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Monday, June 20, 2011 By Lisbeth Perez '13
Advertising
First, have little girls watch Disney Princess movies, play with Barbie dolls, and dream of that happily ever after with a perfect body. Now the idea is in their heads. Second, once they grow out of the Disney Princess and Barbie stage and reach their teenage years show them through magazines and TV what they should look like to gain the happily ever after and the prince charming they saw on Disney movies. This is the media’s plan and a large part of the female population does what they are told because they crave that happily ever after with their own prince charming.
However, these girls don’t know that the pictures of the models are airbrushed and modified so they are made skinnier and pimples are erased, which leads teenage girls to think those are real people. They then go out and buy whatever product they see to become what the media portrays as beautiful to gain the happily ever after that they have been dreaming of since they were little girls.
The media knows that having a happily ever after is what most of the female population desires because in the USA during the year 2006, according to cosmeticmakeoverdfw.com, a website that explains in depth what types of plastic surgery there are, approximately 329,000 females had a breast augmentation. Cosmetic surgery is a step, for many, in this unending cycle towards perfection.
The ones that are mostly affected are the teenagers. Being a teenager is difficult because of the pressure, however being a female teen is even harder due to the media and their plan for females. Many parents worry for the well being of their daughters. “I fear that the media is somehow telling my daughter that the only way she can be pretty is if she does whatever they say and sometimes cosmetic surgery is one of the options. I try hard as a parent to let her know that she is more than beautiful, but the media has such a strong grasp on these girls that their confidence has lowered,” said Carmen Perez, a worried parent like many others. As Ms. Perez said, the media has teenage girls in a strong grip, telling them what they should and shouldn’t do to look beautiful. It so happens that wasting money on diet pills and Proactive seems to be the number one way for many teens. “Seeing those models I feel plain and I then want to change that and get all dazzled up and look beautiful, but then I see something else and the cycle continues,” says Denise, a high school freshman. She is just one out of many in the bunch of females that have gone through this, but the desire to be and feel beautiful is so great that we listen to the media and not to reality.
The media tries to appear helpful by doing commercials about exercise equipment so girls won’t have to take pills to lose weight; they can do exercise. However, these commercials can also lead girls to make bad choices. It can harm them in many ways, both physically and emotionally. Some girls are just not built to be as thin as the bodies shown on the magazines and on T.V.
This unending cycle starts when we are little girls. As little girls we watch Disney Princess movies, such as Cinderella and Snow White, and dream about the day we will find our prince charming and live happily ever after. Well girl, wake up because life is not a Disney movie. Some women are thin, while others aren’t. But that is the beauty of women. We are all different. The media has created this ultimate dream for all females and this is setting all of us up for failure.
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