Hiding Behind a Mask

“You are wearing a mask.” Present girls hide behind the figure of what society wants us to be and on the inside “have a dangerously fragile sense of self.” Alcohol Abuse, self mutilation, and under age sexual intercourse, have bad implications, but did you know many teenage females in today’s society are participating in one or more of these things? In the May 10th edition of MacLean’s, Dr.Leomard Sax, a family physician, wrote an article called “Inside the Dangerously Empty Lives of Teenage Girls”. This article describes the average lives and problems of teenage girls from excessive stress which can lead to cutting themselves, binge drinking and their views on sex. Our society is always changing and teenagers and adults need to learn to accept and adjust correctly.
These days, “…the average teenage girl is more anxious than the average girl admitted to a psychiatric unit for in-patient treatment 50 years ago.” Dr. Sax is correct when he says that psychologically girls are “waking up at two in the morning upset about the pizza she ate for supper.” Distinctly different he compares this to boys who “eat a whole pizza for supper and doesn’t bat an eye.” Most girls cut or burn themselves because “its real” not fake. Our society puts so much stress and pressure on teenage girls to be perfect that they are obsessed with being “the best student, or fastest runner.” In a study published by the Canadian Medical Association Journal two years ago using people age 14 to 21 they found that if you compare teenage boys and girls you will see that “only eight percent of boys but 24 percent of girls were cutting and burning themselves.”
Dr. Leonard Sax states that in one of his most recent studies statistics had proven that “about 55 per cent of university students being treated for alcohol abuse are female.” It has been stereotyped in the past that it male teenagers were abusers but now it’s all changing. Liquor is more toxic for woman because we “metabolize alcohol differently [then] males.” Ironically most female teenagers binge drink because they are stressed out and under to much pressure and this is their way of getting away and releasing all the anger and frustration. They are being the common cliché of “booze fixes everything.”
Sex used to be about intimacy but in this day and age its now about getting attention. It used to be that boys cornered girls at a party and persuaded them to perform oral sex, “a girl servicing a boy.” Now it’s a girl cornering a boy and “giving them blowjobs” and all they want is the attention. The sad and pathetic part is that girls are seeing no problem with it being this way. The boys of course aren’t complaining because they are getting satisfied. Teenage girls need to realize that we are more then objects; we are people and this is not the way people should act or portray themselves.
Teenage girls do worry too much, and a lot of girls use sex and drinking as a way out, or to feel better about them selves, and that is not the right way to deal with it. Parents and friends need to sit down these girls and explain that there are other ways to release this pressure in a healthy manner. Harmful habits like these will not help you grow up. You need to mature and become an adult and venture onto university or other things. Dr. sax is correct in stating that “girls drink too much”, are “cutting or burning themselves” and saying that teenage girls channel sex in a wrong way. Instead of criticizing, putting down and makes girls feel worse he should help.