Rediscover Your True Self

From a very young age, girls are taught that there is a certain way they are supposed to look, dress, and behave. Society creates unrealistic expectations for women which can lead to stress, low self-esteem, insecurity, and many other negative emotions. Most importantly, it creates the pressure to be “perfect.” Some people may not even realize where this pressure comes from—they just know they are expected to look a certain way. Others might blame social media, and while social media definitely plays a role, it is not the only thing contributing to these unrealistic standards.

 

• One example of this is dress codes. Many schools have rules about what girls can and cannot wear, and these rules are often justified by saying that certain clothes might “distract boys.” But why should girls have to change what they wear because of someone else’s reaction? Instead of teaching girls that their bodies are the problem, boys should be taught to respect others and control their own behaviour. When a girl is told that she cannot wear something because it might distract a boy, she is being taught from a young age that her body is responsible for someone else’s thoughts or actions. This can make girls feel ashamed of their bodies and cause them to believe that they need to cover themselves or change the way they look to be accepted. Girls should not have to carry the responsibility of controlling how other people react to them.

 

• Another major influence is advertising. When you walk into a store, you might see pictures of beautiful women advertising products and promising that if you use them, your skin, hair, eyes, or body will look like the model’s. However, these advertisements often create unrealistic expectations. Using a product will most likely not make someone look exactly like the person in the advertisement, especially when the model may be wearing professional makeup and is photographed with perfect lighting, editing, and carefully chosen angles. This can cause people to feel worse about themselves and make them believe they need to buy more products to become “beautiful” enough.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    This is exactly what many companies want. They can make people feel insecure about something they did not previously worry about and then sell them a product that supposedly fixes it. Instead of encouraging girls and women to feel confident in who they are, these advertisements can make them believe that they are not good enough as they are.