People are afraid of the unknown. They lie to create a persona that everyone will enjoy. So why do people lie to themselves and others to preserve self-image? Maybe they do not feel comfortable with themselves. They wouldn’t be the only ones either. Over a third of girls have a warped perspective of themselves. (McBride 1).
Family is a major influence over a child’s self image. “A mother’s weight, body image, attitude and health habits are strong indicators of her daughters.” (McBride 4) Children create a new “them” to remain their parents’ perfect angel. The children lie to stay young and perfect. Most of them do not want to grow up. Children that are complimented regularly by their mothers are more likely to have a better self-image. “Pryor gives credit for her good self-image to the way her parents raised her.” (McBride 2) Families who do not morally support their children will tend to make poor eating habits. “Some 89% of girls say their mothers make positive comments about how the girl looked.” (McBride 4) The other 11% are more susceptible to bullying and peer pressure.
Media is another component that influences a girl’s view of herself. This affects the way she believes she should look. At a very young age children are stuck in front of a TV. for entertainment. They grow up with the skinny women and diet commercials. The children are brainwashed into thinking that everyone must be a size zero. This is what they consider “healthy” living.
The Barbie doll is another example of media controlling girls view. They made her the unattainable dream of woman hood. Barbie, in human proportions, is implausible. The creator’s image of the doll was for her to become a role model for young women not the opposite. S...
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... Children that overact over small things tend to have a more traumatic life. These children get to a point where they just do not care anymore. Marya Hornbacher said, “There was a time when the lies rolled off my tongue with ease, when it was far more important to me to self-destruct than to admit I had a problem, let alone allow anyone to help.” (Hornbacher 4) Many children are like this. They try so hard to be flawless when no one can be perfect. A study showed that “Girls are more focused on their looks than what they eat or how much they exercise.” (McBride 2)
People lie to themselves and others to preserve their self-image for reasons that are unknown to the outside world. All we can do is speculate. There are a few factors that we know. Their families, the media, the community, their emotional reactions all play a huge part in a child’s self-image.
Media is infamous for having a tremendous effect on teenage girls. The mass media have long been criticized for presenting unrealistic appearance ideals that contribute to the development of negative body image for many women and girls (Harrison & Hefner, 2006). Whether it’s the influence on their choice of friends, school, or their self image, media has played an important role in affecting those decisions. A growing number of experimental studies have demonstrated a causal link between acute exposure to "thin-ideal" images (i.e., images of impossibly thin and attractive female beauty) and increased body dissatisfaction (Hargreaves & Tiggemann, 2003). It has recently been brought up that media influences girls in preadolescence, which is highly likely since most young girls idolize Barbie (Rintala & Mustajoki, 1992). “Were Barbie a flesh-and-blood woman, her waist would be 39% smaller than that of anorexic patients, and her body weight would be so low that she would not be able to menstruate” (Rintala & Mustajoki, 1992). Most young girls wish that they could look like Barbie when they grew up, but if they knew the reality of having her measurements their perceptions would probably change. Children frequently fantasize about who they will be, what they will do, and how they will look when they grow into adulthood.
In “The Ways We Lie,” Stephanie Ericsson discusses what she sees as ten types of lies: the white lie, façades, ignoring the plain facts, deflecting, omission, stereotypes and cliches, groupthink, out-and-out lies, dismissal, and delusion. After naming and defining each type she goes on to discuss when they are acceptable or beneficial, and what their negative effects are. Lying has become a part of everyday life and Ericsson wrestles with the justification of that while questioning when all the lies will end.
The question of what constitutes morality is often asked by philosophers. One might wonder why morality is so important, or why many of us trouble ourselves over determining which actions are moral actions. Mill has given an account of the driving force behind our questionings of morality. He calls this driving force “Conscience,” and from this “mass of feeling which must be broken through in order to do what violates our standard of right,” we have derived our concept of morality (Mill 496). Some people may practice moral thought more often than others, and some people may give no thought to morality at all. However, morality is nevertheless a possibility of human nature, and a very important one. We each have our standards of right and wrong, and through the reasoning of individuals, these standards have helped to govern and shape human interactions to what it is today. No other beings except “rational beings,” as Kant calls us, are able to support this higher capability of reason; therefore, it is important for us to consider cases in which this capability is threatened. Such a case is lying. At first, it seems that lying should not be morally permissible, but the moral theories of Kant and Mill have answered both yes and no on this issue. Furthermore, it is difficult to decide which moral theory provides a better approach to this issue. In this paper, we will first walk through the principles of each moral theory, and then we will consider an example that will explore the strengths and weaknesses of each theory.
