(This story was originally published in The Elevator in June, 2023.)

A woman sets her alarm for an hour before she needs to leave for work. This gives her time to get on her makeup and do up her hair. Just brushing it won’t cut it. She has to look presentable at work.

Once there, she stays out of the way and stays quiet to avoid being scolded. Even as an adult, she is used to being treated like a child, especially by her male coworkers.

Women are expected to look and act certain ways. They’re supposed to have on makeup but definitely not too much. They are expected to stay out of the way because an assertive woman is just an abrasive woman. “Cisgender women in particular get represented as argumentative and difficult when they advocate for themselves,” said Carol Stabile, professor of Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Acting Dean of Clark Honor College at the University of Oregon.

Throughout history women have faced many challenges and unreasonable expectations for how to look, dress, and act; but in recent years, women have been pushing back on these standards and empowering themselves. If a woman doesn’t want to look or act a certain way, why should she be expected to? 

Beauty Standards:

If a person is scrolling on a social media platform for more than a minute, they’re almost guaranteed to see some sort of makeup or hair product advertisements. These ads are full of words and phrases like “glowing,” “voluminous,” or “shiny.” These ads make these products especially appealing to women who struggle with their self esteem, and can lower it more, wrote Savannah Greenfield in their thesis project for the University of Nebraska. 

Lots of people who consume social media deal with body image issues, even in recent years when plus sized bodies have been more supported by people in the media. Stabile said that “the media still privileges a certain kind of body type.” This can cause women who are “too skinny” or “too big” to feel insecure about their body. 

The media and how they show what “beauty” is can make anyone feel bad about themselves. Lots of young girls have body image issues, said Stabile. With the media comes these insecurities, and the media has begun targeting younger and younger people every year. 

When children are young, they see beautiful people in many places. One example is Sara Bellum from the childrens show, Powerpuff Girls. She is the secretary for the Mayor and she is shown to have a large bust, very slim waist, and wide hips. Also shown in the TV show is how the mayor clearly thinks she is beautiful. This is one way that a specific attractive body type is shown to young people. 

If this body type is seen as beautiful but characters like Grenda from Gravity Falls, who has a more masculine and heavier body type is seen as unattractive in the show, it can be harmful. It can make girls who already have issues with their own bodies feel like they need to conform to a standard that could be impossible to achieve naturally due to their genetics and bone structure. “What we were taught to think of as beautiful from the time were really small is such a narrow range of the wonderful diversity of human shapes and figures,” said Stabile.

What the standards are for women has changed over time. From the 1930’s until the 1960’s there were several ads that read “I wish I wasn’t as skinny” showing that back then, thicker was better, reported Tamara Abraham on Daily Mail. Even before that was when corsets were a huge thing and no one wanted a waist over 20 inches. 

Another example as to how beauty standards affect not only people, but brands, is an Asian model named Li Jingwen. There was a makeup brand, Zara, who showed a photo of this model wearing a new bright lipstick. Even though her makeup was bright they were focusing on her freckles. According to National Public Radio someone made a comment on this advertisement on Weibo, a social media site, and said “are you trying to uglify Asians?” In Asian countries there is a lot of praise for light, unblemished skin, which is harmful for anyone who has natural marks on their skin like scars or acne; which is most people. 

People have been and still are trying to make this world a more welcoming place where no one has to worry about how they look or dress to feel comfortable in their own body. With this welcoming environment, society can hope to move past the standards of the past and be more loving in the future. 

Social Standards:

In society women are expected to be feminine, calm, and quiet. If you are a woman and you speak up, you’re being difficult, said Stabile, but “when someone male identified speaks up, they’re just being assertive.”

In fields where less women are represented, they are treated worse. They don’t get respected and can find themselves in a toxic environment. An example of these tense scenes are tech fields, high up colleges, and even Hollywood. According to Texas A&M Today, Jihee Hwang in the Department of Educational Administration & Human Resource Development said, “Gender expectation adds hardship to female first-generation students as they are still expected to commit to a typical gender role while their academic life is less valued.” 

When the Harvey Wienstien Sexual Assault allegations were finally revealed and women started telling their stories, everyone could see how he would make sexual advancements, and when denied, would slander them to other producers. He would call the women he worked with difficult so that other producers would be less likely to work with them, ruining their careers. Lauren O’connor, an actress, as well as one of the victims, said “I am a 28 year old woman trying to make a living and a career. Harvey Weinstein is a 64 year old, world famous man and this is his company. The balance of power is me: 0, Harvey Weinstein: 10,” according to The New York Times. 

In these work fields where women face hardship, people are trying to make things more fair and have been listening more to women about issues from unfair treatment in the workplace to sexual harassment. In the future, jobs should become more of a safe environment for the women working there. Many women also hope that how they need to act won’t be dependent on their sex, but on how appropriate it is in the situation in general.

Stigmatism Around Menstruation:

Most women have a period every month. It’s something that starts when a woman is young, around 12, and goes on until they’re around 50 years old. It’s a painful but natural process that has nothing to do with a woman’s hygiene, even though many brands make it about hygiene. 

There are many products for menstruating women that have key words like “clean,” or “fresh,” making it sound like women being on their period is neither hygienic nor natural. According to Berkley, a study done by the International Women’s Health Coalition found there are over 5,000 slang terms for a menstruation in 10 languages.  

Another study of Nairobi’s Mathare Valley slum showed that 75% of girls that lived in these slums in Kenya didn’t know what a period was until they got theirs. This led them to feel ashamed of it, according to Berkley.

As well as astigmatism in branding, there is also a lot everywhere from schools, to work and even jokes in movies. In fifth grade when kids get “the talk” and they describe how the female body works there’s the crowd of “ew!”s that come from the boys in the class. Even when girls grow up more and get their period and are at places like highschool or work, mentioning your period can be like a record scratch. 

Discussing periods tends to make people who don’t get them really uncomfortable. Why is this? If it is a natural bodily process that everyone knows about, why is it a touchy subject?

How a woman’s body naturally works should not be a taboo topic. Keeping your bodily processes secret has not helped this either. If a girl in a class asks to use the restroom due to a “feminine issue,” she shouldn’t have to specify further, nor should she be shunned if she does. 

There are many issues around menstruation with access to products. Menstruators in less developed countries, that tend to have more slums, have a very difficult time getting access to hygiene products. Even in the United States food stamps don’t cover feminine products – which are very expensive – making it difficult for any low income families to afford them. Ballard Brief found that 16.9 million menstruators in the United States live in poverty, and out of those people, two thirds had a hard time affording hygiene products within the last year.  

According to UNICEF, 26% of the world’s population gets a period every month. That is about 300 million women per any given day, according to The World Bank. If it is this common of an occurrence it should not be considered a gross topic. Menstruation is a normal and natural process that many women go through every month and shouldn’t be a topic that society says is too uncomfortable to even talk about. 

Conclusion:

Women in society are constantly being told what to do or how to act. They’re supposed to be maternal and comforting to others. Despite being expected to act these ways women are now more than ever trying to be themselves and not hold themselves or others to these standards. By embracing their own individuality, redesigning traditional gender roles, breaking gender stereotypes, and eliminating beauty standards, women are transforming societal norms and paving the way for a more inclusive and empowering future for all women. It is important to continue advocating for gender equality, supporting women, and create a society that embraces diversity, authenticity, and individuality.