HHS 320 Ashford University WK 3 Ability Attractiveness & Aging Discussion

Original HW Post

Ability, Attractiveness, & Aging

Watch the media segment on Teen girls open up about the ‘constant pressure’ of social media (Links to an external site.)and read the article about Melanie Benn, Social Worker Earns more than Medals at Athens Paralympics (Links to an external site.). In a 250-300 word post, consider the following questions:

How does the focus on beauty and youth affect us as we age or if we are disabled?

How does it affect our ability to work with someone who does not share our perspective or condition relative to these terms?

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Please support your comments with two sources and respond to at least two of your classmates.

Classmate #1

Charity Parker

• How does the focus on beauty and youth affect us as we age or if we are disabled?

“Body image—that is, the manner in which we view our body and the mental representation we have of it—forms an integral part of our body esteem and overall self-worth” (Schmidt, 2019).

Watching the video Teen girls open up about the ‘constant pressure of Social media,,

These teenage girls came together to talk about the pressure that social media causes on people. I was surprised to hear that “50% of teen girls had experienced cyber bullying at some point”( ABC News, 2017).

One of the girls stated,” That there is always room for improvement. She watches Kylie Jenner Kardashian and thinks she is perfect “( ABC News,2017). So many teens are focused on trying to change themselves simply because of how the media encourages us to be. I think we are all guilty in one way of another of wanting to look a different way. Rather it be having fake eyelashes to changing our hair color or wanting to lose weight.

Its hard to accept yourself the way you are. I just turned 37, and I was looking at myself thinking wow look at a this grey hair, and these wrinkles.. and man am I starting to gain weight. Our self esteem can be effected , especially when it comes to trying to live up to someone else on social media.

It is said that “ while mental decline suggest that while old people tend to slow down in their reaction time and might take longer to learn new things, most hold on to their mental capabilities at a normal level of functioning (Schmidt, 2019). If most of us hold on to our mental state as we age, this makes it harder to just stop trying to impress others” so to speak. When I worked at the nursing home I watched how this took place. I’d see Ms. Johnson afraid to go have breakfast until she had her ,”face put on “ that would be ,” simply unbearable to be seen like that”. Or Mr. Oscar embarrassed to have anyone enter the room until his teeth were put in. I think we all try to impress others and hold on to staying what we see as “beautiful “ as long as we can.

Those with disabilities often times are forced into living a more structured life , especially when they have to rely on others to do things for them. I remember this lady named Mrs. BUTLER that lived with her husband in the nursing home. She was the sweetest lady but she had a stroke and didn’t talk much. One day her husband was telling me how she use to love to have her nails painted. So one day after work I stayed late.. and I decided to paint them with her husband’s consent. I fixed her hair up. Like she use to have done.. If you would have seen the smile on this sweet woman’s face, you would have seen the joy it brought to her. Her face lit up .. she couldn’t speak but she could show the gratitude by the joy on her face. Her husband kept saying.. “ I haven’t seen her smile like that in a long time”. This goes to show me, that appearance can be everything to us .

• How does it affect our ability to work with someone who does not share our perspective or condition relative to these terms?

It can be challenging to work with someone that doesn’t share our perspective, simply from misconceptions and not understanding.

The lady in the article.. Social worker warns more than medals at Athens Paralympics, simply amazes me she came down with bacterial meningitis and regardless of her fight with this..she ended up wheelchair bound. But in no way did this hold her back. She won medals and became a social worker..how amazing is that! This shows that we can always strive to do better and overcome anything if we put our minds to it. I believe the biggest misconception is under estimated someone simply because they may be different.. or even have a disability. We are robbing them of their values, judging before we even know them . Not everyone we meet will be the same or even share our same perspective..but in order for us all to grow we need to be open minded and just know we are all unique and entitled to have different views. If we open our minds we can actually grow and learn from everyone around us, regardless of age, or abilities..

References-

ABC News. (2017). Teen girls open up about the ‘constant pressure’ of social media (Links to an external site.) [Video file]. Retrieved from

Mueller, P. (2004). Social worker earns more than medals at Athens Paralympics. (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. Retrieved from http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2004/oct/10_11_p…

Schmidt, J. (2019). Social and cultural foundations of counseling and human services: Multiple influences on self-concept development. Retrieved from https://www.vitalsource.com (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Classmate #2

Xochitl Stone

Hello Class,

How does the focus on beauty and youth affect us as we age or if we are disabled?

It really breaks my heart watching that video segment because being a teenager is hard enough and now there is so many more influences that can deteriorate someone’s mental representation you have of your body which is body image (Schmidt, 2019). It seems like in todays world everything is about sex appeal and fitting everyone into that category. According to the text, “media has a powerful effect on body image for the generational population in the United States,” (Schmidt, 2019). It has even effected my personally after having my baby. A little bit of personal information but I gained 60 lbs. at the end was so concerned about having stretch marks and the way I looked that it almost took away from the miracle of life. I had to step back as an adult and realize that perfection should not be an image created by society. Celebrities and there endorsement is all for money, its a scam. Its rude and frankly ageism to judge actresses and actors on how they have aged and speak about them with disgust. Since when did age become a thing to fear and be disgusted by according to beauty standards.

How does it affect our ability to work with someone who does not share our perspective or condition relative to these terms?

In the ABC video, the girls want to look like the Kardashian and Arianna Grande, but they too have gone threw much bullying. Someone in the video said that you measure your self worth on how many likes you re4cieve (2017). Every other day someone is saying something negative about the Kardashians like they are fake and blah, but they still hold the beauty goals for women but still receiving likes. Grande has long luscious her but its fake and her skin color is not natural either. All these ideas of perfection and they are not even naturally present but young kids are expected to look like that naturally. The beauty industry knows what its doing by making people feel they need to meet these ridiculous beauty standards. This also goes for men as well. Men are also expected to be built and have great skin, teeth, and hair. I think its important for us to understand that self-image and body image are concepts that truly can effect someone’s mental and physical health.

Thank you.

References:

ABC News. (2017). Teen girls open up about the ‘constant pressure’ of social media

(Links to an external site.)

[Video file]. Retrieved from

Schmidt, J. (2019). Social and cultural foundations of counseling and human services: Multiple influences on self-concept development. Retrieved from https://www.vitalsource.com (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.