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The podcast discusses how women are viewed and treated by society. It highlights the negative impact of social media and movies on women's self-image and behavior. The hosts talk about how social media reinforces gender norms and influences younger girls to buy products they don't need. They also mention how movies and shows pit women against each other and promote unrealistic beauty standards. The conversation touches on the perception of women as mean and the preference for male bosses over female bosses. The hosts discuss competition and sexism, including stereotypes and discrimination against women. They also share personal experiences of women putting each other down and the pressure to conform to societal expectations. Hello, this is our Seeds of Change podcast. Our topic is how women are viewed and treated by society. I'm Mel. I'm Gwen. I'm Trish. I'm Alyssa. The first topic I'm going to talk about is media, specifically social media and movies. For social media, social media can cause societal impacts on women, like reinforcing gender norms, such as how a woman should look or how a woman should act or what a perfect woman is. Some examples right now is younger girls going to Sephora. They're so influenced by the makeup and skincare that they're buying stuff that they kind of don't need, specifically skincare like retinol. You do not need that until you're, I don't know, starting to wrinkle. And little kids are not starting to wrinkle at all. What do you guys have to say about that? I've seen that going on for a few months now, and I'm just so amazed that it's still going on, just because when trends happen, they usually stop after a month or so. But I still see TikToks and everything of little girls still buying products that they don't need or don't use, and it's just insane. I still don't consider buying retinol ever in my life. It's so sad to see that they want to be kind of grown, because that's the way that they think they should be because how into social media they are. I know a lot of people think, like, right now a lot of younger girls, like around 10 or so, are wearing too much makeup or focusing a lot more on it than they used to, which is kind of strange to me because I feel like at 10 you shouldn't really care as much about what you look like. It's okay if you want to do it for fun or something, but I feel like it's less about having fun for them and more about trying to look older or more grown, especially with, what's that one product, Drunk Elephant? There are just a bunch of kids using it, and it's like, that's actually bad for you at this age. Yeah, it's damaging their skin barrier and everything, and it can cause a whole bunch of issues and hyperpigmentation and stuff. These poor kids don't know what they're doing. Do you have anything else to add at all? I'm just surprised that their moms and their parents just let them and buy everything for them that's Drunk Elephant related because it's really expensive to buy that, and I'm surprised that they're letting their kids just roam around Sephora like it's a playground, even if it's like a workplace, kind of, for many people. Okay, well, the other thing I wanted to talk about was movies and shows. A lot of movies and shows like to pit each other against one another, and so they reinforce that there is no sisterhood. An article said that we are taught that women are natural enemies and that unity between women is impossible because women shouldn't, can't, and won't bond with one another, which I think is BS. But also, movies and shows like to affect our self-images, being skinnier, sexier, or just appealing to a male gaze. I know growing up, I watched a lot of shows and movies that influenced, like, oh, you should be skinnier, you should go on these diets, yadda yadda. Some of them being, like, mean girls. Like, I think Regina's, like, trying to lose weight, and she's like, oh, I need to fit into my prom dress. Like, just buy a prom dress that fits you. And then a lot of Disney cartoons and cartoons in general are always, like, emphasizing, like, that perfect hourglass body, and it's like, that is so fake. I don't know why you guys think that is the norm, but, yeah. So there's that for media. Just referring to, like, a cartoon girl, but Scooby-Doo Girl, they had Velma more, although she was skinny, they made her face chunky, and they gave her glasses and wanted her to be seen as, like, the innocent, dirty friend, as Daphne was more of, like, oh, every guy wants her, she's so beautiful, she's so skinny, she's so girly. And that was just a thing to me. Like, the two different women, it's just, it was really fetishized and weird, because when Velma would drop her glasses, I feel like it was overly, like... Fetishized? Yeah, definitely. Fetishized. Sexualized. Sexualized. There you go, thank you. But, yeah, that's all I had to say. That makes sense. We'll be talking about society and the presentation and stereotypes of women, and I think it's very interesting. Women are likely perceived as meaner than men, even when they're being the same amount of mean. Because, well, I think a lot of this is because women are often meant to act nicer, or are supposed to be polite and not speak out. And so when people see a woman who is willing to stand up for herself, they decide that she's mean and not a good person. They just hate to see us win. Yeah. And that's even true for other women, too. For a lot