Women in Society: Research Essay Body shaming, hateful comments on posts, and all around photo shopped bodies of “perfection” on your television, computer, cell phones, billboards and magazines. There is no escape to the vicious cycle of bullying. Women are targeted to be the perfect female. “I worry more about the impact on all women and girls of the negative media images of them” (Turner, 2017). Portrayed to have amazing summer ready bodies, “Greer says the media upholds an ideal image of beauty in its representations” (Smcmediastudies, 2012), and be a great ousewife to the bread winner of the family, the man.
But where are the women who are the breadwinners, who independently work their way to the top. Women like this are everywhere they just hide because of society’s views. Many women are put down or bullied by how they talk act, and even dress. What does society and social media portray of women? Body shaming women has come in all forms. One of the main ways is through social media and magazines. As shown in hundreds of adult and teen magazines the perfect body type for a women is to be slim but curvy, with long legs, and smooth kin.
These magazines portray that young women and even women fully developed should look as the way they have unrealistically photo shopped models. The perfect body type for a women is to be fit, but not too fit. No muscles, abs, or any sign that a women could overpower a man. “.. noted recently by Tiggemann (2014), has emerged from research conducted in primarily Westernized societies using mainly White samples, frequently from the U. S. , UK, and Australia, which share the same unrealistically thin “body perfect” ideal of female beauty (Bell and Dittmar 2011)” (Perloff, 2014).
Not only are magazines targeting women, but so are social media profiles. Many women believe to gain attention they have to be skinny, attractive, and have a lot of followers. Then many teens will be posting indecent photos of themselves. Women are meant to dress sexy, but are not allowed to be “too sexy”. They tend to distract men according to many places including school. “Starting from a very young age, girls constantly receive messages about their responsibility to cover up their bodies, particularly when they might end up “distracting the boys” with their revealing clothing.
School dress codes typically define inappropriate clothing in a way that specifically targets girls’ hemlines and necklines, without putting equal burden on young men”(Culp-Ressler, 2014). Women clothing are not the reason that they distract men, a man’s self-control has a lot to do with their own distraction. If a women is brought down by her appearance in what she is comfortable in, her self-confidence is brought down. When a young female or even women self-confidence is brought down, she does not respect herself the way she should.
Key to success is confidence and respect, women are deprived of plifting comments due to others hateful words. Obesity has hit nationwide and the blame goes to those who are overweight. The blame should not be pointed at the ones who have the disease which makes it difficult to lose weight, but the blame should go to society. Society views those who are overweight to be low class, lazy, and non-driven, which is not true. “Cooper also examines “Fatshion” blogging, and how although these blogs partly promote the corporate fashion industry they can also be a form of activism, highlighting the needs and desires of plus size people”(Glyde, 2016).
Many cases have shown that those who are overweight are punished and hated upon more if they are women. It doesn’t mean the person is not self- motivated, but those who have low income are forced to eat what they can afford. A cheeseburger at a fast food restaurant would only cost a dollar, but cost three times as much for fruit. The shaming does not stop there. Eating disorders are taken to action when a young lady feels that she does not meet the standards to society’s liking.
Hunger is stuffed full of footnotes and references to statistics, studies, psychological profiles and ther data to bolster her well-reasoned argument that eating disorders are most often caused by a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) response to racism, sexism, homophobia and other abuses suffered by women” (Brownworth, 1995). Women are bullied by many leading to the start of an eating disorder. “After all, in the United States 20 million women are believed to suffer from a full blown eating disorder. And girls as young as six express concerns about their body image” (Weber, 2014).
Which can cause harmful hospital trips, bone decay, and hair loss. Gender inequality has taken multiple insane and manipulative effects to careers. A wage gap has been noticed and documented in many areas of jobs. Women have before been paid less than a man even in the same job or career. The wage gap for women is usually know to be called or referred to as a wage penalty. “Lower pay in female dominated positions may also reflect women’s crowding into a limited range of occupations” (Cohen, 2003). Women have been limited to occupations due many believing they do not apply skills as well as men supposedly could.
Men versus women on skill, women ave been proven to capacitate a better memory. When skills come into jobs, women have been able to have some skills men do not occupy, while men have some skills women do not occupy. According to studies men and women brains have been tested to show they do not carry the same skills. A job is not always a one person job. Sometimes to get a job well done, you need two brains or even a second opinion to reassure everything is done right, on time, and smoothly. “Historically, women have always worked as hard as men. A farmer had to have a wife.
And a woman on the farm had to have a husband. Neither could run a farm alone. ” (Drucker, 1994). To this day, although women have done what they choose to do as a career whether they have chosen to be stay at home mothers and take care of a child, or even working in any field of her desire, women have been negatively commented on by others who see differently or never see eye to eye with either a working mother or stay at home mother. No job comes easy if you are passionate about it. It is not what job you obtain, it is the effort you put in that determines a hard, busy, and passionate worker.
For years women have been stereotyped with their body, jobs, and just all in general life. The causes have been social media, society, and anyone who believes what is written on the internet. Starting with what magazines and pages for the “perfect” bodies on social media we should all put an end to stereotypes. Whether you are overweight, too strong or fit, too skinny, or don’t “fit into your body” your confidence and happiness is based on how you see yourself. Only you can change your attitude on how people see you.
To the women money makers who work long hours at night, continue doing hat you love or even doing this to go towards what you will love to do. If not for women skills, just like men many products of today, no one would have useful everyday items. “Lightweight, high-tensile Kevlar-five times stronger than steel -will take a bullet for you. DuPont chemist Stephanie Kwolek accidentally invented it while trying to perfect a lighter fiber for car tires and earned a patent in 1966” (Green, 2017). Women should step up and show their independence and beautiful minds to whoever doubts them. Never fear what others think about your passion or happiness.
