AConcernedYouth

Hi all, my name is Mike James, and I am a freshman at Elon University in NC. As part of the freshman core requirement, I am taking College Writing, and one of the class requirements is that the students send out two class papers to their original audiences. My third paper I wrote in class is titled Parents' Role in their Daughters' Body Image, and my audience is Parents of Young American Girls. My paper concerns the prevalence of a desirable body image in American culture, and how parents can prevent their daughters from developing body image distortion that is common to many young women. If you are a parent (or future parent) of a young girl, please read what I researched, as it may help improve the life of your daughter.

Audience: Parents of Young American Girls
Purpose: To Inform American Parents on Ways to Prevent Body Image Distortion among their Daughters








Body image and physical beauty are two human characteristics that dominate all facets of American society. From marketing and advertisements to personal relationships and employment, physical traits such as race, weight, and body type play an important part in the lives of American citizens, especially women. While thin women are heralded as attractive and desirable, overweight or obese females are often scorned for their bodies due to the obsession that American culture has with a skinny and underweight body image. This obsession has many negative effects on young girls, from altering eating habits and dieting for fear of gaining weight to major cosmetic surgery such as liposuction. In order to prevent the body image distortion common to many young American girls, parents can promote a positive self-image in their children, educate them on the inevitable body changes that come with puberty, and teach their children proper eating habits.
The mental image of the “desirable” female body type has changed drastically over the course of American history, from a large and stocky mother in the colonial period that could bear many children and survive the hardships of the New World to a young and tan woman of thin proportions. In the past century, there have been a several main shifts in America’s ideal feminine body type. The corsets that were common to American women at the start of the 20th century were replaced in the 1920s by the short dresses and revealing clothes common to the “flappers.” The 1950s ushered in a new era of curvy, voluptuous women such as Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield who modeled for the new Playboy magazine. The next decade produced Twiggy Lawson, the first underweight model in American history, and helped replace the previous standard of 36-24-36 to women of lighter and tighter proportions. Today, “the average model weighs 23% less than the average woman” (Renfrew 4) and their image pervades American culture from billboards and magazine ads to television shows.
The American girl’s perception of body image, which begins developing at a very young age, is shaped by a variety of influences, including television and entertainment. Many young girls have an essential core of fictitious movies that they see, such as Beauty and the Beast, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and The Little Mermaid. Each of these cartoons, and many more, possesses a main female character with gorgeous and often unachievable physical characteristics, from long and flowing hair to a tight waist and long slender legs. In addition, the antagonists of many films are often overweight and unattractive old ladies, such as the witch in Little Red Riding Hood or the cruel stepmother in Cinderella. Therefore, young girls grow up with a respect and adoration of the beautiful Disney protagonists, seeking to emulate their grace and physical beauty while simultaneously despising the cruel and despicable traits possessed by the old and unattractive characters.
The trend of beautiful protagonists continues in the adolescent years, as Lindsay Lohan, Renée Zellweger, and women of similar shape and size dominate Hollywood’s limelight. Whether it’s a side-splitting comedy like How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days or a teary-eyed drama such as Titanic, movies and films are riddled with beautiful actresses and women with bodies and figures that appear to have been sculpted from clay. Although these characters are played by real women, “only 5% of the American females” possess a similar body type (Renfrew 4).
Television shows are also laden with gorgeous women of rare proportions. From Tyra Banks’ talk show and “A Shot At Love,” a new show on MTV hosted by the former pornography star Tila Tequila, to anchors like Lara Logan of CBS’ 60 Minutes and Lisa Guerrero, formerly of Monday Night Football, nearly every network from ABC to the Weather Channel has a stunning anchor, host, or on-scene reporter that possesses the ideal feminine figure. Young girls (and Americans in general) watching TV, whether it’s the Fan Cam during the Final Four or the commercials prior to the annual State of the Union, cannot escape the faultless female figure that pervades nearly every aspect of American culture.
Another aspect of American culture that can negatively affect the self-image of young women is beauty pageants. First starting with the “National Beauty Tournament” in Atlantic City, NJ, in the summer of 1921, beauty pageants have spread from local competitions to international galas. The contests encompass a wide variety of men and women, from newborns and infants to senior citizens, each competing against one another on the basis of several abilities, particularly physical beauty. The intense competition among contestants fosters several negative aspects of pageants. Many young children are pressured into competing by their parents, and are often pushed to their physical, mental, and emotional limits as parents demand perfection from children, some of which have yet to enter kindergarten. As for teenagers and young adults, many develop eating disorders and other health problems from trying to maintain a specific figure. This trend can be seen in the statistics from past winners of the Miss America pageant: in 1954, the winner stood 5’8” and weighed a modest 132 pounds; recent winners average the same height but weigh an astounding 15 pounds less (Gimlin 5).
Many women are taking a variety of actions to achieve what American society has deemed the perfect body. Some methods are rather simple, such as waxing eyebrows, whitening teeth, and wearing makeup, while others can be potentially life-threatening, such as cosmetic surgery. According to a graphic featured in The New York Times in 2004, over a quarter of a million women received breast implants in the United States during the previous year, while more than 320,000 underwent liposuction procedures (Reshaping America). These surgical procedures, which can cost thousands of dollars, come with many potential risks from unsightly scars requiring further surgery to death under the anesthesia.
Parents and adults can take a range of steps to help prevent their daughters from developing a distorted self-image. A primary example is for parents to promote emotional and psychological health by praising their children on their qualities outside of physical beauty. For example, rather than scolding a teenager for her weight, the parents should compliment her on her academic ability, her athletic prowess, artistic and creative aptitudes, or a variety of other talents and capabilities that she may possess. Instead of constantly being reminded of how she doesn’t fit the ideal or perfect body of American society, a young girl should be hearing praise and words of encouragement to help build her confidence and self-esteem.
A second way for parents to positively influence their daughter’s view of her physical characteristics is to explain to her the physical change in her body that will take, or has already taken, place. As a girl grows into a young woman, she gains more weight through the development of her hips, thighs, and buttocks in preparation for childbearing. In fact, Teague, Mackenzie, and Rosenthal state that it is not uncommon for a quarter of a healthy girl’s body weight to be fat after she passes through puberty (281). The models, actresses, and celebrities that dominate American society are a handful of women that possess a very rare body type, one that a young girl shouldn’t strive too hard to attain.