In early adolescence, girls learn how important appearance is in defining social acceptability. Also, girls come of age in a misogynistic culture in which men have most of the political and economic power, and girls sense their lack of power. Girls have four general ways in which they can react to the cultural pressures to abandon the self. They can conform, withdraw, be depressed, or get angry. The best way for girls to productively fight back is for them to explore and begin to understand the effects of American culture on their lives.
Intelligent resistance keeps the true self alive.
Just when girls most need the guidance of their parents, our culture sends them the message that they are to distance themselves from their families. Girls pull away from those people who love them the most and who are fighting the hardest to save their true selves. Americans believe adolescence is the time when children emotionally separate from their parents. This distancing creates a great deal of tension in families. Parents set limits to keep their daughters safe, while daughters talk about their rights and resent what they see as their parents' efforts to keep them young.