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All Dolled Up -'Bare truth' Disturbing: Girls Fixated on Body Image
South Bend (Ind.) Tribune ^ | January 26, 2003 | JULIE YORK COPPENS

Posted on 01/27/2003 8:34:53 AM PST by 68skylark

Editor's note: The following story contains subject matter and descriptions that might not be suitable for some readers. Discretion is advised.

News flash: Girls care deeply -- way too deeply -- about how they look.

Tell it to the wicked queen from "Snow White," who was neither the first nor the last female to find both her life's obsession and the key to her own ruin simply by looking in the mirror. A girl's driving need to be the fairest (prettiest, thinnest, youngest, blondest, best-dressed) is one of the oldest stories in the book, and we all know that for a few, the need can have deadly consequences.

But while photographer Lauren Greenfield hasn't uncovered some new phenomenon in her "Girl Culture" project -- a book, an educational Web site and an exhibit now on display at the Snite Museum of Art -- the images are startling nonetheless. Standing face to face with strippers, topless spring break revelers, fat camp inmates, anorexics, debutantes, cheerleaders, models, junior high clique queens and pint-size Britney Spears wannabes, one gets the sinking suspicion that a once relatively harmless fixation has become a full-blown, national psychosis whose victims just keep getting younger and more numerous.

"I really want to be a teenager. Now. Really fast," says Lily, 6, in one of the revealing interviews that accompany the photographs. "(Teenagers) dress up cool so boys like them. I saw it in a movie. They get dressed so fashionable, like a doll and stuff. They usually do this cool makeup, like lipstick. And a really blushy face. It's cool."

"In college," says Erin, 24, "I would go into the bathroom to purge, and someone would come out who just did, and (we would) look at each other and just know." Photographed by Greenfield at an eating-disorder clinic in Florida, Erin stands on the scale backward, not wanting to see how much she's gained -- but even the "blind weights" are a kind of torture: "I'm getting to where I can hear the clicks, and I'm afraid to hear that second click at a hundred. My total fear every morning is to hear it slide all the way over."

Greenfield's glossy, saturated color prints at first seem to emphasize the surface lives of these girls and women -- their various failures or successes at attaining the all-but-impossible feminine ideal -- but the interviews uncover worlds of hurt and anxiety (and in a few cases, hope) hiding just under the skin. And once the viewer gets there, even the photographs unaccompanied by text begin to speak volumes.

"Teens are not surprised at all by what's in the book," Greenfield, talking by phone from her studio in Venice, Calif., said. The artist said she's received hundreds of e-mails in response to "Girl Culture," many from girls and young women thanking Greenfield for shedding light on so many wrenching, formerly hidden rites of passage.

"Mothers, women of another generation, are often more surprised and disappointed by the photographs, and kind of shocked," Greenfield added. "They ask, 'Where are the smart girls?' It looks more one-sided to them. Of course, it's not meant to be the full picture of girls growing up today."

True, we see more cheerleaders here than valedictorians, but anyone who thinks the mostly maladjusted girls of "Girl Culture" represent some fringe minority is in denial.

"She makes the point that the extreme is becoming the norm -- that these patterns of behavior are becoming more and more common, and it starts at an earlier age than we think," commented Steve Moriarty, photography curator of the Snite. He pointed to a pair of images hanging side by side: On the left, a willowy lingerie model stands on a beach in mesh bikini panties and a matching bra she's just unhooked at the chest. On the right, three little girls in sequins and ballet outfits primp around a table littered with makeup. Calli, 5, stares probingly into a silver hand mirror held by her friend. It looks like the beginning of a lifelong, love-hate relationship.

Mirrors are everywhere in this series, from the basic bathroom vanity to the reflective sunroof of the Ford Explorer limo whisking the "damas" (maids of honor) to a lavish "quinceañera" ("sweet 15" party). And there are figurative mirrors as well: between a mother and her pre-adolescent daughter -- both doing everything they can to look 19 years old -- at an upscale beach resort; in the eyes of three admiring workmen, scoping out a model named Sara on a New York City sidewalk; and in every image where the female viewer might see traces of herself.

Boys, too, might be uncomfortable with the reflections they see.

"One guy said, 'I felt really nauseous going through the show. I was thinking about all the terrible things I did to girls in high school,'" said Greenfield, recalling the first showing of "Girl Culture" at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona last fall.

