America is known for having harsh, and unattainable standards in regards to the female body. The American image of beauty is typified in a tall, Caucasian, and skinny woman. Often times in high fashion, the skinnier one is, the more beautiful one is perceived to be. Blyth buys into the American image of beauty, and constantly relates her self worth to social norms of beauty. At the unhealthy weight of one hundred pounds, she writes in her journal that she must continue to lose weight and not get distracted; at least not “when [she] was this close to beautiful” (134). Blyth’s weight is so low, yet she still feels that she is not skinny enough to identify with the standard image of beauty. The constant drive to become skinnier and skinnier in order to obtain an unreachable goal wreaks havoc on the psyche of adolescent girls all throughout the Unites States. Cultures pressure to become thinner and thinner leads Blyth to hurt her health all in the pursuit of the American ideal of
America is known for having harsh, and unattainable standards in regards to the female body. The American image of beauty is typified in a tall, Caucasian, and skinny woman. Often times in high fashion, the skinnier one is, the more beautiful one is perceived to be. Blyth buys into the American image of beauty, and constantly relates her self worth to social norms of beauty. At the unhealthy weight of one hundred pounds, she writes in her journal that she must continue to lose weight and not get distracted; at least not “when [she] was this close to beautiful” (134). Blyth’s weight is so low, yet she still feels that she is not skinny enough to identify with the standard image of beauty. The constant drive to become skinnier and skinnier in order to obtain an unreachable goal wreaks havoc on the psyche of adolescent girls all throughout the Unites States. Cultures pressure to become thinner and thinner leads Blyth to hurt her health all in the pursuit of the American ideal of