The Reality Behind Gender Roles
Today society faces different types of problems, but there are some problems that people never realize how damaging they are to society in general. Society has change through the years, and the way man and woman are valued has change too. United States is experiencing a huge social problem as gender roles have been deteriorating in recent generations. Each day you can see more clearly how gender roles are affecting the entire American society. As time passes society keeps giving more “definitions” to gender roles. Popular culture infuses negative gender roles in both males and females. In fact, Disney movies and TV shows glorify an ideal body image, which can be very damaging.
Nowadays, the role of a woman is…show more content… The article “Toddler in Tiaras” by Skip Hollandsworth refers to a TV show about child beauty pageants, which was very popular in Southern California. The author tells a story in which a little girl that instead of enjoying her childhood as the majority of kids is treated as a “little woman” with makeup all over her face, earrings in her tiny ears and a big necklace on her little neck. Skip Hollandsworth mentions how shocking it was to see a mother telling her little daughter “Remember honey, step, then turn and then give those judges a big wink” before her daughter entered the stage (491). It was clear the size of this problem .At the time there was a big controversy about parents using and manipulating their children as a symbol of ambition. However, this can still be seen today. Everyday there are more TV shows instilling girls to see beauty as their priority. American Psychological Association Task Ford in the Sexualization of Girls in 2007, states that parents contribute in the “precocious sexualization” of their daughters (Hollandsworth 493). The worst thing is that these little girls are being taught from an early age that physical appearance is more important than human…show more content… A good article that talks about how powerful is the media in society is “The Culture of Thin Bites Fiji” by Ellen Goodman, which describe how TV manipulates the way people think, and make choices (502). Goodman narrates how a culture in Fiji an island located in the West Pacific, where girls had the concept of “big was beautiful, and bigger more beautiful” drastically changed when the first television came to this place (Goodman 502). Before this happened girls venerated food. Eating and over eating was normal in this culture. For these girls the word “fat” or “overweight” wasn’t a problem because for them being thin was a normal role. However, everything changed when the first TV came to the Island. It was surprising how this culture took an unexpected turn from thinking that food was a blessing to end in eating disorders. In 1995 Fijians life changed drastically after they started watching different TV shows such as “The girls of Melrose Place”, “Beverly Hills 90210” and “E,R”. This caused an increasing number of girls with eating disorders (Goodman 503). Fijians mentality about weight completely changed; they started feeling “fat” and were not accepting their physical appearance anymore. Anna Becker, an