The men and boys we do see here -- bare-chested hardbodies on spring break hoisting an agile woman into an inverted fellatio pose; tattooed bikers ogling a woman's exposed breast, and only her breast, in another beach crowd -- make a sorry display, but again, Greenfield doesn't intend to reflect maleness in all its complexity. Rather, the images challenge us to consider how "girl culture," as Greenfield defines it, couldn't possibly exist without the willing participation of everyone involved.

"One of the things I looked at is how girls are complicit in this process," the photographer explained, adding that back in her own student days at a progressive school, she was taught to blame the male-dominated media, the exploitative fashion industry and so on. Now, she believes there are more complicated forces at work.

Greenfield also captures ironic intersections of what Trudy Wilner Stack, the traveling show's curator, calls "the girlish (ribbons and bows) and the girlie (g-strings and pasties)" realms: a condom blown up into a toy balloon; a "fetus bingo" game at a high school for teen mothers (we see one player's chipped blue nail polish); the shot of Lily, just 5 at the time, browsing with pursed lips through a rack of belly tops at the same Los Angeles boutique that outfits Spears. Lily's outfit -- a fuzzy white bra top and matching shorts, with fuchsia silk flowers at the chest, tucked into her big hair and onto the vamps of her chic slides -- is more shocking than even the skimpiest showgirl getups Greenfield documents in Las Vegas. One can't help wondering, Where is this child's mother?

While parents and other supposedly influential figures are mostly absent from these images, their permissiveness and even complicity in the beauty industry's reign of terror over their daughters -- after all, someone's got to be paying for all these clothes, cosmetics and summers at fat camp -- lurk just outside the frame. Ultimately, "Girl Culture" serves as one big mirror in which we as an American culture must confront this perverse sequel to decades of supposed progress in gender equality.

Early on, though, Greenfield had no idea the photographs she was making -- often in very intimate, private settings -- would end up telling such a big, public story.

"This really grew out of the last book I did, 'Fast Forward,' which was about kids growing up in L.A., how they grow up so quickly, and specifically looking at the culture of materialism," she said. "I just started to get interested in girls and how they acted within the material culture."

She continued the investigation while on assignment for other, short-term projects, chiefly for The New York Times Magazine. Gradually, over about five years, the big picture became clear.

"She has a good antenna, and good instincts for what's going on in a culture at a particular time," Moriarty observed. "We may take a little flack" from conservative voices on campus, the curator added, for the sheer flesh factor of this show and its exposure of social problems some might like to believe have no home at Notre Dame. "I hope people see themselves in these."

Picture Captions:

Discomfort lurks beneath the winsome smiles in this image from "Girl Culture," captured at the Fitness America competition in Redondo Beach, Calif. Photographer Lauren Greenfield visits the Snite Museum of Art today to discuss the controversial show. Photos provided/LAUREN GREENFIELD

"I want to be a topless dancer or a showgirl," says Sheena, 15, shown here with her friend Amber in a department store fitting room in San Jose, Calif. Many of Lauren Greenfield's "Girl Culture" subjects are photographed looking (usually unhappily) at mirrors, although in this case the mirror is just out of frame.

In "Girl Culture," Lauren Greenfield documents the many "body projects" -- such as the fresh pedicure of Nikki, an aspiring Hollywood actress, displayed here in Gucci shoes -- that take up so much of American females' time, attention and disposable cash. Photo provided/LAUREN GREENFIELD

Additional Information:

'Lauren Greenfield: Girl Culture' Through March 9 at the Snite Museum of Art, on the campus of the University of Notre Dame. An opening reception will be from 2 to 4 p.m. today, with a lecture by Greenfield at 3 p.m.

Also on display: "Contemporary Impressions: Art by Native American Artists" and "Notre Dame Architecture Student Drawings: Designs for a New Snite Museum." Regular gallery hours are from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.

Admission is free. Call (574) 631-5466 for more information.

In addition, photographs from Greenfield's last book, "Fast Forward," will be on display through March 23 at the Brauer Museum of Art, on the campus of Valparaiso University. Call (219) 464-5365 for more information.


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: femalebodyimages
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To: All
For those of you with pre-teens or teenage girls, an interesting book on this subject is called "Reviving Ophelia: Saving the selves of adolescent girls."

