The Daily Campus

Issue date: 6/9/08 Section: Commentary

The first step toward getting past this problem is to acknowledge that it is a problem that starts early on. This is partially due to parental irresponsibility. It was said in the Psychology Today article that kids are socialized by television, the internet and their peers, rather than by caring, demanding and mentoring adults. We, as consumers and as the future parents and role models of society, need to reject the negative, unrealistic images, and reject the idea that we can buy our self-worth. We must demand more positive, empowering images of men and women and support positive role models and companies that do not profit off of people's negative self-esteem. Most of all, we must be positive role models ourselves by improving ourselves physically, intellectually and spiritually, and for our own sake, rather than as a way to compete with and prove our worth to other people. A cultural shift can only happen if we demand it, and if our collective individual paradigms focus on the former, rather than the latter.


Staff Columnist Allyssa Milan is a 7th-semester sociology major. She can be contacted at Allyssa.Milan@UConn.edu.

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