Body Image

I’m going to assume that most people know the dangers of body image and what it can do to men and women alike if it is not a healthy one. After searching the Internet, I came across two pieces of slam poetry that really caught my attention and made this issue even more clear. The first, titled Skinnyportrays a young girl describing her feelings about how she looks and what she should eat or not eat. She explains the struggle to hide one’s insecurities and pretend that you’re happy yet still understand that the body that you have is not good enough.

Today, girls are presented with such opposing views that it is nearly impossible to be comfortable and satisfied in one’s skin. Women in magazines, photos, music videos, and on television tell a very different story than do those people that say “stay true to yourself, don’t change how you look for anyone. Be yourself and be healthy and you will be happy.” Unfortunately, that is not really how it works for many girls today.

As Dodie Clark explains in her Skinny slam poetry, “They say be healthy be happy and I am neither.” How is it possible for girls to feel happy about their bodies when they are only able to see images of perfectly sculpted women in the media. Their mental image of what is “healthy and happy” will ultimately prove to be different than what their actual body looks like. Aerie’s Real Campaign is trying to target this exact problem by vowing to stop retouching their models in order to embrace the natural female body and its beauty without enhancements. It is a way to show other girls that they can look beautiful without looking perfectly skinny.

The statistics shown below can further explain this phenomenon and how it is affecting girls, especially at a very young age. Once these ideas are instilled in these girls at young ages, it can make it a lot more difficult to change the way that they see themselves or others.

A second slam poetry that explains this growing problem is titled Shrinking Women by Lily Myers. It explains how she was brought up by a woman who subconsciously had been shrinking herself in order to allow her husband to grow – both physically and emotionally. Myers goes on to describe how she has noticed these nuances in the way that her mother eats and speaks compared with that of her father, and she sees how these characteristics have already begun planting themselves in her brother as well as herself. She expresses how it is nearly impossible to not pick up on these habits when you are around them every day. This only goes to show how influential the media can also be in this problem because it is a facet of every day life for a lot of people, yet it does very little to portray what an average woman really looks like.

Finally, I came across a photographer whose newest project includes that of women “au natural”, that is to say that they are photographed with their arms in the air and with completely unshaven armpits. In order to do the shoot, the women had to grow out the hair under their arms for a certain length of time. The photographer, Ben Hopper, is trying to breakthrough the societal “norm” that has been created in order to show how armpit hair can be beautiful. Although his photographs do not explicitly show this, it is possible to bring his idea into other facets of the female body as well.

Do you think that something should be done in the media to change this ever-growing body image problem? Do you see this problem beginning to occur for boys and men too?

 

Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Boss.

Bossy. That person is so bossy.

What did you just picture when you read that last sentence? I would bet that you pictured a woman rather than a man. The term bossy has a female connotation that is so strong that I would truly feel awkward calling a man bossy. Simply put, bossy is not a manly adjective – even when it is the most accurate one for the situation. Instead, the term is kept solely for the purpose of talking about women because men “are referred to as ‘assholes’  or ‘jerks’ – words which connate a real abuse of power, rather than the diminutive, condescending ‘bossy'”, as described in Noah Berlatsky’s article, The Problem Isn’t the Word ‘Bossy’ – It’s Leaders Who Abuse Their Power.

This whole discussion came about after an article written by Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg and Girl Scout CEO Anna Maria Chávez in the Wall Street Journal that expressed their disapproval of the word “bossy.” In the post, the two women explain how they feel that the word “bossy” provides a false sense of leadership and strength to girls. It encourages girls to be “well-behaved” and to believe that there is no way of being a leader or strong-willed girl without being bossy.

Berlatsky’s response to Sandberg and Chávez’s comments sparks a new level of discussion surrounding this issue. He agrees with the core of the women’s argument but feels that a key element is missing, which is how men are often allowed to be “bossy” without anyone challenging them because for a man, being “bossy” is being tough, powerful, and confident. As Berlatsky explains, boys are often praised for these qualities while girls are simply called bossy and deemed unfit to fulfill the position.

Despite all of the negative connotations around this word, when people imagine a female of a high position they will most likely picture someone who is in some ways bossy. These people tend to be extroverts because they are not afraid to speak their mind and do whatever it takes to get the job done. However, this leaves out a very large group of people (both men and women) who do not possess these qualities because they are much more introverted. Olga Khazan explains her view on this matter in her article Not All Good Leaders Are Bossy.

Khazan discusses how introverted people do not necessarily have any less capability of performing on a productivity level than an extrovert does. However, they tend to have more of a disadvantage in achieving these high-powered positions. Much of this is due to the fact that men’s “bossy” qualities (as mentioned above) have a much more positive connotation in the workforce than does for a woman. Additionally, a “bossy” woman has a still greater chance of getting hired over an introverted woman because she will at least possess the self-promoting qualities that an employer will be able to easily recognize and appreciate.

