In the Ted Talk, “The Dangers of a Single Story,” the Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, explains stereotypes, and how they make one story become the only story. She uses many smaller stories to create the main message itself. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie warns us that if we hear only a single story about another person, we then misinterpret that person. She then explains how she is misperceived as a “backward” Nigerian because of the false ads and lies in the media that are misleading about Africans. Similarly, in today’s economy, society shapes women in many ways, possibly more than we realise – from the false accusations through ads, to others’ perception of women’s bodies through the media which then makes us reflect on our self worth. The media in particular, has increasingly become a platform that reinforces cultural beliefs and projects strong views on how we should look. The more we look at perfect images of others and then look to find those same idealised characteristics in ourselves and don’t find them, the worse we feel about ourselves. This single story of how individuals are perceived to be almost perfect- focusing more on outside beauty rather than inside beauty which will destroy their self confidence and their self worth, can be found in Hans Christian Andersen’s most famous fairytale, “The Ugly Duckling”, The Lady Remington Instant Curl ad, and my own personal life.
According to Hans Christian Andersen, “The Ugly Duckling”, When the story begins, a mother duck’s eggs hatch. One of the little birds is perceived by the other birds and animals on the farm as a attractive little creature and suffers much verbal and physical abuse from them. He then leaves sadly from the barnyard and lives with wild ducks and geese until hunters slaughter the flocks. In the passage below, we read that because of this abuse, the duck starts to believe that maybe he is the ugly duckling:
“I never dreamed of such happiness as this, while I was an ugly duckling.”(Andersen, 2011)
From the very beginning of this homely little bird being born, other ducks start to pick on him and use physical and verbal abuse just because he doesn’t look like the rest of the ducks. This then made the little duck feel like he could never feel any sort of happiness again because he doesn’t “fit it” with the rest.
Not only did the ugly ducklings family degrade his self worth but society also also had an impact on it. Just because the ugly duckling didn’t look like the rest of ducks, he was abused, neglected, disregarded and scorned by the society. The ugly duckling then leaves the society, to live in the somewhere else. Because the duckling left, he then leads a lonely but beautiful life, without abuse or fear from the society:
“He now felt glad at having suffered sorrow and trouble, because it enabled him to enjoy so much better all the pleasure and happiness around him”(Andersen, 2011)
This shows that because of all the abusing he got from his looks, the ugly duckling had to leave society to be all alone in the forest. Additionally, showing that he would rather be left being alone than surrounded by people who are just going to continuously pick on him. The duck realise that because of all the abuse, he was better off alone where no one could pick on him.
The ugly duckling paints a beautiful part of our nature which is the opposite to the ordinary identity that we have assumed ourselves or what society has made us believe. Often that which is ugly turns out to be beautiful. This story eliminates all expectations of the society. The story shows human growth and maturity of the ugly duckling:
“It is only with the heart that one can see clearly, for the most essential things are invisible to the eye.” (Andersen, 2011)
Throughout its life the ugly duckling one day wants be as beautiful as the rest of the birds. It then sees its reflection in the water and realizes that he has grown to be the most beautiful swan in the pond. That quote shows nothing but the swans desire to be treated as an equal. This doesn’t center acceptance on one’s actions but rather on one’s state of mind.
In the Danish storyteller Hans Christian Andersen’s most famous fairytale, “The Ugly Duckling”, the single story of an individual who goes through life being judged by the way they look because of how society has perceived them to be, is also found in modern fables of advertisements. In The Lady Remington Instant Curl ad, at first glance, it’s a women with the instant curl rollers in her hair. One aspect that caught my attention was the caption “Spend less time ugly”. This ad wants us to believe that putting the hair rollers in your hair will actually make you “less ugly” basically saying that you will only look prettier if you curl your hair the way the women is shown in the ad. Looking at the ad I also notice all the makeup the woman has on her face. This is showing that a women needs makeup to look pretty. Lastly, my eyes travel to her facial expression. The woman in the ad looks somewhat sad maybe presenting that you’ll feel much happier and prettier after curling your hair with these instant curlers.
Despite this ad’s attempt to show how women can be “less ugly”, this ad campaign portray women and men as physically perfect. We only see “ordinary” people are when they are used to be compared to the fit models, or when they are being made fun of. The effect this ad had on me was that for me to feel beautiful, I had to look like the other women that were perceived as “perfect” and that being myself wasn’t enough.
Like The Ugly Duckling and in the story of a Instant Curls ad, is it surprising to to be misread by someone at first glance? Everyone has a slightly different idea of the perfect body image but we are heavily influenced by the pressures from society and the media.. The story of the younger me hating myself because of the way my body looked is sad because I was comparing myself to the misconceptions of how society has drawn out how a woman’s body should look like. Like the Ugly Duckling and the women in the ad, I didn’t see my worth because I was too obsessed with trying to be like the women who were portrayed to be “perfect”. And because of this, throughout most of my life being judged by others, I perceived myself as not “perfect”.
My freshman year of high school was not that great for me. At the time I was a really shy girl who wore baggy clothes with my hair up in a ponytail almost everyday. I also didn’t feel the need to wear any sort of makeup to school. It was hard trying to make girl friends because I was basically a tomboy. As I walked down the halls, the senior girls are the ones who intimated me the most. With their thin bodys, perfect hair, and skin. And because of this I just grew more insecurse. I wanted to be like those girls because I felt as if I had to. I started running on the treadmill a lot, almost everyday. But it wasn’t just in school that pushed my insecurities, it was even on social media. Instagram for example. After stalking some of the senior girls page, I deleted all the old pics of myself because I felt as if I wasn’t enough.
At one point of my life I felt imperfect because of the misperception of beauty that society represents. And because of this it has affected my life in a big way. Society tells us what kind of body image we should strive for. We see images of perfect bodies all around us, on television, in ads, and even in fairytales. Additionally, making me feel self conscious and insecure about the way I look.
In today’s society there are many women who are breaking these stereotypes by embracing their beautiful bodies and redefining standards. For example, in the “Why Plus Size Models Don’t Promote Obesity” article, Katie writes that “A model wearing clothing is not promoting anything other than the item he or she is hired to wear”(1). In this way as we struggle to fit into the standards that society has perceived as being ‘perfect’ and in a certain shape which is tall, skinny, and flawless, these plus size models are teaching us to celebrate our bodies just the way they are. They make us see beauty for what it really is and not what we think it should be.
