This message is referring to a question on media from the EdEquity Dialogue
The Voice of Girls, April 23-May 3, 2001.
Girls spend so much time and money on their appearance because so many
dislike their bodies -- 78% or 17 year old girls. Don't miss the
book The Body Project by Joan Jacob's Brumberg, a historian and
women's studies scholar at Cornell University. She points out that
as never before, girls are maturing earlier and have become increasingly
preoccupied with their bodies, appearance and social success.This
focus on physical perfection raises girls' vulnerability to
exploitation. Girls who want to be wanted so badly are unable
to be critical about their sexual options and can be easily manipulated,
coerced, even abused. In addition, girls' preoccupation with
appearance may empower male desire.
A crucial role is played by mass media and commercial images in
influencing the outlook and behavior of young girls and women. In
her book she explains not how but why the body has become an
all-consuming project and why girlhood has become something of an
endangered status.
Brumberg warns that contemporary girls are in trouble. They develop
physically earlier than ever before, but within a society that does not
protect or nurture them in ways that were once a hallmark of American
life.Contemporary girls seem to have more autonomy, but their
freedom is laced with peril. Sexual activity has the potential to
create life or cause death. Brumberg calls for a new era of
girl advocacy in which multigenerational dialogues on sexual
ethics would better prepare girls in ways that go far deeper that the
simple maxim, just say no.
A fabulous 3-fold Reading Group Discussion Guide for The Body Project is
available free from the publisher, at
<a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/vintage/read/bodyproject/" eudora
="autourl">www.randomhouse.com/vintage/read/bodyproject/
or by calling 800.793.BOOK.
Donna Hart
<donnahart@covad.net>
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