There are some pretty insightful comments in the book from these girls, and I don't think it's all culture related or tv related like some people on here have made it out to be. I think it goes a lot deeper than that, but that's just one man's opinion.
81 posted on 01/27/2003 11:00:49 AM PST by Viva Le Dissention
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To: 68skylark
I have a real hard time believeing that gay men (maybe 2% to 4% of the population) can somehow enforce their beauty preferences on women (about 50% to 52% of the popluation).

No one forces women to buy the clothes. And if you think fashions should be different, start a fashion company.

82 posted on 01/27/2003 11:03:05 AM PST by jjm2111
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To: AppyPappy
Excellent. Mickey Ds, BK, or wendys ????? I'll even throw in Fries and a Shake!
83 posted on 01/27/2003 11:04:22 AM PST by hobbes1
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To: Dionysius
The problem there is that you could show these girls Carpenter's autopsy photos and they'd react with "Wow! She's so pretty!"
84 posted on 01/27/2003 11:04:59 AM PST by Redcloak (Tag, you're it!)
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To: hobbes1
White Castle. Do you have specs or do I just start coding while you go figure out what they want?
85 posted on 01/27/2003 11:06:09 AM PST by AppyPappy (Will Code COBOL For Food)
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To: AppyPappy
ROTFL....Yes...I said designs(what THEY call the document)....
86 posted on 01/27/2003 11:07:34 AM PST by hobbes1
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To: AppyPappy
Do it the way my management insists - code it seven different ways and they'll pick the one they like...
87 posted on 01/27/2003 11:07:48 AM PST by Billthedrill
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To: Centurion2000
It starts to add up when you realize that there are a disproportional amount of flaming fashion designers.

Were. My wife was in the rag business and most of the homosexual designers died from AIDS.

88 posted on 01/27/2003 11:08:20 AM PST by AppyPappy (Will Code COBOL For Food)
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To: Centurion2000
It starts to add up when you realize that there are a disproportional amount of flaming fashion designers.

But fashion design is highly competitive -- if certain designers aren't producing the clothes women want, they'd be out of business in a second. (That's one reason I'd never go into that business.)

This is a free country and I cannot believe any group (especially one as small as gay males) could make women buy something they don't want. So blaming (or crediting) gay males for women's fashion seems to me to be off base -- women mostly choose what they want, whether by themselves or in a committee. Am I wrong?

Personally I like women's fashions for the most part, and I admire someone who takes the time to look her best. But for me, weight control means a lot more than clothes, and I'm sorry to see so many women (at least in my area of the country) who are way overweight.

89 posted on 01/27/2003 11:10:21 AM PST by 68skylark
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To: Billthedrill
LOL. Here they make you code it first.

Then they make you keep "Fixing' it till they get what they think they want.

Then they figure out what they really want, and you write something new.

90 posted on 01/27/2003 11:11:22 AM PST by hobbes1
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To: Billthedrill
code it seven different ways and they'll pick the one they like...

A downturn in business will end most stupid management tricks.

91 posted on 01/27/2003 11:13:27 AM PST by AppyPappy (Will Code COBOL For Food)
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To: 68skylark
You know I didn't read what you wrote very clearly. Mea Culpa. Ignore my last post, please.
92 posted on 01/27/2003 11:18:24 AM PST by jjm2111
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To: 68skylark
Thanks for the link, though I can't imagine why I'd want to look at it.

Maybe if you looked at it you'd find that the problems associated with being underweight are just as serious and just as deadly as those associated with being over weight.

Medical Complications of Anorexia Shrunken organs Kidney disease and/or failure Memory loss and disorientation Fluid and Electrolyte imbalances Deterioration of muscles (including the heart) Irregular heartbeat that can lead to cardiac arrest Bone density loss, leads to osteoporosis DEATH

Medical Complications of Bulimia Dehydration, fluid and electrolyte imbalances Vitamin and mineral deficiencies Gastrointestinal problems Eruption of the esophagus Chronic Kidney problems/failure Tooth decay Irregular heartbeat that can lead to cardiac arrest DEATH

Medical Complications of Binge Eating Disorder Obesity Diabetes Osteoarthritis High Blood Pressure and Cholesterol Chronic Kidney problems/failure Menstrual Irregularities Suicidal thoughts and attempts Coronary disease DEATH

I agree that obesity is a problem and I don't mean to sound argumentative but it seems that you feel that being underweight is less dangerous, but it can cause just as many serious health risks as being overweight. It is a common problem, most people can rattle off the risks of being obese and they know it is dangerous but they don't know the real risks invoved with being extemely thin. Both are problems that need to be addressed.

