I was wondering when someone else would start to notice this trend. Thanks, Erica Ehm for this.
As a mother of three extremely plugged-in kids, I see the type of content that fills their feeds on YouTube, Instagram and all the other tween and teen social media apps. A quick look around the internet gives you a plethora of information on how to ‘look’ good. A lot of it being on how to look like the latest celebrities out there. Do you recall the Kardashian lip trick that was all over the internet. In my opinion, shows like Keeping up with the Kardashians (in my opinion) do nothing but teach kids that looks matter more than intelligence or personality. That beauty alone is the key to success.
Pre-internet and social media, we had the magazines that are now suffering from lack of readership (yet still seem to be around), your Cosmo, Glamours, etc. For the younger set, there were the teen magazines – Seventeen, Teen Vogue are a few that are still around. All focused on image, fashion and beauty with a few little bits thrown in about self – esteem and not being a bully. Mostly even more vapid versions of their older target counterparts, but all selling the same message.
Now we have teens and young women showing us how easy it is to be ‘beautiful’ all over YouTube. They share their nail, hair and now ‘contouring’ tricks so we can all be ‘flawless.’ Look at the number of views on these videos. How many of those viewers are under 15?
Okay. I grew up in the 80’s. One look I NEVER bought into was the troweling on of pounds of foundation. Remember those who never figured out ‘blending’ and you could see the line of makeup under their chins? Yeah. This contouring thing just makes me think of that. Why are we teaching young women to hide who they are? Again, I have nothing against fashion and makeup but it all seems to imply that we are nothing in our own skin. And we, apparently, now are nothing without our corsets…..oh sorry waist trainers.
Eyeroll.
So if we wear one does that mean we are exercising?
Eyeroll again.
My point is, what is this oversaturation of beauty over brains doing to our kids? When you read articles like this – now – in the 21st Century – you can see that this is not just a girl problem. Add to that stories like GamerGate and what seems to be a worsening rape culture at our colleges and universities, we have to ask ourselves: ‘what did we do wrong?’
Now being a feminist is a bad thing amongst the younger set.
I listened to an interview on CBC Radio a few days ago. It was looking at how women’s sexuality and the concept of women actually ENJOYING sex is being totally diminished by the messages our society is giving when it comes to whose pleasure comes first (it is not a race people). My daughter was told by a classmate (this is grade 6) that she better learn how to ‘suck dick.’
I think we can safely say that our #GirlPower efforts are not working. We may be raising amazing daughters. Mine are incredible. My 11 year old blows me away with her strength and sense of self, but the assault on her from all sides is absolutely overwhelming. How on earth can things be worse now than when I was 11?
Pop culture and the media has even more control over how our children view the world than we could have ever imagined. And sadly the genie is LONG out of the bottle. We can monitor and we can try to control what our children see and do, but this is the world they are living in. We can’t stem the tide, but we need to start kicking up way more of a fuss about what the media is trying to tell our children about who they are. We need to fight back.
Enough is enough.
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