Pressures on the Youth

During the time between childhood and maturity, children often pass through a time period of adolescence. The exact time period varies from individual to individual but is noted to occur during the junior years of school. In this time period, children experience three major changes. First is the physical development of organs caused by a development in hormones. Second is the mental development of the philosophy about their role as opposed to the opposite sex. For example, boys should become strong while girls should obtain an inferiority complex. Third is the psychological development of the desire to distance themselves from parents and other grown individuals, who are more experienced than their peers. [Pipher] These changes are inarguably caused by the extensive media influence on young children. However, media influence is not the only cause. Peer pressure, society's expectations and parents also institute this extensive change.

Media pressure on young children can be seen just too easily. G. I. Joe figurines and movies like Spiderman have characters that are exceptionally bulky muscles. When young boys see these cartoon movies on television, they aspire to become like the heroes, who always manage to beat the "bad guys", no matter what happens, due to of their muscular power. Furthermore, movies advertise the cigarette companies by showing almost every hero on television with a cigarette in his mouth. Some characters further invent tricks with cigarettes, like lighting them in various impressive ways or making a perfect round circle with the smoke. These catchy things, however stupid and extravagant, are thought of by young children as "cool". Soon, some aspire to conduct those tricks on their own to impress girls, a group of individuals who have their own set of media values. Like boys have their Superman, girls have Barbie. This young teenage doll is known to have a waist as thin as a pencil along with high heels and 4 tons of makeup glued on her face. Although this might look as idiotic and fictional to adults, it is considered the quality of a role model in the fragmented world of little girls. As girls grow older, they retain a notion from their childhood causing them to become like Barbies. Soon, they realize that they cannot be like a Barbie and turn to cosmetics to "seem" like one. The use of cosmetic powder for attaining white skin like the Barbie's suddenly turn into the use of lipstick, shampoo and high heels. Overall, the media is always trying to sell things, and moral value of their goods is not at all considered. In today's world, there is absolutely no market for skinny G. I. Joes or fat, ugly Barbies. The result is devastating for individuals, who "die at the age of 15".

Another form of pressure that is put on children is peer pressure. Skinny, weak boys or obnoxiously fat ones are the subject of mockery by their peers. The same applies to fat, freckle-face girls. These individuals are considered the outcast of their society and are avoided by their classmates. Soon, they develop an inferiority complex and an unfortunately true notion that everyone will accept them if they become cartoon figures like little Batmen and Batwomen. Unfortunately, this trend starts at a very young age. For example, Rodell's daughter, Ruby asks her mother for deodorant at the age of 8. She goes on to state that she wants it because other children in her school ridicule her and state that she stinks. [Rodell] These are some of the results of peer pressure. Girls, like Rosy, are already giving into peer pressure at the age of 8! Some of these girls, as they grow older, retain body forms that are not exactly the 36-24-36 figures that they hope for. Due to peer pressure, many girls go on strict diets. This, in most cases, results in diseases like anorexia as a consequence of girls wanting to loose too much weight too fast. Alexander goes into a gymnasium where all guys always talk about is looking "cut", having "six-packs" and other extremely tight muscular figures. Since he is fat, he is excluded from these conversations and thus, he ponders on using steroids. Instantly he notices that he is being accepted into the norm and consumes even more. [Hall] The media is not allowed to advertise steroids at all, even though the famous sports stars indirectly advertise them, but boys like Alexander hear about them from their friends. When they say "life-savers", they are not referring to the body-guards on the coast or the fire-fighters in the city or even the little mints, but steroids that make them feel that they are in the society - a quality

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