Large numbers of American girls face a crisis during adolescence. Numerous studies document the disturbing trends that affect girls during this vulnerable time. Girls' IQ scores drop. Their grades in math and science decline dramatically. The confidence, curiosity, and willingness to take risks that mark their childhood years are replaced by unassertiveness, boredom, and a cleaving to the status quo. Girls at this age become prone to eating disorders, self-mutilation, and depression. Even girls without obvious signs of distress undergo a curious diminishing, as if all the interests and energies of their childhood must now be channelled into maintaining a narrow and alien definition of self.
What happens to girls as they grow up? What causes this diminishment of self? What transforms them from the happy, confident people they are in childhood to the self-critical, sullen, and frightened adolescents they become?
Psychologist Mary Pipher, author of Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls talks about the "isms" that meet girls at the threshhold of adolescence--sexism, capitalism, and lookism. Who girls can be is no longer a wide-open playing field. They find themselves judged by how well they conform to a specific gender role.
An enormous source of information about what it means to be female is the popular media. Music and music videos, movies, television, magazines, and commercials, many of them aimed at teenagers, all carry a loaded message--to be successful as a woman means adhering to a highly stylized script that defines for girls what womanhood is.
Modern girls encounter an incredible contradiction in the messages they receive at this vulnerable time in their lives. On the one hand they ar...
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...lem. We are buying into the mentality that fuels those images.
Each of us must have the courage to examine our own unconscious pact with the scripts society hands us. We need to recognize the ways our power has been co-opted by the rewards we reap through compliance with the status quo. In what ways does our own diminishment hold us back? Can we move beyond that diminishment and reclaim our right to be whole? Can we step outside the gender boundaries we have internalized into a place where we finally exist as humans, first, and men and women second?
It is through claiming our own integrity that we give girls permission to expand beyond the status quo. It is our choice. When enough of us have moved beyond the cultural icons that define for us what masculinity and femininity are, those icons will fall away. There won't be an audience left to sustain them.
The first reason that Lizzie Borden is guilty is that Lizzie Borden switched up her story many times. In the inquest testimony Lizzie says “I was in the kitchen” (3). She was asked if she was sure about that and then she changed her story. She said she couldn’t remember if she was in there or in the dining room (3). Lizzie then changes her answer again
Imagine being wrongfully trialled for the murders of your father and stepmother. Well, this was Lizzie Borden’s reality in the notorious 19th century case. In August, 1892, the gruesome murders of Andrew and Abby Borden took place in a small town named Fall River. Because Lizzie Borden was believed to have a lot to gain with the murders of her parents, she was the only one accused of being the murder. With this case, I believe the council was right for pleading Lizzie as innocent. The public and police tried to use theories against her in court to prove she was guilty. With the whole public against her, Lizzie still stood strong and was proven innocent for the murders.
In Source #3, the text states, “In the week before the murder, following an apparent family argument, Lizzie and her sister Emma left by coach for New Bedford. When Lizzie returned, she chose to stay in a rooming house for four days, rather than in her own room in the family residence.”Already having a tense relationship with her mother, an argument like this may have made Lizzie so angry that she would kill her step mother. Lizzie also had problems with her father. One of the problems she had with him was when she built a roost for pigeons and her father beheaded all of the pigeons because he thought that it attracted boys. Maybe just like her stepmother, this argument pushed Lizzie over the edge and killed her father as well. This is the first reason why I believe that lizzie is
...would not be convicted of murder. Convicting Lizzie of murder meant opposing the established woman stereotypes which endangered the cohesive mindset of society.
As for the accomplices, they were under the police noses, yet they were the least expected. So proudly announce the crime happened in that order; first, Lizzie saw her stepmom in the guest room and she had a little argument with her than she with the axe nineteen whacked, but before that she lacked the doors to install time to do her dead and clear her evidence by burning the dress later. The motive is hatred feeling that here stepmom making her dad a puppet. When her father came from his bank and played down on the sofa the other killer was waiting for him to take a nap then she strikes eleven whacks with the same weapon and Lizzie Borden know the killer to shows there is one killer, but luckily for the detectives she missed counted the hits and the shield from the blood was her father cote that was on his head. The killer none other than Emma Borden do to her lack of an eyewitness or details of the party like who she saw and talked to. Motives the will that her father wrote to her, fearing from changing it later. The third person was a cover-up artist who acted and worked to cover the story and play alone as a person how don’t know anything because she wants to not know anything; so, she could do her acting better; and that person was Bridget. Made like her back then had a code and that code is to keep her closest masters save and they would clean up the mess the got
The book I chose for this assignment is Reviving Ophelia. This was a very interesting book. Mary Pipher, PhD. discusses the roles that society plays in shaping the self esteem of teenage and preteen age girls. The author contends that our society today is very look-obsessed and media driven. Through magazines, television, fashion, and retail the "idea" girl is formed and anyone who doesn't fit this idea is not perfect in the culture that girls live in today. Weight issues have caused conditions of anorexia and bulimia putting young girls in jeopardy of declining health. Dr. Pipher chronicles the life of adolescent girls from their carefree days of being energetic, assertive, and tomboyish to their losing themselves at the onset of puberty. Most girls lose their previous selves to fit into a norm of society, being more passive, depressed, and self-critical. The main point of this book is to help uncover the true self of adolescent girls and to give them techniques to help them combat the views of society. This quote from the book summarizes all that the author was addressing when writing this book. "Most girls choose to be socially accepted and split into two selves, one that is authentic and one that is culturally scripted. In public they become who they are suppose to be."
