18th Annual Student Research Conference
Language & Literature
The Female Adolescent's Inner Struggle for Acceptance Vis-à-Vis Attempts to Sustain Social Subordination
Stephanie M. Dunavant
Dr. Matthew Killmeier, Faculty Mentor
The theory of the social construction of reality teaches that we only meaningfully know reality through the process of socialization, signifying systems, and media. We receive and interpret the world in large part through media messages, which mold social roles in society. This social engineering is one way that media keep the dominant ideology of women as subordinate to men by using body parts to market a product, rather than cultivate their intellectual capabilities. Girls are taught at a young age to be consumers of the very advertisements that threaten to undermine their credibility later in life. My research explores the question: Is it really so little of a coincidence that the lack of self-love due to poor body image is a more imminent problem among the gender and age group that is seen as the most impressionable to the stereotypes that pop culture feeds them every day?
Keywords: Socialization, Society, Gender, Media, Advertisements
Topic(s):Communication
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 53-1
Location: VH 1304
Time: 3:45