One of the most prevalent issues in high school was peer pressue, the pressure to fit in and look and act a certain way. Even though a lot of social interaction is now done online instead of in person, this idea of peer pressure and "fitting in" is still an issue with the girls of the younger generation. When you go on many of the different social network sites, like Facebook, you see ads all over the screen of models being perfectly thin and fitting into the media generated idea o "pretty." These girls are seeing these models and reading about new diets and exercises that all allude to this idea that to be "pretty" you must be thin with blonde hair and big breasts. So now its not just in high school that these girls are told to look this way, but it is all over their online socialization tools as well.
There is also the pressure of sex. It has been a concern for generations over the pressure a girl gets to be sexually active from being in high schools across the nation. Now, that pressure has moved into the digital world. Wen girls are IMing, there are icons they can choose from to identify themselves. The majority of these, sometimes referred to as avatars, that are gender specific have a sexual inuendo to them. A girl in my class explained her experience with these. "Glitter graphics are appealing and so were dollz because they were pretty things other girls were playing with. And you wanted an attractive profile picture or tagline so you could flirt with boys." These avatars are cartoon images of females with te typical "Barbie" body type and revealing clothing.
Tis peer pressure is but one example of today's social networking acting as a modern day high school.
There has always been an issue comparing American women with "Barbie". Most of us have never achieved that image. Teachers, parents, and mentors need to really impress upon these young girls the importance of building their own character, personality and image. We need to accept that we pay to see beautiful women in films, but these are not the day-to-day reality that we all live in. Peer pressure has always been a problem, and probably always will be, but with strong and understanding adult support it will continue to be just a stepping stone to growing up. The best programs I have seen being successful in dealing with this is when older high school and college girls actually go into the classroom settings and speak to the young girls. This role-modeling also sets up a mentoring system with a "cool" girl the young ladies can talk to and go to with problems they wouldn't necessarily discuss with an adult. I think we need to do more of this with the schools.
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