Self-esteem, Gender, Weight, and the Chinese
This semester, I have been taking a Psychology of Gender class. Recently, we have talked about self-esteem and how that relates to gender. In our book, it mentioned a study of self-esteem in people throughout the world. In every country they looked at, they found that men had a slightly higher self-esteem than women, that is every country except China. In China, women had a slightly higher self-esteem. I found this very interesting. With all the talk about women's rights in China, you would think that it would be the opposite. So are things in China really not that bad for women?
I decided to investigate this issue further, but didn't really find anything regarding gender and self-esteem. Instead, I came across an article which asserts that Chinese teens are getting more depressed. Why is this? It all goes back to weight. They don't want to look like fat Americans. Skinny is in. "Chinese teens who think of themselves as fat, even if they were normal or underweight, are at a greater risk for depression and school-related stress, a new USC study has found."
I met many young Chinese girls during my time over there who were terrified of being fat. Some of them wouldn't even eat the bite-size snickers bars we brought.
Researchers argue that this could be our fault. "In another study published in the March edition of Preventive Medicine, Xie found that Chinese youth's unhappiness with their weight was significantly related to Western media exposure, leading some girls to adopt such unhealthy behaviors as smoking or drinking."
I can't tell you how many times a Chinese girl asked me if she was pretty enough to come to America. What is happening to society? Why is there such an emphasis placed on looks? It's a shame.
What do these findings about weight and looks mean for the Chinese woman's self-esteem. Is she going to join the pack of women throughout the rest of the world? Will men's positive attitudes of themselves surpass these women too?
http://www.rxpgnews.com/research/psychiatry/article_3784.shtml
posted by Jenn @ 10:48 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Well Potatoes'nGravy, I think you are referring to Lucille Ball when you say Desi Arnez. That was her husband. Just for your information.
I think the bottom line is that "sex sells" and that we can sit here and blame the media because they show an unrealistic message to people throughout the world about what is accepted and what is beautiful. However, I think we cannot fully blame the media because the media's job is to give people what they want. If we would stop feeding into the messages, and start boycotting them, they wouldn't be on television, in magazines, etc.
It's so easy to blame the media for everything, but we're the ones that are entertained by it and help fuel it by partaking of it. It won't change unless the people of the world change and the people of the world won't change unless it changes. What a viscious cycle that is.
Lucie Fur, I know what you mean. When I was in the rural areas of Guatemala, I didn't see much of this either. The people didn't want television to be brought into their town. They were afraid of the effect it would have on the people there. Wise choice.
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