Yesterday I watched “What
Would You Do?” on ABC and there were some situations that were very relevant to
our discussions in Women’s Studies. The two situations that stood out most to
me were the ones called “Mom Won’t Relent on Gender Change” and “Parent Wants
Botox for Teen.” You can see how the titles of these situations are related to
the constant pressures that teens and young adults face every day.
If you have never seen
this show, it is a reality show that sets up scenarios in public where random people
are filmed to see how many of them would do the right thing and speak up. In
these situations I do not know how anyone could have kept quiet…
In the first scenario, “Mom
Won’t Relent on Gender Change,” a mom is out to dinner with her son and various
groups of people are filmed eating nearby. The mother and son get into an
argument because the son insists that he is a woman on the inside and he wants
his mother to be accepting of him. The son also states that he cannot change
how he feels and he likes wearing women’s clothing. The mother starts yelling
at her son to stop talking that way and says she wishes she never had a son. The
mother then gets up and leaves the restaurant and some bystanders jump in to
console the boy and support him. Many bystanders reacted and called the mother
out when she returned. The bystanders encouraged the mother to accept her son
as he is and to love him unconditionally. I was so happy to see so many people
react to this situation and reassure the son that it was his choice.
In the second scenario,
“Parent Wants Botox for Teen,” a mother and daughter are at a beauty salon with
many other women. The mother is getting a pedicure with her daughter for her
birthday and they are reading magazines. Then the mother sees a sign in the
salon for Botox and tells her daughter she needs to have it done. The daughter
refuses Botox because she is eighteen years old and a very beautiful young
girl. The mother is relentless about getting her daughter into the room for the
procedure, until many women in the salon speak up. The women express that the
mother is acting crazy because her daughter is only eighteen and a beautiful
young woman. The women also emphasize that the mother is creating insecurity in
her daughter and making her have a distorted body image. I think this issue
really hit home for many women because it is a constant struggle for women in
our society to be beautiful and perfect.
The pressures that
teens and young adults face every day are stressful as it is. I found these two
scenarios especially shocking because I feel that parents should be the ones
that encourage and support their children the most. Parents need to be a
support system for their children and tell them they are beautiful and worth
something. If some parents, like the ones in these clips, are not able to do
those things for their children, then I am glad to see how other people react
to help complete strangers.
What would you have done in these situations?
