The Unrealistic Expectations Women Are Forced to Live up to Because of Popular Culture

In today's society, women have high expectations of beauty and what they should look like on the outside. Women are portrayed as having the perfect slim figure on television, movies, and magazines. This portrayal damages the women's self-esteem and self worth. Nowadays, brands such as Dove are valuing the beauty of plus-sized women in its beauty commercials and its "Real Truth About Beauty" study. The way women are presented in popular culture should be broadened contain women with varying size, shape, and skin color. Women are negatively affected by the expectations they are pressured to live up to and these expectations are unrealistic. Society has a negative effect on women regarding what they should look like and therefore can harm their self-image. For example, in Fiji, before 1995, being voluptuous was praised. If someone asked you if you had put on weight, it was seen as a compliment.

This idea in society was changed in 1995 when Fijian girls watched shows such as Beverly Hills 90210 and Seinfeld. The result of them watching the shows led to an increase of teens with eating disorders. The characters in these shows were very thin and seen as attractive to the viewers. The Fijians wanted to look like them. According to "The Culture of Thin Bites Fiji Teens" by Ellen Goodman, it states that a large percentage of the Fiji teens that participated in the study stated that they felt "too big or fat." Others said that they started a diet after viewing the shows. If these shows had not been exposed to the Fiji teens, this incident could have been avoided. This incident also not only affects the people in Fiji, but in other countries around the world. There shouldn't a social norm of what skinny is and what fat is and that you have to look a certain way just to be skinny or pretty. Societys expectations can lead to things even more harmful than hurting one's self esteem, but also to mental illnesses like anorexia. Society also puts unrealistic standards on women of what they should look like.

These standards make women feel that they are not pretty or skinny enough and need to buy products to enhance themselves. Barbie is a doll who has a sixteen inch waist, blonde hair, blue eyes, and seen as "perfect." If she were real, she would not be able to stand up straight because her body is disproportionate. Young girls mostly play with Barbie's. As reported by rehabs.com, four out of five 10-years old say that they are scared of being fat. By the time these girls get into high school, 1 in 10 are diagnosed with an eating disorder. Young girls are influenced by Barbie to look like her. In the 1960's, "Slumber Party Barbie" was made. This set contained a scale stuck at 110 pounds and a book called "How To Lose Weight." In this b0ok was written, "don't eat." This Barbie was one of the most controversial dolls ever made. This made girls think that if they were not 1l0 pounds or less, they were not good, pretty, or skinny enough.

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Barbie is an inspirational doll and motivate girls that they can do be wlhatever they want, but Barbie having blonde hair, blue eyes, skinny, and being beautiful on every doll and not differentiating on any other doll can make girls feel like that they can only be like Barbie if they look the way she does. Another example is Victoria Secret. The women who model for this company consists of beautiful women who are about six feet tall and vary from 110-120 pounds. Women of all ages aspire to be like these models because they are seen as "sexy" and "confident." For most women this tall, it is not healthy from them to weigh 110 pounds. Victoria Secret sheds an unrealistic image of what a woman should look like. Television displays unattainable goals for the common women to achieve. Shows should have women of all sizes and color. There shouldn't be labels segregation "plus-size" women from real women. Society beliefs towards what beauty should look like have had a harmful affect over the years on women of all ages. Society's presentation of beauty needs to be expanded and demonstrate that any women, any color, any size, is beautiful.

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