America's Next Top Lie

America's Next top model is the reason girls have eating disorders. The judges are so superficial and judgemental. This past week on the show, one of the best models were eliminated. London did consistently well every week, but this past week she became really insecure after gaining about 10 pounds throughout the course of the show so far. She had to wear really revealing clothes, which made her feel uncomfortable. This caused her to do poorly in her pictures. That was not an excuse though. Some of the other girls did worse then her, but she was the one the judges sent home. This is not a good example for young girls. A lot of times, they cheer on what they call plus size models and embrace them, but it turns out that they are just doing it for the uniqueness of it all. They really do not think an average size girl can model. It is not really fair to the rest of America when they set these standards of appearance for how girls should look. Most of the time it is unrealistic. They have helped America's young girls create a terrible mental image for themselves. Trya Banks advertises herself as someone who supports a thicker girl, but on her show she is such a hypocrite. Her false advertising is bad for though youth of America.

Whedon and his Women

Since Gossip Girl has failed me yet again, I have to resort to a new topic. So back to Firefly and Joss Whedon's amazing creative writing. In his series, he has the perfect balance of all a women's traits. He separates them into to groups, ultra feminine and very hard and masculine. The feminine group consists of Inara and Kaylee. Inara, being a companion is much more feminine than Kaylee, but both are concerned with men and tend to at least try to display their feelings. Both of them enjoy dressing nice, especially fancy dresses. In one episode, Kaylee gets a huge frilly pink dress and is super excited to go show it off at the ball. Inara always wears a lot of dresses and presents herself perfectly at all times, even more so with her clients. She is always wearing make up and being proper. Zoe and River comprise the contrasting group. They are not identical in their anti-female, but neither of them embrace femininity. They portray themselves as warriors. Zoe was a member of Captain males platoon in the war against the alliance. She is a fighter to the very core and a very rough person. She never wears make up or does her hair and her clothing often resembles what she wore in the war: heavy duty pants, collared shirts, and a leather vest. Even in her marriage, Whedon portrays her as the dominate one. River is tough in a manner that was not her own choice. She is like a child in most senses, but the alliance attempted to transform her into a war machine. This is best displayed in the movie Serenity, where she singlehadedly destroys an entire ship of reevers. Nothing can harm her. Also, her temper and impressive amounts of critical thinking is very masculine. The two sides occasionally blend, but mostly stay very contrasted. You rarely see Zoe or River upset over a relationship. Even when Wash dies in Serenity, Zoe accepts it as part of battle. Kaylee always becomes very upset at even the simplest things the doctor says and to easily takes them as rejections. Inara even left the ship because of her desire to have a relationship with Captain Mal. She just could not handle the emotions. This balance is what causes the relationships of all the females on board to blend so well with each other. Otherwise, they would stay in a constant cat fight. Therefore, Joss Whedon is brilliant.

Is fitting in worth it?

Girls care way to much about their images and what others think of them. They have to have the approval of other girls, especially the ones that are cooler or more popular. Serena exemplifies this perfectly. In the most recent episode, she runs into her old socialite friend, Papí. She asks what Serena has been up to and while she is telling her, Serena realizes she is stuck in the same high school rut. She has the same boys, problems, and friends. She is planning this party, Papí encourages her to go big with it, and increase her social standing. Jenny, the one she is throwing the party for, does not want this, but she is only out for what will best for her. In trying to improve her image, she tramples on the people who care for her for herself, not for her social standing. She tries so hard to invite her socialite friends and make it a high society event. It turns out miserable. It is a train wreck. This horribly embarrasses her and gives her a very "high school image." She is traumatized, but should not be by something this trivial. It is something all girls tend to do, though. In high school it was all about if a girl had the best party, the best clothes, or the most popular friends. Gossip Girl highlights this typical teenage issue perfectly and shows it to us in a way it makes it seem ridiculous. Teenage girls also tend to be the main audience of this show. Maybe it will help them realize they do not need to fit in.