Fixing the teen image 'thin is in' fixation
Fixing the teen image 'thin is in' fixation
Karen De Jong Zumaeta, Contributor, Bogor, West Java
Open any teen magazine or tune into a primetime TV show and your
eyes are assailed by myriad images of cigarette-slim models.
These images overwhelm today's young women.
I know, because as a 16-year-old teenager still in high
school, I am one of the "victims".
It's no secret girls in their teen years spend a lot of their
waking time -- and no doubt a lot of their sleeping time --
thinking about the "dream" body shape. Friends, boys and parents
also add to the pressure exerted by the media. Teen girls know
that looking like singer Britney Spears, actor Lucy Liu or model
Naomi Campbell will ensure them more than a little attention from
male and female friends alike.
According to Dr. Mansoer, a psychologist with the University
of Indonesia (UI), young women are not only seeking peer
attention, but also trying to find self-esteem and battle with
insecurity.
"The mass media creates an ideal body image for teenagers in
early adolescence. In Indonesia the media is aware of the
significant changes that teenagers are going through (so) they
will send messages that girls should be tall, slim, white and
have straight black hair. This will make the girl more conscious
about themselves and feel that everybody is paying attention to
them," Dr. Mansoer says.
Tito Budi Dwinanto, a student from UI, shares a similar view.
"Teenagers are still seeking the kind of person they will grow
up to be. They do it by mimicking their favorite singer or
actress because they are cool and famous."
The pressure to be slim, cool and a perfect "10" naturally
brings with it a pressure to count every calorie consumed.
Thirteen-year-old Jessica Bisset from the International School
of Bogor says she is all too aware of the constant pressure to
conform to other people's ideas of being beautiful and thin.
"I have to admit it has on many occasions crossed my mind how
easy it would be to stick my fingers down my throat after my
dinner. But I am proud to admit that I've never given into the
temptation, however strong it may have been," Bisset said.
Maybe that's the problem with today's society? We're all
looking for the quick and easy solution. But us teenagers often
need help in understanding and resisting the pressures and
messages bombarding us everywhere we go.
Who isn't tired of walking into a supermarket and seeing all
those labels promoting fat-free, low-calorie, super tasting,
thin-making, cream-laden dairy products? The messages we teens
receive are confusing to say the least.
But girls are not the only ones who go through this pressure.
Boys, too, feel the burden. When it comes to boys and the need to
be thin, they will often approach weight loss in a different way
-- they are more likely to exercise, often to excess.
According to Dr. Heather Gardiner, a psychiatrist at the
Gartnavel Royal Hospital in Glasgow, "Boys, unlike girls, have
three body images to consider: fat, thin and muscular".
"We are 'body dissatisfied' culture," Gardiner wrote on her
website. "Go to your nearest health food shop and you'll be
confronted by shelves of Olympian Fat Metaboliser, Body Fortress,
Super Male Plex and other supplements with equally macho-sounding
names."
It is easy to blame our friends, TV and magazines. And it's
just as easy for our parents to blame all those super-glossy
celebrities.
But perhaps us teenagers need to look at the role we play
before blaming others. Perhaps we should be asking just how
realistic those TV and magazine images really are. We need only
compare TV's unvarying images of slim femmes wearing sparkling
white smiles with the classroom reality of assorted and often
healthy body shapes to answer that question.
Young women are also affected by parents who themselves are
constantly dieting and fussing about their weight, shape and
color. Without realizing it, they are sending a message to their
kids that appearance is important.
Certainly parents should encourage children to lead a healthy
lifestyle. But the danger is in encouraging them for the wrong
reasons. For example, how often are we told not to eat candy
because it will make us fat, not because it will damage our
teeth?
No one can deny the pressure to conform exerts itself in
everything we do and everywhere we go. But ultimately it us
teenagers who have to deal with them. A photograph in a magazine
doesn't have to create feelings of unattractiveness or an
unhealthy obsession with dieting. It's our choice.
At the end of the day -- or the end of the MTV rock video --
our emotions about ourselves and our sense of self-worth must
come from within. Not from a magazine cover, a bikini-clad model
or an advertisement for the latest eyeliner.
If young people want to love and accept their bodies as they
are, it is up to them. But in today's world of rock goddesses
and waif-like supermodels, maybe a hand in how to deal with and
resist these images would help.
The writer is a student at The International School of Bogor
in Bogor, West Java.