What a Girl Wants

Today we watched the movie, What a Girl Wants. In this movie, several girls between the ages of 10 and 15 were interviewed. Some of the statements of these girls were pretty shocking and rather concerning.

In the interviews the girls talk about different teen role models including Britney Spears, Mandy Moore, and Christina Aguilera. One of the girls said how these stars were perfect and that it made her lose confidence. What kind of role model makes you feel bad about yourself? This tells me that young girls need better role models that show that they have imperfections just like everyone else.

It was amazing to me how these young girls could identify how something in the media was ridiculous and degrading but at the same time they enjoyed watching it. For instance, one girl was talking about the Thong Song, how its just a booty video and just how it was ridiculous, but then at the end she said yeah I love that song. Even though these images make young girls feel self conscious and create unrealistic ideals, young girls cannot help but like them. Why? If they realize that the media doesn't portray realistic images why don't they just ignore them? I think that it is probably because they have to like these things in order to fit in and be cool. They simply cannot escape the culture that we live in.

I find it appalling, but not surprising, how so many young girls think they are too fat. With "premature toothpicks" as the one girl said, as role models of course they are going to feel bad about their own appearance. I know when I was young I thought I was too fat. It is sad that even though we as girls can recognize that it isn't realistic to be perfect like the girls we see in the media, we still get down on ourselves for it. These ideals are so ingrained in us that we cannot even help it.

In class we discussed whose fault it was for these problems, the media or parents. As in most cases, I would have to argue that it is some of both. Clearly the media does not give young girls the best messages and a change in this would be very beneficial. However, it is not likely that the media is going to get better any time soon. Parents can control what their children see to an extent but they could never prevent them from all of the inappropriate messages out there. I think it is important for parents to make sure they talk to their kids about certain things they see in the media and hear from their friends in order to let them know which messages they should not listen to. Even still, it is impossible to overcome our entire culture.