When parents tell their children how great the pictures they drew in school even though were realistically mediocre, is a primary example of dishonesty for the better of others. One of the roles of parents is to provide their children with optimism and support so they learn to be motivated and strive for success. Despite their children’s flaws in certain skills, parents feel obligated to provide them with dishonesty because their kids desire positivity about themselves. Lying is one way to protect people’s feelings about themselves.
The media and how it affects our society has changed tremendously over the past few decades. Our population of children who spend a lot of time in front of the television or on social media continues to increase, creating a superficial view of themselves and who they should be. This superficial outlook has been created by the media because it preaches to our society that looks matter. Not only are there millions of advertisements saying to lose weight and buy certain products to be beautiful, but there has been a specific standard of beauty set for models and actresses to obtain. These standards include big eyes, volumino...
Numerous studies have identified a desire for thinness in young girls, in ages as young as 6. Young adolescent females are surrounded in an environment (particularly in western culture) where dieting, desire for thinness and so called “fat talk” is often brought up in everyday conversation. Not only are these popular topics of discussion between a young girl and her peers, but family and the media also have a somewhat greater influence. For example, a mother’s behavior regarding weight loss diets and fat talk could influence her daughter, and provoke her to follow in her footsteps. A mother’s input in her daughter’s body image is shown to be more effective than her fathers input. The dieting behavior by the mother and/or peers is what is also known as “modeling”. Modeling is something that occurs when the adolescent copies actions of those around her, for instance dieting and binge/purge behavior. Female adolescents may also experience what is known as physique anxiety. Physique anxiety is related to compa...
Stephanie Ericsson’s The Ways We Lie, analyzes and reflects on how lying has simply become the norm in our society. We all lie, there is not one person in the world that does not lie. Most people lie because they are afraid of telling the truth, however what they do not know is telling a lie can lead them in the wrong direction because many things can happen when lying to a person. The person can find out when everything unravels that person will not have trust in you and you would be known as a liar. To every action there is a consequence, so why not deal with just one consequence when telling the
The media has a crucial influence on adolescents. Golan, Hagay and Tamir (2013) stated that “Since puberty, by its very nature, is associated with weight gain, adolescents frequently experience frequently experience dissatisfaction with their changing bodies” (p. 1). Young boys grow up with the expectation of having to become a strong, muscular, masculine man. Young girls see skinny models and movie stars and grow up thinking that it is only socially acceptable and attractive if they are also skinny, or very thin. “In a culture that glorifies thinness some adolescents, mostly girls, become excessively preoccupied with their physical appearance and begin to diet obsessively in an effort to achieve or maintain a thin body (Golan, Hagay & Tamir, 2013, 1). Little girls play with dolls that have narrow waists, full busts, lots of makeup and their hair done a certain way. Advertisers and manufacturers are portraying a particular body image with the dolls, and this makes little girls form an opinion on how they should look. “Young girls may engage in conversations...
People are more aware of how social media affects women on their physical features and how negative it can be. You will see on different advertisements, movies, and television shows of women being portrayed like a model, a beautiful, tan, toned, and tall girl with flawless skin complexion. This puts a lot of severe pressure on girls to become this image because most pre-teen and teenage girls do not meet these "expectations" since their body type may be from genetics or going through puberty, having baby fat, acne, or stretch marks, which is normal as it is natural for anyone. Girls compare themselves to these models and gain motivation to look exactly like the other girls that are being displayed. From this motivation the actions the girls will do can involve exercising, a healthy method to improve the body with muscle toning and having other health benefits, or eating healthy. But, a lot of girls choose to harm their bodies with three negative effects and put them under stress. These negative effects from girls trying to become skinnier include eating disorders, depression, and engaging in other negative activities, which was mentioned by the Do Something blog, (n.d.), and that 75% of girls with low self-esteem reported that the other listed negative activities were cutting, bullying, smoking, drinking, or disordered
Self-doubt is a lack of confidence in oneself and performance, it can be caused by going on social media and evaluating others to oneself and it doesn’t stop there it hits children, adults, and especially teens. “Even media aimed at elementary school age children, such as cartoons and children’s videos, emphasize the importance of being attractive.” (Media-Saturated). Showing that the expectation to look one’s best all the time is installed in the brain from a very young age. Why would people subject children to this horror? Simple it’s already so common people
A group of people reviewing a program called, “In Favor of Myself,” wrote, “Teenagers with low self-esteem often fall victim to a variety of unhealthy behaviors and may become more susceptible to peer pressure, while others may remain more self-centered” (Golan et al. 1). Teens almost feel the need to be popular, which could lead them into trouble. This could mean skipping class, smoking, drinking, cheating on a test. Moria Golan, Noaa Hagay, and Snait Tamir who are researching the effects of positive self-image wrote, “The desire to raise social status and impress peers leads many teenagers down a path of self-destruction” (Golan et al. 1). It seems that the teens that are getting into trouble or are who are infatuated with the idea of being popular, are the ones that need the most help with improving self-image. The group researching, “In Favor of Myself,” also wrote, “Negative body image is a widespread concern among...females and often results in dieting behaviors, which can perpetuate the risk of eating disorder development. Body image dissatisfaction is increasingly being recognized as an important target for public health action” (Golan et al.
