Teenaged girls in China assess the girth of their thighs with a tape measure to stay within the socially accepted confines of thinness, Mauritanian African women engage in overeating in hopes of packing on the pounds for their husbands and girls in India grow their hair out as long as it will continue to sprout from the roots. Females all over the world are experiencing the inescapable pressures of society to simply fit in. Here at Pace, it seems as though girls have established their own expectations of beauty and socially acceptable appearances to keep up with.
“18-22 years old is the last phase before you come and adult,” senior marketing major Steve Druan said. “People are already outside of their comfort zone just by being in college in its own right, so it’s easier for them to fit in then try something out of their comfort zone.”
The need to feel accepted at Pace is driven by a heightened sense of self-awareness for those struggling to define themselves before being thrown overboard into the waves of reality outside of college. Even though females are searching for their own identity, the social expectations tend to override the eccentricity that they are looking to achieve.
“I didn’t start doing my hair and wearing make-up until I got to college,” applied psychology graduate Christina Rodriguez said. “In high school I never did my hair and never wore makeup but once I saw all these girls all dolled up I started to feel the need to step up my game a little bit.”
The search for individuality has been surrendered to the push to conformity. Kessel has taken on the guise of a fashion show, where girls strut around in tight jeans and the pricey bags.
“Girls in the same sorority all look similar,” said another anonymous source. “Everyone in the same cliques dress and act the same.”
The individuality that people are looking to achieve can be found only within the rights of their clique as a whole. When polled, 75% of Pace students felt that conformity to groups overrules individuality of students.
“I think that there is an expectation, but only that people put on themselves,” senior communications major and criminal justice minor Brenna Crowe said. “I’m perfectly fine going to class in a sweatshirt and sweatpants everyday with no makeup on but some girls would never do that.”
The pressures that peers put on one another to present themselves in a certain manner are far greater than what the media can achieve because of the realistic comparisons. Because everyone puts so much emphasis on appearance it is only natural that those who do not share the same values attempt to squeeze themselves into the cookie-cutter molds that have been predetermined for them.
“You have Greeks, athletes, the bar girls and the stoners,” senior finance major and psychology minor Mike Metesan said. “People are almost afraid to be themselves.”
Imperfection is beautiful. If everyone is perfectly congruent then there is no room for beauty. The need to feel accepted is overwhelming, especially at a school this small. Apparently at Pace in order to feel beautiful one must conform to the ideas of beauty provided by peers. The goal here is to be remembered, not overlooked. Whoever said that being thin is the only way to be pretty is a liar and the person that deemed boots and scarves the only viable fall fashion is closed minded.
Being beautiful and feeling beautiful are two separate schools of thought. Pace is one, prove it wrong.