Reviving Ophelia - Mary Pipher

             In the videorecording, Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls, Mary Pipher outlines challenges that today's adolescent girls face. In particular, she emphasizes the way media manipulates popular culture and the negative backlash this has on shaping the identity of teens. To oppose these ideas, Pipher outlines a set of alternative or "real" values that recognize a girl's worth based on her strength of character, mind and body, instead of her physical appearance. The video depicts how changes in attitudes can counter harmful, modern prevailing cultural influences.
             The iconic woman currently portrayed in modern media tends to be a hyper-sexualized, anorexic waif. While models have gotten thinner, the average weight of real woman has actually increased. This disparity has caused young woman to do unnatural things to be thin. Hence increased incidence of anorexia, and bulimia among teens is common. In fact, studies have linked high media consumed, with increased rates of eating disorders in women. In turn, this has the effect of deteriorating women's sense of self worth.
             Furthermore, media images disempower women by presenting exposed parts of women's bodies in advertisements. Pipher makes the argument that an individual's personhood is carried in their face. Therefore, when the head is removed in pictures, the body becomes objectified. This object, a mere "thing", is harder to respect than a whole person, and it consequently becomes easier to hurt. The tragic effect of this technique has been a rise in domestic violence against women.
             Not only are body parts objectified, but women, themselves, are being shown as sexual objects. The media is increasingly blurring the boundaries between advertising and the softcore porn industry. In softcore pornography, young girls are depicted in demeaning ways, and generally treated as "t
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Reviving Ophelia - Mary Pipher. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 04:20, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/4516.html