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The podcast discusses how women are viewed and treated by society, focusing on the impact of media and societal perceptions. Social media reinforces gender norms and influences younger girls' self-image. Movies and shows create competition and a lack of sisterhood among women. In the workplace, women are often perceived as meaner and face biases against female bosses. Female rivalry stems from the belief that there is only one seat at the table. Sexism perpetuates stereotypes and discrimination against women. Personal experiences highlight toxic friendships and body image struggles. Media portrays unrealistic beauty standards, and women are often fat-shamed or judged for not fitting the norm. The movie Mean Girls is criticized for promoting division among women. Oversexualization of women is prevalent in media and Halloween costumes. Discrimination against women in the workplace and the need for progress are mentioned. The podcast also mentions a TikTok trend questioning whether women Hello, this is our Change Podcast. Our topic is how women are viewed and treated by society. I'm Mel. I'm Gwen. I'm Cherish. I'm Melissa. Our first topic we're going to go over is media. Social media has been a big thing with impacting women. It has societal impacts on females, like reinforcing gender norms, such as how women should look or how a woman should act or what a perfect woman is. Some examples are younger girls are being influenced by social media and going to Sephora for makeup and skin care. Skin care like retinol, but they don't need. Other things is the idea of looking or appealing to male gaze. Some other media platforms are movies and shows that are always pitting people against one another. And because of that, there is no sisterhood. And we are taught that women are naturally enemies against one another. And that there is no unity between women and that it is impossible for us to come together. Another thing is self-image. There's a lot more skinnier, sexier people in the media that we watch, especially in Mean Girls, Disney, some other cartoons. So media is a huge thing when it comes to impacting women in our society. It also has to do with society as well. A lot of times, especially in the workplace, women are perceived as meaner because they're conditioned to be nicer or to be seen as nicer. So women can be as mean as men are, but they're seen as worse. But even though that's an issue, it's also an issue that women oftentimes don't like seeing other women in power. There was a study that said that compared to just 26% of men, 39% of women report preferring a male boss over a female boss. And this kind of goes into female rivalry, because a lot of women think that there's only one seat at the table. And they're used to putting each other down because they assume that if I don't put this person down, I won't have what I need to succeed. And of course, this shouldn't be the case, and this should be changed. Okay, my section would be competition, and it would start with sexism. Sexism is the act of discrimination against or stereotyping someone based on their gender, but it is typically more directed towards women. It would state that one gender is superior to the other. Women get stereotyped all the time with men always assuming that women are weaker by comparison or that women are too emotional to be in the position of a leader. A couple examples of this would be that women belong at home with the kids, and men belong in the workplace. But there's also one who embraces women for many years and has been known that women can never experience true friendship with each other due to them always having hidden animosity towards each other. The cause of this was alleged that it was biological, that because in the past women fought for securing male support, but since then it has never been restored. Because women are always in competition with each other, either sexually or in a professional environment, that leads to hatred towards each other. An example of this would be women with a high status in the work environment tend to put their women employers down in order to secure their spot on top. Speaking from my own experience, in my freshman year of high school, I was a part of a really big friend group. And there were guys in the friend group, but there was mainly girls. And of course there was always a lot of feelings because we were freshmen in high school. But there was a lot of passive-aggressive situations just between the girls alone. And that caused a lot of self-image issues as well as comfortability around other girls. And especially for myself, because my body didn't look like other girls' bodies, which were somewhat more developed than mine. And that was something that would always be made as a joke, which kind of was very off-putting, especially when they would do it in front of the guys, which was very uncomfortable. And it was mainly discussed in front of the guys, so I've always just kind of had my own personal view on friendships with women. And now, currently, I don't really hang out a lot with other people, except for the one person that I have, just because we've grown up together and we've just been so comfortable together. But I feel like having that situation with women, it's just kind of impacted my own personal view of how I should interact with other girls. Because even in elementary school, I've always been told very upsetting things about myself and my body and the way I act. I used to be a very talkative and very loud person, but for a very long time, I was told that that's not attractive to guys and that girls don't act that way. So I've just kind of adapted to it and just tried to be a people pleaser. I don't know if you guys have any experiences that you guys have on the topic of your mind. I wouldn't say it was kind of a competitive thing for me. I think in middle school, I had this really close friend of mine who also kind of embarrassed me a lot in front of people. And she was just a very toxic person because it seemed like she always wanted to be the person in the