It is true that some girls are naturally this thin but it gets unhealthy when girls actually strive for these numbers. All the girls thought that skinny girls had the good, perfect life. They could get anything they wanted. They also said that the perfect girl has long blonde hair, nice teeth and nice skin. These are also characteristics that are portrayed to society. We also have seen part of a film, “Dying to be Thin”, which talked about body image as well. It showed girls who had eating disorders because they wanted to be very skinny like the girls they have seen on television or in magazines.
I find it strange that there are not many “self destructing” magazines geared toward minority teenagers. I don’t think they would sell as well as the magazines for white girls do. This is probably because minorities are taught to love themselves no matter what they look like. They are told that they are all beautiful. There is much higher self esteem within these groups. I have had a few friends (white girls) who actually had parents who told them that they were fat and they needed to lose some weight so they should back off of the junk food and eat more salad!
These women know what it is like growing up so I don’t understand why they would bring their daughters down like this. Parents are supposed to help their children during rough times such as adolescence. In the reading “Self and Identity Development”, by Susan Harter, feelings that young women tend to have regarding themselves during adolescence include obnoxious, tolerant, introverted, popular, cheerful and depressed. This magazine did not talk about any of these feelings. Instead it said that girls should always feel happy and cheerful.
It would probably be nice for young women to read that they are not alone in their feelings and that it is completely normal for quick mood changes. I remember feeling confused like there was something wrong with me because I acted so differently in different situations. These magazines could possibly have an advice column about personality changes. I found two advertisements that I believe to be completely unsuitable for this magazine. The first is for tubes of lip gloss. However, nowhere in the ad does it show anybody actually wearing the lip gloss.
It shows a bunch of girls going thru a food take out window and grabbing the employee. The employee is a young boy who is going to get taken advantage of. The worst part about this ad is the caption. It reads: “Girl’s Night Out: 11:03 p. m. picking up some munchies. ” In other words, the boy is the girls’ munchies. They do not mean munchies as in food because the food is still in the bag and thrown out the window of the car. The girls look extremely starved for the boy. I do no think this ad is appropriate for young girls. It is telling them to jump all over a guy.
The second ad I chose to talk about is one for a fragrance called juice. It has a picture of a girl and a guy who both look naked. They are lying on top of each other and she is licking him. Now, I do not understand how this picture has ANYTHING to do with a fragrance. Does she like to lick it off of him and try it? I do not think so. The couple is lying on a beach and has mysterious looking grins on their faces. I did not know that a fragrance could make a person so happy. Another thing that does not fit is the fact that they are on a beach and are all wet.
The fragrance would not still be on them if they were swimming in an ocean. There is also a small caption on this ad which reads “GET IT ON”. Telling 13, 14, 15 year old girls to roll around on a beach almost naked and to get it on is quite disturbing in my eyes. After analyzing this issue of Seventeen I found only two surprises. I did not realize how stereotypical the models were in these magazines. There was only one, ONE, black model. All the rest looked exactly alike with the exception of either blonde or light brown hair. Young girls are not getting the right picture of the world.
They are getting the “beautified” picture. They are getting a mold pushed onto them that they should not hold themselves up to. The second surprise I found was that the magazine never mentioned anything about sexuality. It just assumes that all of its readers are heterosexual. This has to make adolescents who believe they may be into people of their same sex feel even more excluded than they already feel. Teen magazines may be fun to read but I do not believe they are very beneficial to young girls. Adolescent girls are too naive to read and see the things in these magazines.
