Janelle McGuire (Edison) - Do I look fat in this?

It’s amazing to me how young a girl will start asking the question, “Do I look fat in this?”.  I have a very healthy, athletically built twelve year old daughter who is already obcessing over her size.  She’s hit a growth spurt and recently outgrew her “double zero” size and now has to wear a zero instead.  She thinks this means she’s getting fat!  I told her that zero isn’t even a real size!  Nobody wears a zero unless they are twelve years old or anorexic.  This is the same daughter who at age eight decided she wouldn’t eat fast food anymore, because it would make her fat.  It’s one thing to raise a child who is aware of healthy food choices and poor food choices, but I do worry when I hear my zero percent body fat, muscular twelve year old complaining that she’s fat.  I know that all girls are concerned with their bodies and their weight.  I can remember feeling the same way when I was in high school.  I always felt so huge, but of course looking back at pictures now I would kill to have that “huge” body back!

The media today pressures girls to be thin and cute — even sexy — by using models that are literally starving themselves before photo shoots.  They will even go so far as to use enemas to help trim a few extra pounds of body waste weight.  Gross!!!  If there are any flaws left, they just air brush them out.  All they are doing is painting an unrealistic picture for girls to try to compete with.  Puberty is a time when girls struggle with self confidence issues, and sadly these fake body images make girls feel like they aren’t skinny enough, or pretty enough, or sexy enough.  Sometimes, this leads to self destructive behaviors, such as bilemia, anorexia, or starving themselves.  They may also feel depressed about the way they look, but want attention and seak it by dressing provacativly and behaving promiscuously.  I think our society needs to go back to the Marilyn Monroe era of sexy.  At least her body size was realistic!

This entry was posted on 5. August 2010 at 20:42 and is filed under Introduction to Sociology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.