The Allure Of Beauty

In the article, ‘‘ The Urban Indian Identity Crisis’’ natives that supposedly move into the city question their own identity. Which has an extreme hold on their imagery and the way they perceive themselves. When they move to the city they don't really learn about their culture and people may look at them differently because they weren't from the city. From the experiences of natives, they have had family members harm themselves because they were ashamed of who they were and where they came from prior to moving to the urban area. Women have been discriminated against because they were native and women. Though some natives were trying to connect with their native identity it was hard for them to go back because there was so much the city knew about Native Americans. Lastly, the articles talk about the differences between native individuality and urban mainstream.

According to “Native American Boarding Schools and Assimilation’’ the beginning of Colonial Richard H. Pratt made an experiment to see if he could turn native ways to non-Indians.To make native Americans learn the white way in the article. That is why the boarding schools came into view. They were run by Christian missionaries. Especially, young native women/girls and young men/boys were taught how to embody the non-native ways. If they did not follow correctly they were severely punished as a result they were forced in trying to get the correct ways embodied in their own identity. The officials from the boarding schools would kidnap the children from their tribes to meet the requirement to teach native Americans. The children were stripped of their culture, tradition, values, and family. They were forced to have new names and could not speak their language.

In the video, called “Indigenous In Plain Sight’’. Gregg Deal, talks about being Indigenous growing up and the visions about how natives are perceived through today's society. An example he brought up is how when people today think of Indians they think of movies natives are in or how young native children are not to be taken seriously. It makes them think through movies how we Native Americans might talk, think or look. It ruins the identity of Native Americans and even the younger generation. The native cultural identity is being represented through mocking of sports, and movies.

The first article, ‘‘Many Teenagers Agreed That Social Media Has Been Harmful to Their Body Image and Self-Esteem.’’ talks about the experiences teenagers have had in the past or that they are dealing with in the present world, such as experiences regarding eating disorders, body dysmorphia, and beauty image regarding themselves. Therefore, young women speak about their own experiences and how it harmed them physically and emotionally. Like, the difference between having to stay emotionally independent on themself to take care of themselves. This affects their eating habits and how far they are willing to go to get this ‘‘ideal body’’ .

   Therefore, the second source “Tennie’s Top Women Balance Body Image With Ambition” written by Ben Rothenberg goes on to talk about how the main athletes in tennis such as Serena Williams, Agnieszka Radwanska, and Andrea Petkovic have dealt with the image of being muscular for the sport she plays. And how the players got body shamed because they were muscular and tall or short. When people met them in real life they would say things like “You are skinner than I thought you were, I thought you were bigger.” These comments have made the athletes second guess their choices to become more fit for the sport. Despite being mocked for their appearance some have become more accepting of the way their body looks.

The third source is called “Looks aren’t everything, Believe me, I’m a model” which is a Ted Talk video about the speaker Cameron Russell's experience of being in the beauty industry as a model. Russell then explains the expectations of doing a photo shoot and how she did not look like that the night before the photo was put in Vogue magazine. The statistics were in 2011, 53% of young girls in America do not like their bodies while when they turn 17 it goes up to 78% are unhappy with their own bodies. So when she explains that image is powerful but also superficial, the main reason models are to look perfect every day even for photoshoots. This may lead to many issues regarding the person's self-image. Becoming a model is like a chance to win the lottery, you may be 1 out of 10,000 to be a model.