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Pressure on Young Women

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For Girls. It’s Be Yourself, and Be Perfect, Too:
Pressure on Young Women

For young women today there seems to be enormous pressure to be beyond perfect. Why as a society do we place these kinds of pressures on our children? A good example is the story “For Girls, It’s Be Yourself, and Be Perfect, Too” by Sara Rimer. It focuses on two amazing teen girls Esther and Colby who have to face many issues that many young women today have to confront now as well as the stress it entails. Esther and Colby learn right from the start that they have to be perfect during every waking hour and not waste anytime. The girl’s lives are influenced by their parent’s desires and the opinions of their peers. They don’t even think of themselves. Today’s amazing girls are facing pressure from their parents, as well as images they see on T.V., in magazines, as well as everywhere they look. Society pressures young women to be smart, sexy, and athletic. Sara Rimer writes; “If you are free to be everything, you are also expected to be everything” (page 2).
At one time young women were viewed as the lesser sex; and were expected to become obedient wives and good mothers. They weren’t expected to go to or even complete their schooling. It was viewed as a waste of time. As time passed women started to become able to receive an education, vote, and have a job outside of the home. Society then started expecting more out of young women. The young women today have to become the amazing girl’s in order to do what their family and society expect from them. As in the story with Esther and Colby, we pressure out children to go beyond the average C in school. We expect the bests A.
The girls in the story get multiple messages from those around them. Here are some examples of some of the messages the girls in the article received.
The first message: Bring home A’s. Do

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