Page 207 - Microaggressions in Everyday Live Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation

The Detrimental Impact of Gender Microaggressions 181

The unrealistic standard of beauty for women is shown in the following
facts. The average American woman is 5 feet, 4 inches tall, and weighs
162 pounds, but teenage girls describe their ideal body dimensions as 5 feet,

7 inches tall, 110 pounds and fitting a size 5 dress (Ogden, Fryar, Carroll, &
Flegal, 2004). It is estimated that only 5% of women can attain the size required
for fashion models (Irving, 2001).
Eating disorders are believed to be associated with dissatisfaction of body
image and/or an attempt to achieve an unattainable physical beauty standard.
Eating disorders are both life - threatening and likely to affect general health.
Over 90% of diagnosed anorexia nervosa cases, whether the restricting or
binge - eating/purging types, are suffered by females; over 90% of diagnosed
cases of bulimia nervosa are female; and binge - eating disorders are 1.5 times
more prevalent in females (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Little
doubt remains that body image, body dissatisfaction, and eating disorders are
intimately related to one another.

The Way Forward

Overcoming Gender Microaggressions

It is clear that gender microaggressions can take a major toll on the qual-
ity of life of women in our society. Gender microaggressions in a broad
sense are the overt and covert messages sent to women regarding their
place in society and their identities. Gender microaggressions are refl ec-
tions of a world view that defi nes a women’s existence as lesser than that
of a man, traps them with descriptive and prescriptive stereotypes, pun-
ishes them for breaking traditional sex roles, contributes to the climate
of violence toward women, and objectifi es and sexualizes them. To effec-
tively overcome these injustices requires a three-pronged approach: indi-
vidual intervention, institutional/organizational intervention, and societal
intervention.
1. Individual intervention—Becoming aware of our own biases, preju-
dices, and stereotypes about women and their roles in society are major
challenges to each and every one of us. Little doubt exists that we are all
victims of a cultural conditioning process that has instilled biased atti-
tudes, beliefs, and stereotypes about men and women, and socialized us

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