Reviving Ophelia

Cayenne is an example of a person who, due to societal pressure and a need for acceptance, sacrificed her true self for a “false self […] that ranges from basic socialization to abuse” (48). All people repress aspects of themselves to fit in, but the degree to which this occurs varies. Social subscriptions may be less directly hurtful than open bullying and shaming, but they still have long term effects. Movies, advertisements, and music videos often depict women as mindless sex objects. Pipher explains that girls of a certain intelligence level are aware of these double standards but are not yet capable of overcoming them. Thus, they still fall victim to them. The pressures felt by girls are usually met with one or more of four reactions: “conform, withdraw, be depressed, or get angry” (55). Alice Miller published her work on the splitting self in 1979, but her ideas hold true both in 1994, at the time of Reviving Ophelia’s original publication, and today. The idea of the split self continues in Chapter 3, where Pipher explains her theory of the deep structure (identity, place in the world) and surface structure (superficial behaviors) selves.

Between the 1990s and now, the mechanisms through which this pressure to conform stems have changed. For example, there has been a shift from in-person socialization to social media, but the messages that girls receive remain the same. Pipher argues that, if anything, the “gap between the true and the false selves has widened” (56) due to a lack of meaningful socialization and addiction to the online world. The need for external validation, now not only from friends but from strangers online as well, weakens girls’ sense of self. On top of this, they are rarely if ever without their phones, leaving them feeling like they are incapable of full independence.

Pipher opens the chapter by presenting a relatable anecdote of a girl every reader knows. She does this to ensure that the reader can not only understand the proximity of the issue to their own life but also to illustrate how deeply personal the issues caused by gender expectations become. Pipher then relates several smaller anecdotes, which serve to build upon the story of Cayenne. Finally, Pipher presents statistics and historical facts to further solidify her argument that girls are poorly represented, mistreated, and becoming lost in the shuffle of the online world. To provide some hope, Pipher argues that while feminism was seen as taboo and off putting in the ’90s, she is proud to report that the number of girls who proclaim themselves feminists is on the rise. She also notes that there is an increase of female presence in the professional realm and in education, which points to a future where women are closer to becoming equal members of society with equal influence.