Why Do Women Have Low Self Esteem

Women of this era also wore hoop cages in order to create an illusion of full, voluminous hips. A women who lacked this body shaped were perceived as less ideal. The women of the Victorian Age went out of their way to create an illusion of the perfect body and by doing so they put their own health in danger (Lucy’s Corsetry, Unknown). The constant stress of meeting societies standards had a negative effect on a females perception of their own value. During all of these eras, the concept of beauty was used in order to depict a woman’s value or standing in their

She is such a stereotypical female character in a negative way. Fitzgerald portrays her as such a pure, pretty, proper character, but she does not really have a personality. She is stereotypically a bad driver, obviously, because she is a woman, but when it comes to her personality she’s just another cookie cutter woman in the 1920’s. Males overlook her because she is a celebrity and obviously she can’t use her head, but they trust her for as long as they still find her interesting. Once they decide that she does not have much of a personality, they abandon her and find someone better.

Iris Marion Young believes that after examining the various ways that both men and women embody their bodies, we will be able to gain insight into the way gendered differences unfold within our society, essentially damaging women. There are specific rules and regulations that women are to abide by to be considered appropriate. There becomes this self-imposed expectation that women find themselves abiding by. Young argues that women typically underuse and undermine the actual potential of their bodies. We do not use them to their full capabilities and all they have to offer.

The text describes her as having exaggerated features. I found this description offensive because of its suggestion that woman are not naturally that shape when in fact women all around the world are. In many African cultures and other cultures around the world a curvatious woman was a sign of wealth and abundancy. At one point the woman from Willendorf was better known as Venus of Willendorf. Venus, the Roman goddess of love was more commonly depicted as pale and slim and since the Woman from Willendorf is the polar opposite of that she could not be associated with that same name.

“Short sighted desire” has “subjected many” women, as well as made them unable to control oneself. Thus, suppressing one’s desires is important for Wollstonecraft: it is required in order for women to perceive the education, which is a way of gaining the equal right with men. Both texts, Zofloya, or the Moor (1806) and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), deal with desires and their suppression. In Zofloya, or the Moor, Charlotte Dacre shows what can happen if the desires take over a woman. All social liberties, which a woman can obtain by not performing the gender-constructed role that requires her to fully suppress her desires, can be lost if one follows her desires unlimitedly.

The word “thin-ideal media” refers to media that contains noticeably thin female characters, which is likely seen in fashion magazines and television programs. This phenomena promotes the idea that thinness is an advantageous attribute and associate it to the most “beautiful, desirable and successful protagonists” (Harrison, 2000, p.121) Research has found that girls between the age group of 3 to 6 did not endorse the thin ideal even when exposed to the media. It was concluded that the girls in this range, simply adopted the persona of characters that they found attractive and identified with, they did not compare themselves and their body image to the character (Hayes and Tantleff- Dunn,

The themes the authors write show that both women were very underappreciated mainly because women are not look up to in the time when the story was written. Another is the symbols the authors use to show how the roles for women in society were.

To his surprise, this presents Horner with an "alternate economy of feminine desire” (Burke 237). Feminine desire, which is largely ignored in patriarchal society, forces Horner to humanize the women he’s talking to instead of treating them as a commodity. In fact, the women get defensive when Horner brings up the issue of payment. This commodification of women paints them as very one-dimensional. Additionally, Dainty speaks of embarrassment, “we blush when they are shame-faced” (Wycherley 1189).

They're making them feel self conscious about their body and are encouraging them to be thinner because that's what society deems right. Back in the day this ad would have been taken lightly by a large amount of people. Thicker women obviously felt self conscious when seeing the Ad but that's what made them want to buy the product. This product was very uncontroversial. Not many people would have found this ad offensive.

Despite many women's desires to change these social constructs, Jane explains, "that petition too, seemed swept off into vague space." This statement exemplifies how equality between both genders is an aspiration that is ignored, solely because of the way social constructs have formed society. By the end of the passage, Jane is simply requesting, "at least a new servitude," because her standards for what she deserves have plummeted. She slowly begins to ask for less and less, because each of her previous ambitions have been pursued unsuccessfully. This illustrates how society's constructs not only create a degrading public environment for women, but also force them to discredit themselves and their self-worth.

The following quote should hopefully secure the idea that oppression is still very much a prominent part of society that affects women, “We look silly, incompetent, weak, and generally contemptible” Frye writes, regarding the differences between female restrains and male restraints, “Our exercise of this discipline tends to low esteem and self-esteem. It does not benefit us. It fits in a network of behaviors through which we constantly announce to others our membership in a lower caste and our unwillingness and/or inability to defend our bodily or moral integrity” (16). In essence, this quote displays how women are mocked for attempting to develop their own independence. The mocking results in a lowered self-esteem, which prevents women from progressing by keeping women below the social standing of men.