LuAnne Tyzzer's List: Reviving Ophelia

• Early adolescence can be a harrowing time in a girl's life; there are so many different things to "wonder and worry" about. Mary Pipher, in Reviving Ophelia (1994), states, "Early adolescence is a time of physical and psychological change, self-absorption, preoccupation with peer approval and identity formation" (p. 23-24). As these profound changes occur, adolescent boys and girls also begin to distance themselves psychologically from their parents, often when the older generation is most needed. More often than not, youngsters turn to peers and the media for help in navigating puberty's mysterious turf.

  Sadly, the media-generated images of adolescence are far from what most teenagers are able to attain and maintain (Nichter, 2000). Pipher (1994) points out that girls meet with a storm of pressure to conform to societal standards of appearance. Pressures based on body configuration are no small part of this. Overarching concerns about "being alluring" can, in a sense, be traced to the turn of the 20th century as Parisian designers introduced new styles that worked best with slender, long-limbed, and relatively flat-chested women (Brumberg, 1997). Advertisers pressure women (and increasingly men) to be fearful and unhappy about their bodies so that they will feel driven to purchase beauty products and clothes (Wolf, 1991).
• middle and high school females who are either more or less attractive than peer-determined expectations are at high risk for experiencing bullying. Sadly, these norms are often based on perceptions of the media. As they appear in the media, fashion models often appear as amalgamations of body parts from different people. In reference to media advertising, Pipher (1995) notes, "Sometimes the images are not even of real women. Instead, the photos in the ads are composites that combine the head of an adult woman, the torso of a young girl, and the legs of a boy" (p. 27)
• contemporary realism in adolescent fiction is the degree to which comprehension is fostered. By dealing realistically with the concerns, conversations, and situations in which young people find themselves, authors tie the text to personal experience and knowledge
• According to Pipher (1995), the average person watches between 400 and 600 ads each day--most of them featuring pencil-thin or even anorexic women (p. 27). Young people, and even grown men and women, watch these advertisements and lament their own weight.
• theme observed across many of the books was termed "struggles with overweight."

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