Think Piece 1: "Athleisure, Barre and Kale: the Tyranny of the Ideal Woman"

     In the article “Athleisure, Barre, and Kale: the Tyranny of the Ideal Woman”, Jia Tolentino discusses her idea on the modern “ideal” woman. She also talked about social media and how that portrays the “look” of this ideal woman. She spoke on many good topics that came to mind when you think about this ideal woman. She says how this ideal woman is youthful, has nice glossy hair, and the clean expression of someone who believes she was made to be looked at. The article explains how this ideal woman is most likely seen on beaches or under the stars, both indicating beautiful things and making his ideal woman a part of it. The ideal woman is talked of very highly, she is smart and broadcasts herself in beautiful ways. She has small amounts of work done to keep up with societies say on what is beautiful for instance; she has full lips and long eyelashes. For the most part, the things talked about should be things to make women happy. Yet others see it as social pressure to stay youthful by getting botox and getting fuller lips by getting injections. Most of this is all formed by wanting to fit in with what is said to be the current “social norms”. When some of this is painful and not even enjoyable at all.

    
Personally being a female in today's society, I see myself definitely conforming to these social norms or gender expectations. I don't think necessarily it's all bad but sometimes it gets overwhelming. I love makeup and getting done up to go places, fashion and makeup really excites me. Growing up I was an only child and our best family friends had four boys whom I grew up with. I wasn't always this basic “girly girl”. I grew up riding dirt bikes, playing in the dirt, and being reckless just like the boys. I never cared too much about my appearance until I became a cheerleader in the seventh grade. I was introduced to makeup and what felt like a whole new world. Going into high school I began going by these gender expectations, I started dressing girly, wearing makeup, and doing everything I could to look my best. Social media started playing a huge role in my life and in a way it felt like it took over. Seeing these ideally beautiful girls I started thinking I needed to be super skinny, tan, and have fuller lips. Although I never want to look “fake” or “botched” so I've stayed away from lip fillers...for now. I feel that for a while I conformed to these expectations but I have strayed away from them for a little. After I felt like it got out of hand, I retook control, and I'm learning to love who I am and realize I don't need to be like the fake photoshopped girls you see online. I just want to be the best version of myself. I feel it's not ideally acceptable for girls to like cars as much as I do and it's more normal for boy’s hobbies to be cars. Though despite that social norm, I love cars, I love modifying them, racing, and photographing them and I'm okay with that being a “boy hobby” and me being a girl because gender expectations are like rumors, they're worthless and dumb and we shouldn't listen to them if we don't want to.