spotlight. And so I always felt like I needed to back down, so I kind of stood back as well. So I definitely can relate on that. And I mean, truth be told, it's because we were younger, honestly. But it still kind of hurt because I lost a friend after that, after realizing how toxic it was to be friends with that person. Especially because she belittled me so much just to make herself feel better. But I mean, I feel better now because I am more outspoken now. I'm not what society wants me to be, and that's okay. So do you guys have anything? I really don't think I have any experiences with that. Well, understandable. Real quick, how do you feel about movies-wise or cartoon-wise with the images of women's bodies? From a very young age, I always wanted to fit the description. I've always wanted big boobs and a big butt and a skinny waist. I've always wanted long hair, and I've always wanted to dress like a girl. But that's just not the way my body looks, and that's just not the way that I'm built. So I did struggle with it growing up because I used to watch America's Next Top Model a lot. And that kind of affected me for a while. And when I was younger, I had a slight eating disorder. And it caused a lot of unhealthy issues for me in my relationship with my body and food. So for a very long time, I don't know, I just never found a place to blame it. But after looking more into this project that we're doing, it kind of made me realize that it kind of came from my childhood, and it wasn't by my own choice of not wanting to eat. It's insane because they used to have crazy diets. So I was like, hmm, that's what a woman is supposed to look like. So I used to only eat sunflower seeds and sprinkles, which is terrible. It was the only thing I would eat. I don't know. No calories, they say. No. But I mean, I think a lot of times, especially in Disney cartoons and such, like Tinkerbell in, what is it, Peter Pan? She's checking out her butt and stuff. She has the hourglass shape, and everybody was like, that's the body that you should have. I think now, as women have progressed a lot in the media, I see a lot of more plus-sized women who are trying to embrace their body, but they're always put down and fat-shamed. It's so sad. Sometimes it's not even plus-sized women. It's just women who are kind of the normal, the norm. And people aren't used to seeing that. Because, you know, when you have cartoons and Disney and stuff, it's only really super skinny women. And so when you get somebody who has a bit more, like, who has more meat on them, people start to get angry and say, why are they fat? Why are they fat? It's not even that they're fat. That's just how people look. And even if they look fat, why do you care? That's fine. That's their life. That's their body. You have no say. So I definitely think that's something that should be discussed more about. But also, like, in media, like, we see in Mean Girls, like, women are against each other, like, totally. It's like, why? We're the same gender. We're the same species. We're all human. Like, what's the point? Yeah, and I really liked the movie Mean Girls when I was growing up because I was like, oh, they're so cool. And now it's just like, that's so freaking stupid. It makes no sense anymore. I get it. It was for, like, the plot or whatever, but, like, so many girls kind of just looked up to, like, Regina George and all of them just because they were considered, like, that girl. And now it's just like, don't even, like, try and associate yourselves with that. That's just disgusting. And, like, if you guys ever, like, watched YouTube growing up, there's, like, challenges where guys would try and get, like, with girls or whatever as a joke or, like, they would find, like, pretty girls that they would try and consider gold diggers. And it was just weird. They tried to over-sexualize women, and it was just disgusting. Yeah, and I think a lot of people still continue to over-sexualize women, especially with, like, Halloween costumes. Like, sexy nurse, sexy nudge, sexy doctor. Like, all of that is, like, disgusting. Like, why does a woman have to be sexy to be appealing to you? It makes no sense. I guess I just, I don't really think about it too much, but at the same time I do because I know that women get discriminated against in workplaces along with race and such, but that's, like, a big thing that I see. I mean, it's gotten better, but it could be even more better. I don't know if you guys have, like, are super, like, into TikTok right now, but, like, there's, um, the question, would you rather be in the woods with a man or a bear? Yeah. All of us are so upset that women are picking bear, and I'm like, what are you so upset for? You know what you do. You see all the articles. That's, like, stupid. It's, like, we can't even, like, get it into their head that it's not you personally. It's just a man in the woods is scary. Like, what's he doing there? Yeah. And also, like, I saw something like that, and then I read about, like, the lizards and what happened to the lizards. That was disgusting! Wait, all the bodies were lizards? Yeah, basically everywhere. There was, like, four hunters, I think, who were hunting, like, a lizard. They assayed it, and they killed it and ate it afterwards. Yeah. Yeah, so, but that's, like, that's the thing. It's, like, would you rather be stuck with men or be killed by some sort of other animal? Like, at this point, I'd rather be, yeah, the other animal. You know what the bear is gonna do. Sometimes you don't even know it. What if the bear just leaves you alone? Exactly. For a man, you never know. You never know. There are so many things a man can do, and what can a bear do? Just eat you? I think I'd rather be eaten by a bear. No, that was just so crazy to, like, read and see how much men were so, like, offended about it because they're like, you know, it's not all men. And that's right. It is not all men. But it's not all men. Yeah. Yeah. I do, too. But, anyways, that was our podcast. Thanks for listening. It kind of went off topic, but I hope you enjoyed. And, yeah, thanks. Bye. Bye.