Teenage years are probably the most erratic, nerve-racking years of our lives. Our bodies start developing, we start high school, our parents and teachers start pressuring us about our future, society sends us confusing messages about how we should act and look, and then there are drugs, alcohol, pregnancy, STD’s, smoking, peers, sexuality, violence … it’s too much!
Teenagers aren’t psychologically prepared to make these sorts of decisions. Plus the added pressure of society, telling you to drift away from your parents’ safety, to explore an unsafe world, they’re not ready to handle. Now its harder to keep them safe than thirty years ago, in a society where values have been lost, families are broken, alcohol, and drugs are more easily found.
Adolescence is particularly tough on girls; the culture is what kills them. It pressures them to look thin, and then says if your to thin your sick, if you gain weight, it tells you, you look horrible, are any celebrities fat? I don’t think so.
TV shows, movies, stories … all show women who are incredibly beautiful, doctors, lawyers, etc. … but in more cases that not, a man has to swoop in and rescue her. What kind of message are we sending out to them? You have to look pretty and act in a feminine matter, you can be smart but if man comes around you have to let him call the shots.
It’s incredibly sad what is happening to girls these days, as a matter-of-fact just today something catastrophic happened in my class. A couple of friends of mine (all girls) challenged some guys to an arm wrestling match. I guess tennis had strengthen my muscles, because I managed to beat them all. A few of my classmates (all girls as well) stared in disgust as we played. Then when we were done fooling around, they cornered one of my friends and said, “What the hell is wrong with you? Why are you acting like that? you should act more like a girl.” As I heard this I stepped in front of them and told them “women are allowed to act as they please, we have equal rights and a woman can do anything a man can. We can be strong too you know?” They stared at me with a blank expression in there face, and one of them told me “I don’t understand.” I was thinking wow, this is the twenty-first century and yet they are still living in the middle ages.
In my opinion, we should try and show girls from a young age what a successful, independent, and strong woman looks like, (the idea of their mother’s being strong will never occur to them, until later when they mature and they understand the sacrifices there mothers have made) so we must come up with better examples, strong, independent, self-sufficient women should be all but flooding shows as examples. We have to stop using women in advertisements as sex toys, raps and songs about sex, drugs, drinking, and violence should be banned, there are so many things that must be changed in other save teenage girls, but probably the most important thing we should teach our children is to love themselves for who they are, and to never sell there who they really are for popularity. Lets face it, high school isn’t fun, actually its pretty close to hell but its the only way to get to college, that’s were the real fun starts. College is practically heaven for anyone who was considered a pariah in high school, people are a bit more mature, and you get to choose what to study, chances are they’ll find someone they can be themselves with.
Thanks for reading. Shanta C.
