American Culture and False Self essays

American Culture and False Self essays American culture is full of mixed messages and conflicting ideas. Society is far from perfect, especially when it has unrealistic expectations for its teenage girls. In pop culture, it is deemed inappropriate to display androgynous behavior, the ability to act freely without worrying if their behavior is feminine or masculine, once an individual has matured through the childhood years. Research has shown that androgynous people are in fact the most well adjusted adults (Pipher 18). According to Mary Pipher, author of Reviving Ophelia, a former number one New York Times Bestseller, during early adolescence girls are expected to sacrifice the parts of themselves that our culture considers masculine. Society forces these girls into their true and false selves, and it is society that causes girls to discard their true selves and acquire false selves. This idea of obtaining a false self is extremely dangerous. Girls are obligated to be attractive, be a lady, be unselfish and of service, make relationships work and be competent without complaint (Pipher 39). This is also the time that honesty is neglected for the ability to be nice and easy-going. Society recognizes and rewards honestly, but at the same time, women are taught that it is more important to be nice than honest. For example, girls who speak openly and bluntly are often called bitches. Girls who are not good-looking are ridiculed. The so-called rules of womanhood can be found in movies, song lyrics, everyday conversations, pornographic magazines and videos, works of literature, and television, magazine, newspaper, and radio advertisements. Girls have to make choices everyday based on this unfair set of rules. They choose to sit quietly in class rather than risking the possibility of being called a brain. They choose to diet rather than eat when they are really hungry. They choose to be polite rather than being honest, and they choose to pretty rather than have...