If girls are taught at a very young age to not be assertive, or confident, then they will quickly continue to fall behind men in the high-ranking workforce. Another point mentioned in multiple articles mentioned above was about the growing use of “uptalk” amongst both boys and girls of the younger generation. This is used when simple statements or facts are turned into a question by raising one’s voice. It is clear that this is a form of de-assertifying oneself in order to not seem like a “know-it-all” or too assertive or bossy. If this trend continues, not only will listening to the younger generations talk become incessantly more annoying, but also the confidence of individual children will decline. Girls, who are already taught to be less assertive, will continue their decrease in assertiveness and assuredness while boys will most likely remain at the top of the pack.

In order to turn this trend around, girls need to stop being taught to act less bossy and less assertive in their decisions, actions and opinions in life.

Women in Sports Media

If I am being completely honest, I would say that although I am an avid sports watcher, I do not really enjoy watching women’s professional sports. I think that a large part of this is the culture and social ideals that encompass this aspect of the sports world. I have played sports since I was four years old (a year early in little-league!) and I have played almost every sport out there at one point in time; however, for some reason this has not spawned much interest in me, or many other female athletes that I know, to watch female professional sporting events.

There is a more or less “obvious” reason that could explain this disparity, which would be the stereotypical “sports are for boys and men, girls should do girl things.” In the 21st century, I understand that this is no longer necessarily a very strong feeling amongst many people. However, I think that in many ways, this is still extremely prevalent in society and has affected more people than they realize – including myself.

I came across an article written by Nolan Feeney titled, The Gender Gap in Olympics Coverage: Narrower This Year! The article describes how in previous Olympic years, the coverage of female competitors and competitions was much less frequent than that equivalent of males. This includes airtime in interviews of the athletes as well. Although some sports had more female coverage than others, for example the figure skating competition favored women, there were typically equivalents in the male competitions, for example men’s freestyle skiing received far more coverage than women’s.

This poses the following dilemma: should coverage be equal across the sexes, or should it be sex-blind? One man, Andrew Billings, believes in the former. In my opinion, I believe in the latter because I do not think that it is possible to eliminate sexism (or racism) unless things that specifically target it or its protection are discontinued. What I mean is that I feel as though if the world truly were not sexist, then there would be no need for a Women’s History Month. The fact that there is a separate month for women’s history (and Black history) is the reason why America continues to be sexist (and racist) in at least some fraction of a way.

Furthermore, women who do break through the athletic world and make it to the Olympics often times are not recognized for their talent, but rather for their actions “off the field” – or in Ashley Wagner’s case “off the ice.” The article Thank You, Ashley Wagner: Skating Needs More Outspoken Women written by Amanda Palleschi outlines this incident from the Sochi Olympics. In the article, Palleschi describes her own experience as a competitive figure skater and the struggle to conform to the behavioral standards that were demanded of her. Despite the fact that she and the other figure skaters were (otherwise) typical young girls with high emotions and hormones, they were forced to suppress any feeling that would make them seem anything but ladylike.

Palleschi then goes on to describe her pride in Ashley Wagner for not hiding her raw emotions just to please the media and keep the figure skating image. I can relate to this a lot because when I was growing up and playing different sports, the one thing that my dad always told me was to not be afraid of being the best. In this situation, Wagner knew how she performed, she knew what her score should look like, and when the judges didn’t reward her as she felt they should have, she wasn’t afraid to show it. Many girls and women are taught to hide these raw emotions because they take away from the innocent and peaceful idea of a perfect and typical woman.

If women continue to be taught to suppress these emotions and attitudes, then their success in sports and sports media may never reach the level of men’s.

Working Mothers vs. Childless Female Workers

In this blog post, I am going to delve a little deeper into a point made in my last post. To revisit that point from the last post, I mentioned that often times, employers will view women without children as more hardworking and determined in an all-around sense. The example I used was of a dedicated marathon runner and a mother. This example illustrated how employers view one type of work ethic higher than that of another; plainly, that being a mother does not seem to hold much value in the work force.

I came across an article written by Olga Khazan titled, The Mommy-Track Myth. The article begins by talking about the gap in wages based off of gender, but it quickly goes further to examine how not only is the wage-gap visible for women vs. men, but it is also apparent for mothers vs. childless women. This wage-gap clearly demonstrates the view of mothers in the workforce as possibly inferior, less competent, or not as hardworking as their childless counterparts.

