by Caitlin O’Neill
I completely agree with your points concerning the prevalence of the stereotyped ‘perfect’ girl mold. As the Herald’s article says, “it’s our culture’s standard talking-to-little-girls icebreaker” to say that they are beautiful or precious. I think that the unfortunate truth is that beauty maintains a strong lead on intelligence in many of the media-touted images of the world, and thus a strong hold in everyday life. I think that this obsession with physical perfection partially stems from the rather visually-focused nature of humans in general, but there still seems to be a gulf where a ‘socially-deemed attractive’ woman is less valued for her mind than an equally ‘socially-deemed attractive’ man may be. I don’t know how such perceptions can end except possibly through continued examination of them.
http://sites.duke.edu/dukedollshouse/2011/09/18/how-much-really-has-changed-since-then/
