It is difficult as a teenage girl to see the long-legged models on the television and in magazine that show what women are "supposed" to look like. I remember staring down at my own body, and just wishing that in the morning I would wake up and see Cindy Crawford's twin in the mirror. Even though that never happened, I grew to love my body and respect that I, along with all my imperfections and flaws, am a beautiful and intelligent human being. The image of the woman I wanted to look like came from a blend of television commercials and magazine ads I had seen. Much of what people accept to be an actual representation of women comes from the gives the public impossible standards to live up to. media they subject themselves to. The treatment of females as sex objects in the media .
These standards that women are expected to live up to cause them to go to great lengths to achieve their desired look. Women alone are responsible for 80% of individual spending in the United States. (Cohan 324) Much of what they spend their time and money on is looking more like the models in the media. Women see other females on television or in magazines and sometimes are persuaded to think they would be more desirable if they participated in the newest fashion trend. The media pushes perfection, and often does not show the inner beauty behind the pretty face. In the movie Shallow Hal, the main character Hal is put under a spell. Instead of seeing a woman's real appearance, he sees the real inner beauty of the female. If a woman he talks to in real life is over weight and quite homely, she could look like a super model to Hal because she has an extraordinary personality. The moral of the movie is to look further than a person's appearance, and to discover the true person that wears the pretty face. If the media showed real women and not just ones with a beautiful exterior, women could concentrate more on developing their character instead of the newest hair color.