1. The Ideal American
Woman.
Hopechapel.org, Screenshot
By: Abigail Marsh
Alloy Media, Daily Mail, Gossip Girl.

2. Who was she back then?
Statistics:
• Women many years ago were
applauded for a
curvy, voluptuous, “hour-
glass figure”.
• Her dress size ranged strictly
from an 8-12, waist
anywhere from a 24-25”.
• The average weight was
somewhere around 120
pounds for a 5’2, 5’3 tall
woman.
SAM SHAW/ Rex Features

3. Who is she now?
Statistics:
• Today’s desired woman
seems impossible, carrying a
boyish figure with the
slightest hips. Perky
breasts, buttock, and no fat
visible.
• Her dress size really doesn’t
range—it stands at about a
2-4.
• The average weight today
for a 5’2 woman stands
around 108 pounds.
FitnessGasm, Screenshot

4. How has influence from the ever America’s media pressured
this drastic transformation?

5. Appearance
SKIN:
Our skin has changed drastically over the years; most obvious being the color. In former
years, the skin was powdered as white as a ghost to show status, importance, etc. Today, we
endanger ourselves with tanning booths to give our skin that bronzed glow, or perhaps spend
excess amounts of money to have a tan ‘painted’, or sprayed on ourselves….for what? To feel
better? To feel more ‘ideal’?
Another issue women today face is plastic surgery, botox, face lifts, whichever you would
prefer to call it…….plastic surgery. It is defeating the purpose of being an individual. It differs
from makeup; instead of painting on the face; you are
poking, cutting, bruising, infecting, damaging, and forever erasing the person you were born to
be.
Women today are striving to be Barbie-doll like; both in their ‘beauty’ as well as their
fitness. As famous as it is, going under the knife was still around in the past life of
Americans, although monitored much stricter; only being used for extreme cases to enhance
the well-being of a patient, or perhaps the reconstruction of War veterans.

6. Big pictures, screenshot
Shutterstock.com, screenshot

7. WEIGHT
Women today like women many years ago still
struggle with the intense pressure to be thin—to be
desirable. Yet, the definition of desirable has had a few
nips and tucks along the way. Many years ago women
were pressured to be plump enough, yet thin enough
to bear their husbands child, and fulfill his ideal
fantasies. Today, women might as well focus on how
polished their bones instead. Our portrayal of the ideal
weight for the ideal woman has taken on quite a bit of
baggage… (or lack there of).

8. Little-snow-white-and-the-mirror-issue, screenshot
Strange Nature Network, Screenshot

9. Media’s placement of value
• Women in America today are
controlled, in my opinion, as
well as many others quite a
bit by the media, and the
social networks we are
exposed to today.
• Yes, we have gained a lot of
power in this
world, establishing a right to
do as we please; yet the
media tends to hang on to
the sexual physicality we
carry; portraying it as our
most valuable feature.

10. Occupation
PAST vs. PRESENT
Women in America, perhaps fifty plus years ago had a different type of occupation in the societies, and
nation we grew to love so much. The perfect woman consisted of enjoying life’s simplicities, such as
cleaning the home, and cooking delicious, immaculate meals for her children and husband to enjoy. Her
life revolved around making her husband happy, and keeping her children smiling. And just as the media
portrayed; she was to still maintain a highly ‘fit’ physique, one again to keep her husband happy.
This type of ‘job’ in my opinion is quite limiting. Although her existence is acknowledged, she is
merely a figure to do daily duties, not to ever achieve something for herself, or to gain higher status, or to
establish a name for herself. The extreme opposite examples of this type of living is what we see quite a bit
today.
Although not true for the entire nation of women, our world has hyper sexualized women and their
bodies to the ultimate extreme that it has become an outlet of occupation for too many women in
America. Women are now at young ages involving themselves in high risk situations to obtain equal
pay, daily necessities, and perhaps just plain confidence due to the outrageous portrayal of what the ideal
woman living in America has, feels, and needs.
On the positive side, women today have gained a lot of power in America when it comes to working.
They are now not confined to the concrete walls of their cookie-cutter houses. Women have achieved
status, as well as educational equality; thus allowing for them to lead their own way into the world of
business, and jobs.

11. PAST: PRESENT:
Women were shunned Women are encouraged to Education
from public and private attend schooling—as well PAST vs. PRESENT
schools. as higher education such as
college, etc.
Men were the only gender We now see gender roles
allowed to educate swapped—opening the
themselves, confining eyes of many quite widely.
women to the household. Women today hold a lot
This sort of subordination more of a stance within the
altered the lives of workplace than they did
American women— years ago—a substantial
ultimately enhancing their amount of credit can be
fight for equal education. due to educational systems
accepting the American
woman.

12. TEARS OF A WOMAN
Author : Unknown
"Mom, why are you crying?" he asked his mom. "Because I'm a

13. Finally he put in a call to GOD. When GOD got on the phone the man
said, "GOD, why do women cry so easily?" GODsaid: "When I made women she
had to be special. I made her shoulders strong enough to carry the weight of the
world; yet, gentle enough to give comfort. I gave her an inner strength to endure
childbirth and the rejection that many times comes from her children. I gave her a
hardness that allows her to keep going when everyone else gives up and take care
of her family through sickness and fatigue without complaining. I gave her the
sensitivity to love her children under any and all circumstances, even when her
child has hurt her very badly. This same sensitivity helps her to make a child's boo-
boo feel better and shares in her teenagers anxieties and fears. I gave her strength
to carry her husband through his faults and fashioned her from his rib to protect his
heart. I gave her wisdom to know that a good husband never hurts his wife, but
sometimes tests her strengths and her resolve to stand beside him unfalteringly. I
gave her a tear to shed, it's hers exclusively to use whenever it is needed. It's her
only weakness; it's a tear for mankind."

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