was so different from the easy going boys that always joked around and didn’t seem to care about all the little things.
Today, growing up female is wonderful. Through the seventeen years I have been alive, I have witnessed tremendous growth within myself and the other women around me. I have seen the role and image of women shift from delicate, weak, and passive, to strong, confident, and active. Today I am especially proud to have developed all of those qualities.
How Women want to be viewed vs. How women are actually viewed in the Media
We all know the stereotypes: women are supposed to be soft, sexy, supermoms, and submissive. Yet, for many women today in America, we have struggled to break free of some of the molds that society has placed us in. A major factor that has influenced the continuation of female stereotypes is the media. If we dissect the various parts of our culture from television shows, advertisements, cartoons, magazines, books, and many others, we can see that the female vs. male roles have been clearly defined though this mainstream method.
Magazines such as Seventeen and Cosmopolitan provoke several stereotypes just by looking at their covers. To the left, Cosmopolitan depicts women as thin, dirty, and sexy, while still maintaining a posh and pristine look of a beautiful and successful woman. While to the right, Seventeen shows an older woman as young, vibrant, flirty, yet sexy. The cover reads, "flat abs and a great butt!" referring to the particular exercises that women are expected to do to gain the "perfect" body.
The consequences of the media are excessive, especially in influencing body image, self esteem, and confidence in young women. Advertisements consistently show beautiful, thin, and "ideal" women to sell products and services. While advertisements are made to sell, they are also harming many youths, especially young girls in regards to their view of how they need to look.
In this day in age, it is evident that many women worldwide are ready to break the mold that they have been made to fit in by society. Women today are daring, courageous, athletic, intelligent, and competitive. We see people like Mia Hamm, Hillary Clinton, Ellen Degeneres, Michelle Obama, and many others that are taking a stand to show that women don't have to fit their intened societal "molds."
Changing in gender and society over time