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Women Perception

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Submitted By joannayeehee
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Pages 2
Chapter 1

1.1 Background

In today’s society, a person is more likely to be accepted into their culture when they have attained approval. How is this approval attained? In many cultures in the world today, this approval is gotten through one’s physical appearance.

This seemingly endless quest for acceptance had led most women, if not all, to strive for what is perfection in their eyes. Where does one derive this perfection from?

According to Media activist Jean Kilbourne, she concludes that women sign themselves up to be on a perpetual diet by the media (both magazines and television programs). What we watch and read is bound to make us feel anxious about the way we look (http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/women_and_girls/women_beauty.cfm, viewed
21 June)

A 1997 survey done at the Commonwealth Fund with adolescent girls shows that their main source of information about women’s health issues comes from the media (http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/nedaDir/files/documents/handouts/MediaBI.pdf, viewed 21 June).

Familiar stereotypes of women include the femme fatale, the supermom, the sex kitten, the nasty corporate climber. The similarity of all these stereotyped images are women who are typically white, thin, and dressed up to the nines with not a hair out of place and make-up all intact.

Media has portrayed their version of beauty and attractiveness of women through countless ads and articles found in women’s magazines. Women are viewed through their physical appearance as beautiful objects, more so than men (Unger, and Crawford, 127). Hence it is no surprise that women’s bodies are the target of sexual desires especially for men (Butcher, Coward, Evaristi, Garber, and Harrison, 27).

With Singapore’s growing exposure to the western world, we are fast becoming westernized in many aspects, thus inheriting their ideas of equating beauty with thinness, and thus the relentless pursuit of thinness.

Singaporean women go on this quest which led to a boom in the cosmetic and diet product industries. Most shopping malls in Singapore have gyms, slimming centres and beauty outlets that cater to one’s beauty needs and are readily available to the public.

Having an attractive image is useful and certainly favorable over one who is less attractive. This holds true for those in the working world and especially true for women. How did we come to this state where we are valued for the way we look, the way we dress, how slim we are and how perfect our complexion is?

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