of women, compared to only 26% of men, 39% of women report preferring a male boss over a female boss. It's a lot of women. And I think that this is a pretty big deal, because women aren't used to helping one another. They're used to there being only one seat at the table, as you might say. And so they all need to fight for it in order to succeed. But that shouldn't be the case. And I don't think it's the case anymore. Not as much, at least. There's still some work to be done there. But women aren't used to being respected or respecting other women for their success and power. Definitely agree with that. I think we see that a lot in society, especially in movies and stuff, too. Like in media, you see that a lot as well. Yeah. That's unfortunate. What were you going to say? I mean, I think it's – I feel like this type of stereotype is done less now than it used to be. But, like, people always saying that a woman slept her way to the top. Yeah. With the corporate. And it's like, what would a woman have – isn't it a bad thing that a woman would have to sleep with people? In order to get to where she wants to be? Yeah. Like, is that the only way a woman can possibly succeed? Like, that's just a bad thing. Mm-hmm. Okay, so I'm going to be talking about competition and sexism. Sexism is the act of discrimination against or even 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 usually 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 leader. An example of this could be that women belong at home with kids and men belong in the workplace. I also want to talk about women versus women. For many years, it has been known that women cannot ever experience true friendship with one another, 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 have fought for the 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 the hatred towards each other. An example of this could be women with a high status in the work environment usually tend to put their women employers down in order to secure their spot on top. So, that's asked us a lot. And I think that connects with society, too, a lot. Like, we see women putting each other down just to make them feel better about themselves or even just to get to the top. I'm going to be talking about my own personal experience that I had in high school. In my freshman year, I was a part of a really large friend group, which consisted of mainly girls and maybe like four guys. And the girls were always just very opinionated and very passive-aggressive when it came to other girls, especially the ones in our own friend group. There was always just a lot of side conversations behind a different girl's back or just a lot of putting one down around another person's body, especially in front of the guys. There was a lot of rude things said in front of the guys because they wanted the reaction from them. And they just wanted to, in my perspective, they wanted to appeal more to the men in the friend group. So, it was always a little – it was very difficult to be in that friend group for a while. And it kind of just taught me that you can't be aware of who you're friends with just because you never know what they really feel like about you and what they'll do to put you down, which is so crazy because I grew up with most of these people because we all went to the same elementary, the same middle school, and then we all graduated from the same high school. So, it was just really insane to see the switch as we got older. And that's my personal experience. Yeah. I can add in my personal experience. I think back in middle school, I had this friend who would always put me down almost as if we were competing against each other for who was in the spotlight and who wasn't. So, I always tried to back down from it just because I didn't want to be in the spotlight. I always felt like a shy person back in middle school. And I think because of that, that whole experience of being put down, she kind of was controlling too. She was very like, oh, you should come do this with me. You should come do that with me. But I don't want to do anything that associates with what you want to do. And so, I kind of just people-pleased a lot. And I learned eventually how toxic it was for me. And so, I kind of lost a really close friendship with her. But truthfully, I think that was for the best because who wants someone who's controlling, especially if it's your friend? Right. I think I let a lot of their opinions affect me because I was very loud when I was in high school as well as very social. And I was very comfortable with my presence of myself. And after a while, I was always just told to be more quiet or be more ladylike or the guys won't like this because I'm too loud and too obnoxious. And I think that just kind of affected me and caused a lot of my own personal issues now that I'm still trying to handle. So, I feel like there's a lot of long-term issues coming from the way girls treat each other throughout middle school and high school. And it's just, I don't know. It's just so crazy. It's crazy and it's bad because it's like we should be supporting one another, empowering one another, rather than putting each other down and kind of downgrading each other. It was a lot to take in, especially when you're young. I think that's where a lot of insecurities build up. But, you know, it's okay. I think we're going to get better. We're going to make it better. Okay, well, thanks for listening to the podcast. And, yeah, bye! Bye!