Miracle Diets

Since I have started taking this class, I have become more aware of the influences that the media and our society has on girls my age. I'm more aware of comments girls make and the habits of my roommates and to be honest, I'm sick of it. Way too often girls set unrealistic expectations of what they need to look like and end up never being happy with who they are and I admit I've been guilty of this at times. I live with 3 other girls, all of which are beautiful, smart girls who should be confident in who they are. But one of my roommates, 5'5" and 117lbs, is obsessed with her weight and she took it to a knew level this week when she told me she was going on a "vinegar diet." It's as gross as it sounds. She forces herself to drink vinegar mixed with honey, claiming it burns the belly fat..that she doesn't have. I guarantee guys don't sit around obsessing over how to burn belly fat, but because of pressure from our society, girls are made to feel like they have to look a certain way, and some girls, like my roommate, go to extremes to achieve it. I don't think its necessarily all the media's fault, the girls who go to extremes are the ones who lack self-confidence, but I think that lack of self-confidence stems from pressures placed on girls in our society. Its rough being a girl in our society, we are constantly being told how to act and look and I really admire those women who can be completely confident in who they are.

Glamour

After working on the magazine cover project I started to pay more attention to the hundreds of advertisements that are thrown at me every day, and nine times out of ten women are portrayed as sexual objects, in a decorative way that makes them less than human. We live in a society that is so influenced by the media and message that your body should be your most prized asset, so its no wonder most girls have such a skewed perception of what they should look like. I remember a couple months back Glamour put out an issue that featured plus sized models completely naked, no air-brushing and beautiful.

This may have been a baby step but I think it was a great thing for Glamour to put out an image of strong beautiful women that is actually relatable to young girls. Being bombarded with unrealistic images of too-tiny models is only perpetuating the myth that you need to be physically perfect to be desired, powerful, and succeed in life. For the most part I think I've grown out of it, but I'll admit it, there have been times that my confidence has been shaken by seeing a gorgeous 5'10" model posted up on some billboard and I think most girls would agree. I realize now thats just not going to happen for me considering I'm 5'2" on a good day. The media obviously knows the power they have over society, so why do they insist on putting out unrealistic images of models? Why not be more relatable like Glamour has tried, and save girls from growing up with unrealistic expectations of what they should look like.

Heteronormativity

Here's a little background information about me. I've never done a blog before and I'm not sure where to start so I guess I'll just go. I was born in the small suburb of Bexley, Ohio to recovering hippies. I had a pretty normal childhood, living a a bubble until I came to OU where I'm now just in a slightly larger bubble. I'm a junior at OU, a political science major, anthropology minor yet I don't intend to do anything specifically in either field. After I graduate I plan on joining Americorps for a year then maybe grad school for nutrition. I would love to become a nutritionist and work for a non-profit in the area of hunger relief.

Alright, onto the concept of heteronormativity.

There is one point in Yep's "Violence of Heteronormativity," that really stuck out to me, and I first I was skeptical about it, but after I gave it some thought it really made sense to me. It was the theory that within the boarders of heteronormativity there may exist violence against women. I by no means think that every heterosexual relationship is one of noticeable physical or mental violence against women, but I think it manifests itself more in an underlying inferiority that our culture has created. Women are constantly feeling pressure from men, society and other women to act and look perfect.

I was at ping last night and walked past a group of girls and heard one of them say they should put pictures of models inside their kitchen cabinets to stop them from eating. The fact that our society portrays sexy and beautiful as being stick-skinny and 5'10", places unrealistic expectations on girls, because in reality most of us are never going to look that way and that's okay.

Is that really what men want though? Or is it just what we think they want?