93 posted on 01/27/2003 11:20:25 AM PST by underthesun
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To: 68skylark
According to my wife, much of fashion is women trying to impress other women, rather than look attractive to men.

There was a study a few years ago that compared how women thought they should look to how men thought it. Silhouettes of women were shown and each subject was asked to choose what he thought was ideal. The average pick among the women was one of the thinnest -- anorexic, actually. The average among the men was in the middle of the chart. Certainly not heavy, but not waif-thin, either.
94 posted on 01/27/2003 11:21:50 AM PST by Celtjew Libertarian
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To: hobbes1
We just write the code and do the specs afterwards. Compiling one as we speak (God I hate vi but it's all I can use from a term).
95 posted on 01/27/2003 11:26:02 AM PST by AppyPappy (Will Code COBOL For Food)
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To: webstersII
"That's only part of the solution. Once she's away from your house she may still have the desire to immerse herself in this sub-culture."

That's why I couple my don'ts with do's: get your daughter involved in something positive, where she gets her self-esteem the right way, by earning it. Then provide positive reinforcement. If she's an athlete, go to the games and talk about them afterwards. If she's in music, go to the concerts. If she's in Scouts, be a leader. If she's on the newspaper staff, read it and comment on the stories.

Then set an example. Don't read People magazine yourself. If you're a mother, don't dress like a teenage-tart wannabe. Insist on good grades; reward them, and withold privileges if they don't appear. Make sure that she's not distracted by TV during study hours, even if that means you can't watch it yourself.

Despite the existence of home-schooling, you can't completely close off your child from popular culture. But by example, you can show that it has no place in your home and should have no place in hers. Then she'll understand it's worth, and if she indulges herself in it some when she's out of sight, at least she's properly grounded.

96 posted on 01/27/2003 11:26:02 AM PST by RonF
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To: lsee
It is hard work, isn't it? I have a on-the-heavy-side 18-year-old daughter. She is large-boned, not fat, but she goes to school with skinny-minnies. We've been working on this for years. I keep telling her, and I do think it's working, that she is never going to be skinny, so basically get over driving herself crazy. God made her that way and in fact, she's gorgeous. She has learned to dress for her figure and is learning to appreciate modest decorum. But she does need to watch what she eats. No diets, just careful eating habits. And exercise. When I picked her up from school after a horrible day last week and she wanted an ice cream sundae (an unusual request from her), I told her absolutely not--never indulge emotions with food. She got mad, but it's best not to start. Normally she eats very sensibly. You can raise kids in this environment, but it's not easy, as you say!
97 posted on 01/27/2003 11:28:38 AM PST by twigs
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To: AppyPappy
Well, we get things two different ways.

half of the time, it will just be a request, and I can sit down and just bang it out.

But the stuff that the Business area ....thinks...up first, comes via a different mechanism, and that is usually more of a PITA....

98 posted on 01/27/2003 11:32:47 AM PST by hobbes1
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To: tom h
(2) Letting the boy meet your son, who hopefully outweighs the boy by 50 pounds. Add this visage to the "very close" statement.

I'm 6'2" and ~265 lbs. I make it a point of meeting all my kid's friends of both genders. A couple of times, kids haven't come into the house, so I went out to see them. I introduced myself, and asked some very non-subtle things like name, address, names of parents, where they were going, what they were doing, when they expected to be home, etc.

(3) Doing nonverbal things like shaking his hand incredibly hard upon entering the house.

10-4 on that. Also, some of the boys in my daughter's High School were Scouts in our Troop, and via direct observation knew of my prowess on the skeet range there. I understand word got around....

My daughter is now out of the high school years. She's a junior in college. She's not obese, but she'll never be a model. However, she's studying electrical engineering with a 3.0 average, so she'll be able to make a living, I think. And she's on the college women's softball team; at a Division III school, she was named to the all-conference and all-regional first team. She had gained similar honors in high school, as well as in tennis.

99 posted on 01/27/2003 11:36:37 AM PST by RonF
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To: 68skylark
I'd say that obesity is more dangerous for society in the long run, but that underweight-style eating disorders are more dangerous for an individual in the short run.
100 posted on 01/27/2003 11:38:39 AM PST by RonF
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