Negative self concept ruining women

I have worked for a few years next door to a modelling agency. I have been left in despair as I look at their embodiment of a negative self concept for girls and women. What are we teaching our girls?

The media, glossy women's magazines, television advertisements and the like, have for years presented a purely physical and artificial self concept of women. Worse still, this physical self concept has been based around damaging stereotypes.

Media stereotyping has included bodies that are too thin. Women are presented as beautiful only if they rely heavily upon make-up, cosmetics and all things artificial. Fashions are promoted that exaggerate the sexual nature of our bodies. Consideration is seldom given to comfort, modesty or wear and tear.

What has this done for us? And what effect has it had on our confidence as women?

Firstly, it has led to an over sexualization of our girls.

I used to play when I was a girl. I grew up climbing trees. I rode a bicycle. I went for walks. I grew up confident. Even when I was scruffy I was confident. (I still am!)

In contrast, the girls who come to the modelling agency are as young as six or seven years of age, and they are wearing sexy clothes and make-up. Why? What do they learn?

They learn that in order to gain respect and feel confident they have to dress up in impractical clothes and draw attention to the sexual parts of their bodies that aren't even formed yet. This is surely developing an unhealthy and negative self concept. It is too young for such a focus. It is too limiting and restrictive. It also leaves them open to abuse.

The second thing I notice about nearly all the girls attending the modelling classes is how thin they are. Why are we teaching our girls that in order to be considered beautiful and attractive they need to be thin?

And I don't mean slim. I mean thin. Anoerexically thin. Such a negative self concept is physically and mentally dangerous.

Fit and athletic would be a better concept of self wouldn't it? Or energetic and vivacious?

Finally, it is obvious to me that the parents of these girls are spending a lot of money. The girls do not turn up in a pair of jeans bought from an op shop! They turn up in expensive designer clothes, high heeled shoes, jewellery, fancy hair styles, perfumes and more. Their mums and dads are spending a fortune.

When I was a girl I had my sister's hand-me-downs, my mother's self-made items, or items from the local jumble sale. My confidence did not suffer. I knew I was loved. That's where a positive self concept comes from, isn’t it?

In contrast, these mums, loving and well meaning as they are, are helping their girls develop a negative self concept around money.

What is this concept? It is a concept that says that maximum self confidence is to be gained by spending a lot of money, by being a slave to fashion, and by shopping for the exact "right" dress, handbag or lipstick.

It is a false, miserable and misleading premise. It is too restricted a foundation skill for developing a healthy self concept.

Indeed, many of us have been subjected to similar negative self concepts, haven't we? How is your self confidence without make-up? Do you feel completely at ease going in public without lipstick, or mascara or foundation? I do.

Know you can be beautiful without any make-up at all.

Maybe it is time for all of us to resist the negative self concepts perpetuated by the fashion and the advertising industry. They are making money at the expense of women's self confidence. They are holding us back from reaching our own self worth.

Don't let it happen to you. Let yourself shine. Let your girls shine.

What are you doing to overcome the negative self concept of women portrayed in the glossy magazines?