The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body
Jennifer
There is an interesting article on AlterNet.org which addresses the fact that more and more women are going to extreme measures to be “perfect.” Excerpted from the book Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters, the writer goes on to describe how young women in particular are pressured to be great students, talented athletes, and of course impeccably beautiful. Unfortunately, the most common measure of beauty is obtained on the bathroom scale, often leading to devastating results.
While the article focuses on the fixation on weight, the underlying message is that it could be anything—skin color, hair texture, or even eye color. Luckily, our festival has exposed that some young women are combating this trend in films like Slip of the Tongue and A Girl Like Me. However, there is still room for more media—both mainstream and independent—to empower women and help them develop the skills to cope with societal pressures.
Comments
I read the article. It was definitely on target in much of its analysis. It did feel, though, like it was based on the very personal experience of the author. In other words, the subject can definitely be seen as universal, but her lens for describing it is relevant only to upper-middle class suburbian, white, American girls.
I agree with Jen that the films that our festival showcases use lenses that are a bit more complex and tinged with nuance and color when tackling the same issue. What happens when you have this predominatly white, Americanized standard of perfectionism on an international scale, but you are a Puerto-Rican from South Bronx?
The whole idea of perfectionism and over-achievement through efficiency and competition is also a very “white America” concept that has been globalized through American, corporate media.
I mean I appreciate that the article tried to give an international frame, but I felt that her examples served as buffers to make up for the lack of context.
All in all, we recommend that you take a browse through the Media That Matters Festival Films listed under “women’s issues” to get a more colorful and complex perspective on notions of beauty for young women.
Posted on May 1, 2007 3:58 PM by Anayansi Diaz-Cortes