Media, as we all know is where we turn to find beauty tricks, tips, and ideas. Adult women might want to know what hair appliance to use to get their hair a certain way, or what makeup gives you the best results. However the lengths women go through to get their desired looks can be demonstrated by children as well. In an article I read about the putting on of sexual allures and femininity by the use of makeup, hair products (weave, curling irons, and straightener). Are there really any differences between when adult women perform femininity and when children perform this act? In general most people don’t have a horrifying or bitter reaction when they see pictures of beautiful and perfect women on tv or magazines so why do people seem so disgusted with the images of children portraying this image? After all they are just mimicking the actions of the older girls (that everyone envies). The same with men, if they were to display the femininity displayed in media they would be looked down upon instead of up to. There are different ideas of beautiful displayed in the media which appeal to different groups, no matter what idea is being displayed people are going to think that because it does not match theirs that they are not good enough. People of both gender’s go through costly surgeries, health disorders, and depression because they do not possess the traits of fit “happy” people we see in media. We tend to see this as us obtaining our happiness rather than giving into what the media wants us to.
I was not allowed to wear makeup until I was a Freshman in high school and I was never really sure why. I just liked to put it on for fun not necessarily for the looks purpose. However when I was actually allowed to wear it my reason were different of course. With a reason to where makeup I quickly realized the reason I had not been allowed to wear it. The reason I assume I was not allowed to wear makeup is because it represented something bigger to the outside world and was made to fix imperfections and make a woman appear older and more sexual. So why would a little girl need it. They don’t, but young girls do not see it this way. They just think the girl is pretty and in order to be pretty like that they must repeat the same process to achieve beauty (or what beauty is being displayed to them). How much less stress, criticism, and money could be saved if we did not have such high standards we felt we had to live up to. The media should be giving us a mirror and telling us that is what we should look like, exactly who we are. Nothing more and nothing less.