The Image of Girls Deteriorating?

I was reading an article in Cosmo UK about friends ‘breaking up’. The article shares real accounts of women experiencing these break ups. I was shocked at what some of these people had done to their friends. I found the article very upsetting especially when a couple of the accounts were taken too far. The article shared a story of one girl who was stabbed by her best friend over 100 times with tweezers because she said she was ugly and wouldn’t get a boyfriend. I was so shocked and couldn’t believe that a comment like that would drive someone to do that. Granted, it wasn’t a nice comment, yet to stab someone repeatedly over that? And even worse, they were eighteen.

I liked the article because it spoke truth. Breakups among friends are as emotionally straining and stressful as breakup with lovers. They’re both forms of an intimate connection with another human and thus it only seems fair that the same sorts of emotions would arise when there’s a phasing out. However I couldn’t stop thinking about how young girls are dealing with conflict between their friends and peers. The image of girls about ten years ago, were of a nicer image than those of 2009. Thanks to various magazine articles and talk shows, I’ve heard of all these epidemics within the community of young girls. There’s mean girls, girl bullying at school, on the internet, through texting and girls physically fighting each other and having it record for all to see on the internet.

Lately this whole underground world of girls hating on girls is being exposed. Girls seem to no longer be made of sugar and spice and everything nice. Instead they’re being portrait as promiscuous, violent, spoiled and reckless; living in a world of complete excess. This leads me to wonder how the girls of ten years from now will behave. I’ve not all that much older than the very girls that these talk shows are referring to, yet I’ve noticed a drastic change with my generation’s demeanour and those of young girls today. Better yet, I wonder how these girls who are participating in this ‘mean girl’ epidemic will turn out when they become adults. I can only image, and I hope it’s not as devastating as it seems like it will be. But this makes me wonder about another question. Who’s to blame? Rather, where are they getting this from? What is making them think that this is the way they are suppose to act? Parents? Media? Some other cause?

Maybe it’s a combination, however I’m not entirely certain. The only way is to actually speak with young girls and have an open discussion as to what they’re going through and feeling. Without that, without going straight to the source, we can only speculate. And speculation and assumptions won’t make the cut when what you’re searching for is truth.