Stereotypes Of Fat Girls

Even at the very beginning of our lives we are constantly surrounded and influenced by gender stereotypes. However untrue or outdated, these ideas are still enforced, to the extent that every child knows “boys don’t cry,” “women stay in the kitchen,” and many other stereotypes like these. Harmful stereotypes like these can influence children very strongly, and affect the way they perceive themselves and others.
One major stereotype: women should be pretty and men should be strong. At the age of six, about half of young girls believe that they should be thinner, and by the age of seven 25% of kids have begun dieting behavior. As an adult, 91% of women are unhappy with their bodies. How would these statistics change if young girls didn’t see things every single day promoting the idea of the “ideal body type”? A body type that only 5% of women actually have, by the way. …show more content…
What does this suggest to fat girls, or even just average sized girls? Girls who have buck teeth or frizzy hair or any other “unconventional” feature? Any girl who isn’t white? What about all of the girls in movies who undergo “marvelous transformations” from an average, normal looking girl to a hollywood stereotype and are suddenly hailed as the epitome of beauty? (A la The Princess Diaries and many other films.) If girls don’t see people who represent themselves in media then they will assume that their body type isn’t the norm and it should be