Society has transformed minimally when it comes to women’s rights.
Women are more prominent in the workforce, and sexual harassment is no longer tolerated in most institutions. However, these issues, among others, still exist in the battle for women’s rights and gender equality.
As if these issues were not enough to handle, women still face the societal pressures to maintain certain physical and mental characteristics.
Women are held to particular standards, expected to portray certain images and express lady-like behavior at all times.
It may not be as obvious as it was in years past, but the pressure women feel to live up to society’s standards is still apparent. It’s just well-hidden.
We see these expectations presented in society through various platforms.
Social media, advertisements, books and movies all factor into these expectations.
These platforms act as conduct manuals for a woman’s subconscious.
They tell us to be sexy but not too sexy, smart but not too smart, all while pursuing an education, career, relationship, family or all four.
They tell us how to be the “perfect woman,” these prodigies and creations of society, things women crave to read, watch and listen.
And, of course, women oblige because these platforms have been turned into societal norms.
It’s kind of like women aspire to be told how to act because of the way society presents us to the world in ads, books and movies and through the media.
This is where the failure of gender equality is noticeable: through the materialistic commodities society produces.
No matter how beautiful, intelligent or successful a woman is deemed to be, society still creates how-to maps for women to follow, and it’s not OK.
This issue was brought to my attention this weekend when I read an advice column in the April issue of Glamour magazine written by British comedian James Corden.
The “advice” he gives is basically another how-to for women.
Even though this so-called advice for American women (emphasis on American there) is relatable and motivating, it forced me to further question the standards women are expected to follow in today’s culture and why women succumb to any of it.
Why should women be held to such extremes when men are not? And more importantly, why do women listen?
Society is always going to pressure women to feel a certain way or better their physiques.
It’s not a healthy lifestyle for women to live by, and it really is not improving gender equality.
That is why we see little improvement or support behind it, because of the edited images plastered on billboards around the country and the irresistible characters created for TV shows and books.
It’s OK to admire such characters and participate in all society has to offer, but too many women are letting these norms pressure them into becoming the ideal woman that society wants them to conform to.
Women, myself included, need to stop relying on society to tell us how to become the “perfect woman” because in reality no one is perfect.
Be who you want to be.
Be who you think is your best self, and that will transform you into perfection since you figured it out on your own and not through the materialistic creations of society.
Grace Hudgins is a UF journalism junior. Her column appears on Tuesdays.
[A version of this story ran on page 7 on 4/13/2015 under the headline “Women are too easily influenced by societal norms in their quest for perfection despite improvements”]
