Supergirl Syndrome Practically Perfect in Every Way

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Supergirl Syndrome Practically Perfect in Every
Way?

• Youth Worker Journal
• Youth Culture Lesson

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What happened

• Jordan Wight, a senior at Alhambra High School in
  California, is student body president, captain
  of the cross country and track teams, and
  homecoming queen, according to the Contra Costa
  Times.
• She is, the paper says, a Supergirl.

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• Supergirls, such as Wight, dont have super
  powers. Wight tells the paper her only real down
  time comes during track practice. Shes not
  alone. Other people are working just as hard as
  I am, she says.

4

• Youth are under growing pressure to succeed in
  every area of life academically, athletically,
  socially. Many researchers believe girls, in
  particular, are at risk.

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• Some girls feel pressured to be everything to
  everybody.
• They must be smart.
• They must be pretty.
• They must be sweet.
• They must be athletic.
• Its what you might call the Supergirl
  Syndrome.

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• Some of this is because college admissions are
  growing ever more competitive. The University of
  California-Berkley, for instance, rejected
  hundreds of 2007 applicants who had 4.0 grade
  point averages in high school.

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• Pop culture dominated by beautiful, successful
  women who have it all and do it allprobably
  doesnt help, either, experts say.

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• You have to look a certain, narrowly defined
  way. You cant be taking care of family and
  friends, and studying all night, and practicing
  all afternoon and looking relentlessly hot
  without giving up sleep altogether. This is
  physically impossible to do. Even more,
  psychologically, youre living up to a false
  self.
• -- Stephen Hinshaw, author of The Triple Bind
  Saving our Teenage Girls from Todays Pressures

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Talk About It

• Are girls under more pressure to be perfect
  than boys?
• Do parents and teachers expect more from females
  than they do from males?

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• Do girls expect more from themselves?
• Do they get more upset than boys do if they feel
  like they havent met their own goals or
  expectations?

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• Do boys expect girls to look and behave a certain
  way?

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• Its important to have goals and, sometimes, to
  push yourself but do you try to do too much, or
  expect too much of yourself sometimes?
• How do you know when youre stretched too far?

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• Whats the best way to deal with unrealistic
  expectations?
• Talking with your parents?
• Friends?
• Praying about it?

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What the Bible says

• Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your
  life, what you will eat or drink, or about your
  body, what you will wear. Is not life more
  important than food, and the body more important
  than clothes?
• (Matt. 625)

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• Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro
• He bustles about, but only in vain
• He heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it.
• But now, Lord, what do I look for?
• My hope is in you.
• (Ps. 396-7)

16

• Do not love the world or anything in the world
  For everything in the worldthe cravings of
  sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting
  of what he has and doescomes not from the Father
  but from the world. The world and its desires
  pass away, but the man who does the will of God
  lives forever.
• (1 John 215-17)