The Myth Of A Latin Woman Analysis

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In her essay, The myth of a Latin Woman: I Once Met a Girl Named Maria, author Judith Ortiz Cofer states that the media creates a one-dimensional view of cultural groups, which is a highly accurate accusation. When thinking of movies such as Grease or Mean Girls, you probably think of rowdy, rebellious, irresponsible and narcissistic people ages 13-19. These are “teenager” stereotypes connected to the term are presented by the media, which harm how adolescents are seen, causing negative effects on their present and future. Teenagers have two major opportunities in their lives during this time, education and work. Studies have shown that eighty-five percent of teenagers think that the media's vision of their bad attitudes has held them back …show more content…
If a teen is considered awkward or different than the stereotype stated above, it can cause them to “struggle with a low self-esteem when they can't meet society's body image and beauty expectations, according to Cornell University's Cooperative Extension.”(Tucker). This affects their present lives because the teens will most likely hold themselves back from creating bonds and friendships and can cause them to have more severe mental health problems in the future. The beauty standard created by these stereotypes causes all of these issues in the mental health of the adolescents. Another way the media stereotypically depicts teens, creates gender-roles and “Negative correlates and consequences of (sexualized) gender stereotyping have been shown to range from confining females and males into traditional work roles.”(Tom) Confining these individuals affects their present by confining and sexualizing teens as young as 13, which hurts their minds now and chances in the future because they don’t know how to act other than how they have been guided to act. The act of sexualizing of younger teens really affects them for the rest of their lives because they do not believe they have worth more than their looks, because of the beauty stereotypes that exist, based on my personal experience. While some say that the teens sexualize …show more content…
It has been shown through many high schools that because these groups exist, students of other racial and ethnic backgrounds can be bullied by using racial slurs (Tucker). Some of the teens do this simply because they are put in these groups and are scared to be an outcast, so they join in and bully the other teens. This affects their lives because the students doing the bullying can get serious punishments, which may affect the colleges that they can apply and get accepted into and for the students that are bullied can suffer serious mental and emotional grief, also affecting their mental health. In 2015, it was estimated that 3 million teens around the US have had a depressive episode within the year (NIMH » Major Depression Among Adolescents). This is a statistic that typically would not be associated with stereotypes because most people are unaware that most if this is caused by low self-esteem, which is caused by being discriminated and bullied. These episodes hurt the adolescents present because they cannot focus on school or extracurricular because they are too concerned with fixing themselves so that are not discriminated and fit into the stereotypical categories they are put it. It also harms the adolescent’s future because it is highly likely they will experience these episodes again, which makes it harder for them as they mature to succeed because they are too worried
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