Adolescent egocentrism has two components: the imaginary audience and personal fable. Imaginary audience is an adolescents belief that others are as interested in them as they themselves are. Adolescents are eager to be noticed, visible, and the center of attention among their peers. For example, when I was twelve years old I was obsessed with going to school dressed with the latest fashion in order to impress my peers. I would think that everyone would notice and talk about me if I was not dress nice. Another example is that at age eleven I accidentally slipped on wet grass during a fire drill at school and was embarrassed at my temporary incident. I was upset because I felt that everyone noticed and will begin to gossip because I did not maintain my appearance of being perfect. On the other hand, personal fable involves an adolescent’s sense of uniqueness and invincibility. Since adolescents begin to believe they are so unique, they often feel that parents and adults do not understand them. For example, an adolescent may not tell his or her parents that they are experiencing bullying because they believe the parents do not understand them. Another example may be an adolescent who skips school continuously believes the administration or his parents will never catch him. Essentially, the adolescent believes he is invincible to
We lie all the time, lying is not something new to our culture. We lie to our parents, we lie to our friends, we even lie to our significant other, but why do we do it? There is not one set reason on why we lie but they can vary from an insignificant reason to something more nefarious. A good operational definition of a lie is “A lie is a false statement to a person or group made by another person or group who knows it is not the whole truth, intentionally.” (Freitas-Magalhães) We have been raised to know that lying is usually a bad thing, and it’s better to tell the truth, not to mention the circumstances get exponentially worse if you are caught lying. No one wants to be labeled as a liar, or untrustworthy. This may sound unorthodox but I personally think lying is perfectly fine; depending on the situation. If you have a prima-facie duty to be dishonest it’s perfectly acceptable. Ross says a prima facie duty or obligation is an actual duty. “One’s actual duty is what one ought to do all things considered.” (Carson) I’m not the only one who finds this too be true. Ross would also agree with me, He says “Lying is permissible or obligatory when the duty not to lie conflicts with a more important or equal important prima facie duty.” (Carson) As I was doing research on this topic I did read one extremely compelling argument on why we ought not to lie. Aristotle basically said a person who makes a defense for lying could never be trusted. (King.)
Barbie, a doll manufactured by Mattel, Inc., encourages an unrealistic body image, racial insensitivity, and contradictive goals, and it is having a negative influence on young girls everywhere. Launched in March 1959 by Ruth Handler, an American business woman and president of Mattel, Inc., Barbie quickly became popular and has gone on to sell three dolls every second, in over one hundred and fifty countries. However, Barbie’s rise to success has not been wholly positive – there have been numerous controversies, parodies, and lawsuits, all addressing a number of issues. One such issue is how Barbie promotes an unrealistic and unobtainable body image. For example, to scale, Barbie is five feet, nine inches tall, has a thirty six inch chest, eighteen inch waist, and thirty three inch hips. Had Barbie been a real person, she would not be able to walk, much less hold her head up. Secondly, Barbie is racially insensitive and perpetuates stereotypes. “Mexico Barbie,” from Barbie’s “ethnic” line, comes with a passport and a Chihuahua, as well as stereotypical red lace ribbons in her hair. Lastly, Barbie portrays goals that are both unobtainable and contradictive. Barbie has had a variety of careers, such as being a doctor, astronaut, and President of the United States, but also engages in stereotypical domestic activities, such as cleaning and baking. These characteristics are affecting young girls in a time when they are most developmentally susceptible, and teaching them a number of negative lessons.
The images in the media are not going to go away or change, but the way we look at them can. Pointing out the positives in yourself is a great start to having a more positive self-image, and will help you to stop comparing yourself to others. Talking to someone about what is going on is also a big step in the right direction. We are never going to be perfect, but that’s what makes the differences in each of us that much better.