verse

I hate popular culture and at the same time, it's an amazing look at what we are allowing to shape our and our future generations' brains. I'm glad comedy has finally become mainstream in commercials though. At least I have a 10% chance of laughing while I'm annoyed now. I read a quote in a Christina Aguilera interview a long time ago that keeps popping back into my head. It went something like, "I don't think women should be afraid of their sexuality." I was confused. This statement is true. However, to use it to justify stripping down to a trashy leather bikini and chaps and prance around onstage? While female sexuality is suddenly acceptable and not as purely shocking as the days of Mae West and Bettie Page, we're still missing the point. The women in the spotlight are still catering to the perceived sexual ideal. Putting health concerns completely aside, what is really gained from spending all your time and effort on primping and preening your outward appearance? I enjoy getting decked out from time to time, so I'm not trying to say we should all wear amorphous sweatpants and smear our faces with mud to make a point. I just wish we weren't grooming our psyches to judge so much of a person's worth on how well they appear to fit into the mold of an attractive human being. It's even gone one step further. Now people lie about how shallow and judgemental they are and then watch shows like My Super Sweet 16 and The Hills when no one else is around. I mean, if no one is watching them, then why are they still on? They're absolutely terrible. The people on them are shallow, spoiled, mean, self-centered... aren't these all traits that we say we DON'T want in others?

If they're all 'doing their own thing', then why are they all doing it the same way? The point I'm trying to make is that the majority of the images of women are still as purely sexual beings. Before the feminist movement began, it was all about the woman's ability to please a man, to be subservient, to fit into the ideal of a good housewife. (For some, those ideals haven't changed much.) Now that we're 'liberated', everyone has been lulled into this false sense of 'independence' gained by being outrageous and overtly sexual.

I'm not attacking anyone's RIGHT to decide to do these things (case in point being that I myself have posed nude for a photo spread... yeah, so judge away everybody); I'm attacking the idea that doing these things means what we have been led to believe. I want everyone to take a serious look at the power we, as women, now have and how the majority of us are choosing to use it.

I'm also sick of everyone making judgement into such a dirty, dirty word. Judgement is ALSO human nature. Its regulation (i.e. the court system) was one of the foundations of modern civilization. We spend our entire lives JUDGING what we like and dislike. Who we like and dislike. What behaviors we like and dislike. If we don't, how are we ever going to decide what to do with ourselves in the first place?