Wall Street Journal. In 1986, journalist Jeff Zaslow wanted to further explore a recently released statistic that 80% of fourth grade girls were dieting. He went into an elementary school and interviewed girls and boys to get the truth. For this week’s column, he reconnected with some of those girls, who are now 32 and 33-year-old women. Did they deal with weight and body image issues as teenagers? What kinds of concerns do they have as adults? And are things better or worse for girls growing up today?
These young girls that Jeff interviewed struggled through dieting even in their adolescent and recently their adulthood. Many of them reported having been weight conscious, struggling with depression, struggling with obesity and eventually end up dieting again, just as these women did in fourth grade. It was easy to understand why the were dieting many didn’t want to be teased by boys, some felt in order to be attractive to boys they had to be skinny, and a big influence for these girls was the media.
From experience I can say that I was well aware of what the idealized beauty of a female was. It surrounded me when I was in 1st grade. From show and tell I brought a glittering Mermaid Barbie with long, skinny legs, long, wavy, blonde, flowing hair, a tiny, narrow, waist, and a protruding chest. Her face was even enhanced with plastic coated make up; her lips were red, eyes were shadowed, and her skin was blushed. “She’s so pretty!” “I want to look like that!” “ Her hair is gorgeous; can I hold her.” I remembered the girls say with excitement. The boys weren’t as fascinated for the doll, but I always remember them saying, “fat girls are gross.”
Today, this idea of idealized beauty has gotten worse. Toys like Barbie and Brats are targeting girls to wear makeup. There is a Barbie head that a girl can purchase where girls can dye and style the doll head’s hair and the kit even includes small bottles of nail polish and lipstick for girls to wear. Brats has done a similar thing, they come with perfumes and lip gloss. Often the Brats are advertised shopping and getting their hair done at a salon. The brats appearance makes promotes young girls as age as seven to buy make up. Their eyes are heavily lined and shadowed, their lips are also lined and filled with red paint. Girls are taught that big eyes and big lips, along with a small face and tiny waste is what is beautiful. These dolls also influence girls to long for adolescent hood, drive cars, have surfer-dude, beach-bum-boyfriends, and wear make up like women and teens. None of the dolls they play with look like little girls. These dolls reflect the American culture of Paris Hilton. She is a rich, snobby, spoiled female who doesn’t do anything educational. She is concerned with beauty, fashion, and looking thin. Sadly, that is why many girls look up to her because she fulfills the images of these BRATZ dolls and Barbie. Just look at the BRATZ name. It’s so “cool” to be a BRAT, aka be rich, snobby, and beauty crazed.
( IF BARBIE WERE REAL ):
Many of these women whom Jeffery interviewed are well in their thirties by now. Their concerns today are precisely what I have introduced: the growing influence of idealized beauty that targets young girls and women. They feel that because of this idealized beauty many of the kids go on diets, regardless of if they are skinny or thin. Dieting should not be a concern for little girls and that’s the bottom line! Their bodies are still developing and all it needs is proper nutrition not diets. Eating sweets is not so harmful if it is eaten moderately. Any food that is eaten moderately is good and eating too much of it is obviously bad. Obesity is likely to occur from eating fatty foods not sweets. So avoid the Happy Meals sometimes and KFC, Pizza Hut, and Burger King Kid’s Meals that kids generally eat. All a parent needs to do is give children the right foods and encourage them to EAT. They should have lean meats, fruits, veggies, nuts, whole grains, and a small amount of sweets is okay. Instead of giving them soda pack them some fresh juice or milk. That way food can taste good and be healthy. Also encourage them to play outside or enroll them in sports at school. It is also a good Idea to keep the young kids away from make up!! Girls have too many Lip Smackers these days.
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