By that I mean that she answered questions asked by police with answers that made little to no sense to them, like if she didn't care what happened to her. It seemed that Lizzie Borden did not try to help her own case when police asked her questions. In fact she took no one's side. I understand that Lizzie had a family, a nice home, and amazing parents that did no wrong to her, but she did not have the best alibis to explain her innocence. In the video we watched as a class, Lizzie was ready to be taken by the police and answer their questions. However, at the same time, she seemed to be offended when they acknowledged Abby Borden to be her mother, she responded, “She is not my mother, she is my stepmother!” Lizzie also claimed to be in the upper part of the barn when the murderings occurred. When the police went to check it out, they said it was severely warm and wouldn't be reasonable for someone to stay up there for longer that 15 minutes. For this main reason, I think Lizzie lied to the police, and got away with the murders.
While reading this book, the reader can come to the conclusion that Dr. Mary Pipher was successful with her argument. Her use of rhetoric, diction and style strengthen her claims in her story. The reader should take away from this book that teenage girls go through a lot during puberty and it is up to society and parents to create a more accepting and understanding world for
Upon entering the magazine aisle at the local grocery store, one is overwhelmed with hoards of publications targeted at every type of person imaginable—outdoorsmen, homemakers, car-lovers, and the list goes on. In the rows and rows of these diverse magazines, lays one meant just for teenage girls. Seventeen magazine entices girls aged 13 to 18 with fun, colorful fonts and widely-known cover models in trendy clothing. On one of the magazine covers alone, Seventeen promises to teach girls how to own their school year, amp up their confidence, and get their parents to chill, all while giving them the chance to win a 1,000 dollar fashion haul. Seventeen seems to almost act as a bible for teenage girls, and if they take it as seriously as they do
Some definitions of heroes are people, who have noble qualities, and put the lives of others before their own life. They are expected to be reasonable and calm, during scary times, like when a shooting is going on, looking out for
The crowded courtroom was absolutely silent as the 12 all white and all men took their seats at the jury box. Chief Justice Albert Mason, one of the presiding judges in the murder case, asked Charles I. Richards, the foreman, to rise. Mr. Richards was asked to read the verdict. “Not guilty”, replied the foreman. Even though the circumstantial and physical evidence pointed to Lizzie Borden guilty of killing her step-mother and father, the all-male jury, men of some financial means, could not fathom that a woman who is well bred and a Sunday school teacher could possibly do such a heinous crime (Linder 7).
In this paper I will talk about some information that I have obtained from reading Mary Piphers, Reviving Ophelia, Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls and give my view on some of her main points and arguments. I also will discuss why I feel Mary Pipher’s views on the toxic influence of media are accurate, and that it does affect adolescent girls. This paper will also point out the importance of Mary Pipher’s studies on the problems that today’s female teens are facing and why I feel they are important and cannot be ignored.
In "Where the girls are: Growing Up Female With the Mass Media," Susan Douglas analyses the effects of mass media on women of the nineteen fifties, and more importantly on the teenage girls of the baby boom era. Douglas explains why women have been torn in conflicting directions and are still struggling today to identify themselves and their roles. Douglas recounts and dissects the ambiguous messages imprinted on the feminine psyche via the media. Douglas maintains that feminism is a direct result of the realization that mass media is a deliberate and calculated aggression against women. While the media seemingly begins to acknowledge the power of women, it purposely sets out to redefine women and the qualities by which they should define themselves. The contradictory messages received by women leave women not only in a love/hate relationship with the media, but also in a love/hate relationship with themselves.
In his new book “Girls on the Edge” Dr. Sax argues that todays teens look confident on the outside but have a dangerously fragile sense of self. According to “Girls on the Edge”, he claims that average teenage girl today is more anxious than average girl admitted to a psychiatric treatment 50 years ago. He also insists that more female teens are suffering anxiety than male.
Since the 19th century, the women's movement has made fantastic strides toward obtaining civil rights for women in America. Woman suffrage has been abolished, and they are no longer viewed as second-class citizens. Unfortunately, the issue of gender inequality still echoes in today's society. The fight to change a society shaped predominately by men continues, and will likely pursue for decades to come. Whether it be social, political, or economic rights, the main idea is equality for all genders, man or woman. In modern society, it seems that such a simple concept should be accepted globally by everyone – so why do women still face the daily toils of demanding the privileges that should available to all? No matter the class of woman, it is likely they will suffer from inequality and stereotypes at some point in their life. We see this in the workplace, where women have been shown to earn less then men. Some women also face the dangers of sexual violence, and are left victimized for such crimes.