Girls in Society

Being a girl in our world is incredibly difficult, especially in a society that only accepts girls who are and look a certain way. Of needing to look a certain way and act like someone you aren't are two of the very unrealistic expectations America has for women today. In order to be fully accepted in society a girl needs to be drop dead gorgeous, with a carefree "whatever" kind of personality. The idea that girls need to fit these expectations to a tee in order to impress and prove themselves worthy to boys is one of the many things wrong with our generation. Many girls find themselves addicted to the idea they are only good enough when boys tell them they are. All of these concepts displayed and taught by a materialistic culture are incredibly damaging to a girl's self esteem, as well as the way she interacts with other people. Society brainwashes girls into thinking they need to present themselves to boys and have those boys judge their self worth. America puts girls on a pedestal that they can never climb down from.

The text Loose Girl: A Memoir of a Promiscuous Girl, written by Kerry Cohen, is a memoir about a girl, Kerry, who is trying to find herself in a society just like I described. Being a girl myself, and growing up in a mostly female family, I can clearly see the ways in which these materialistic beliefs on what girls should be is harmful for women all around me. By allowing these ideas to control how we feel about ourselves is allowing ourselves to be brainwashed and changed to fit the assumption we should be a certain way. Because this book is indeed a memoir, it makes it much easier for the reader to connect to Kerry, and learn from the things Kerry went through in the story. Girls can relate to Kerry, because a large part of being a girl is feeling like you need to live up and prove yourself to society, and perfectly match up with our misogynistic world's unrealistic standards for women. The main message conveyed through her own experiences in Kerry Cohen's memoir is how messed up society is today.

For example, in middle and high school a common trend among boys is rating girls based on physical attributes they possess. As seen in her memoir, Kerry will go out with two friends, and guys will point out certain things one girl might have that Kerry doesn't. Things she lacks physically that she cannot control without injecting plastic into her body. She narrates her own thoughts when a boy she likes will pay more attention to one of her friends because her friend closely resembles the images boys think make a perfect girl. At one point in the book, Kerry says something about how not looking like a supermodel makes boys not want to look at her at all. How her interactions with guys has become more about what size pants she wears and less about the fact she's been accepted to three different world class writing programs.  Through the tones and imagery used in the book, a girl reading it can feel Kerry's pain when she's talking to an insensitive, slimy boy who lowers her value by taking away the importance of her intelligence. Objectifying her for her body, and excluding the fantastic abilities of her mind. It shows the reader that this is not okay. Girls don't deserve to only be worth half of what they are, they don't deserve to have their body be worth more than their mind. The way Kerry Cohen discusses her own repulsion of these tendencies is an eye opener for people everywhere who are reading her book. Anyone can see exactly how girls feel about the ways boys treat them. Uncomfortable, worthless, unimportant, self conscious. Adjectives that no one should ever be described as. But because of the values expressed in Loose Girl, girls begin to refer to themselves in those terms. 

Additionally, Kerry Cohen uses her past experiences as a lesson. A way to teach young girls they don't need boys to be confident. Throughout the story, Kerry throws her dignity and self esteem out the window in order to feel like she's loved. She diminishes herself to get the attention the attention of boys, because without them telling her she's good enough, without society telling her she's good enough, she doesn't feel good enough. A feeling many girls go through today. Something no girl deserves to feel. Although, by the end of the book, Kerry has realized that she is sick and done with the way society allows boys to make her feel so incredibly bad about herself. I feel as if through this revelation, the author is trying to convey the thesis of the book. The idea that girls need to realize this as well. The entire purpose of Kerry Cohen's literary explorations was to give girls a reason as to why they should stop putting up with the way pop culture treats them. Society has a hypnotic spell over women, and when Kerry realizes she should stop allowing America to define who she is and what she wants to do with her life, Kerry Cohen is breaking that spell for all of her female readers. 

In conclusion, this issue is critical for people everywhere to understand. Society makes women and girls alike believe they aren't good about themselves because they don't perfectly fit the unrealistic standards men hold them to. Although we cannot blame men for the cause of girls lack in belief of themselves. Pop culture and the images and ideas it casts off makes girls and women feel worthless, just because they don't look like the model on the cover of Vogue. As a teenager, I've been through and I've witnessed many of my closest friends go through the issues shown in Kerry Cohen's memoir. But I, along with girls everywhere, can learn from the mistakes she's made in the book. Kerry Cohen uses her book as a lesson. A way to synthesize the idea that girls are good enough as they are. A way to teach that the part of society that makes girls feel this was is fundamentally wrong.