Myspace and Facebook have been continually on the rise, as more and more adolescents all over the world log on. Of course, there's the obvious blogging, top friends drama, and compulsive posting of bulletins, but the classic photographs of teenage girls standing in front of their bathroom mirrors with little to nothing on stands out among the sea of social networking cliches. These photos tend to be more than head shots and reveal what they most likely shouldn’t.
It all starts with “playing around," yet it ends up leaving the girl looking like a complete disgrace, while opening the door to sexual predation.
While striking poses and taking angled shots is rather innocent and playful, setting the angle to perfectly reveal cleavage doesn’t leave teenage girls with much dignity. It’s one thing to take the pictures, and then a completley different story to plaster them on a worldwide, easily accessed website.
With the media and society constantly filling girls' minds with “ideal” images and styles, it’s easy to see how today's female generation could fall under the influence of its surrounding environment. For example, supposed teen idol Miley Cyrus was photographed in Vanity Fair with only a simple bed sheet covering her chest. Photographed by Annie Lebowitz, Miley posed comfortably in front of the lens, and with the printing of those photos, Miley tricked many innocent, developing minds of numerous teenage girls into thinking this risque behavior is "attractive."
It is true that Myspace profiles and photos can be set to private, meaning only approved friends are granted access. However, the point isn’t entirely about who is viewing these photographs. Rather, it is that by not only taking these revealing photos, but posting them as well, girls of today are putting themselves out there and are leaving themselves with no self respect. What are others suppose to think of them? How can they possibly expect to be treated with respect?