The article explains that this wage-gap is not always very “black and white”, meaning that the mothers’ wages do not simply decrease or their childless counterparts’ wages increase right after maternity leave or something similar. But rather, when women return to work after being away on maternity leave they are often given “less work or dead end assignments.” This would damage their ability to succeed and produce good work in the same manner as they could before leaving on maternity leave.

However, the article sites research that has shown that employers may not be making the best decision in this economic choice. Women with children seemed to be more productive than women without children (this research was done with economists specifically). Although the immediate aftermath of having a child may cause a slight decrease in productivity, women who have planned on having a family typically begin their careers at a much higher productivity level than women who do not plan on having a family. As a result, when productivity does slack due to childbearing, the relative levels are fairly even amongst the women.

I found a similar article that also focused on this wage-gap between mothers and childless women. The “Motherhood Penalty”: The Pay Gap Between Working Moms and Childless Women written by Rachel Silverman examined the drastic difference between opportunities for mothers in the work force and opportunities for childless women.

This article explained research that had taken place where 600 fake resumes were sent out with half of the candidates being mothers and the other half childless (all women had equal qualifications for the position). On average, childless women received more than twice as many interview opportunities for these jobs and were offered on average $11,000 more than the mothers with the same skills. (Fathers and childless men on the other hand, had no disparity in their fake resumes that were sent out).

After reading these two articles, I am completely taken aback. Never before had I thought so much into the disparities between working mothers and working childless women. When discussing the differences in wages, people always focus on how women are still not paid equally as men, but the truth is that mothers are paid even less than their childless female counterparts who are in turn paid less than men in their field.

Why is it that employers are so turned off by and turned away from mothers? Yes, being a mother is a demanding position, but in my opinion, that should show even more dedication from the woman’s part. I believe that in order to be a working mother, it takes even more energy and effort to produce the same quality and quantity of work as someone without children. Additionally, working mothers have a special reminder as to why they are working. They may need to support their family or wish to provide for a better life for their children. Overall, the wage-gap between working mothers and working females without children comes as quite a shock to me.

Women Can Have it All, Just Not Yet

Last semester, I wrote a research paper about women’s role in society and whether or not it has really changed. The most intriguing article that I found in my research was written by Anne-Marie Slaughter in The Atlantic. Her article discussed whether or not women can “have it all” as the saying goes. By this, Slaughter means is it possible for women to be a strong part of the workforce in high positions while still being a mother and keeping that motherly role a priority.

Slaughter begins the article by describing her life and her lifestyle choices. She worked extremely hard and earned a high positioned government job that required her to be away from her family for long periods of time. When she was home with her family, she did not see her children much because she worked extremely long days. Eventually, Slaughter decided to leave her job behind in order to spend more time with her family.

The article discusses the challenges that women face in trying to find the right work-life balance. The internal struggle women have to continue pushing the feminist view of women empowerment versus engaging in the rooted maternal feelings is one that many jobs make difficult. There are only so many hours in a day and so many days in a week. This makes scheduling a lifetime very difficult for women who want it all.

Slaughter explains that one problem is that work schedules do not tend to match with school schedules. Many jobs require work to be done in the office on site, a lot of travel, meetings on the weekends and more. All of these things do not allow for women in these positions to spend much time with their children. Working long hours in the office kills time when their children are home from school doing homework or practicing the piano. Going to meetings on the weekends or running errands that couldn’t be done during the week eliminates the time that could be spent playing with their children or attending their sporting events.

All of these conflicts are due to the fact that the work schedule is not made in a family-friendly manner. Slaughter talks about the number of women with families in high government positions versus the number of men in the same positions with families. For example, Slaughter says that all of the men in the Supreme Court have families. Two of the three women do not have families and the third did not become very active in her job until her children were grown. This furthers the idea that there is a different expectation for women and men when it comes to balancing work and life.

Another point that Slaughter discusses later in the article really interested me. She talks about how people (typically people in power) view parenthood as a whole. Slaughter gives the example of two women with the exact same qualifications for the same job, but one woman gets up every morning at 5am to pack her children’s lunches, get them ready for school, drive them to school, go to work, come home, do the laundry, drive the children to practices, help them with homework, cook dinner, help the children get ready for bed, and finish any work from the work day. The other woman gets up every morning just as early to train for marathons no matter what the weather is like.

For some reason, the second woman is more likely to get the position. Her dedication to training for the marathon is perceived to be of a higher caliber and require more effort than a full-time working mother. This distinction is precisely why Slaughter proclaims that yes, it is capable for women to have it all. They just cannot have it all quite  yet. Once society accepts motherhood (parenthood) as a valid source of time and energy and decides to change the workforce to match those needs, then it will not be possible for women to have it all.

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