Scenario! And...action!
My student teacher did an activity today with our class that turned out to be hilarious and so well played out I thought to myself, "Why haven't I done this more?" We grouped our students based on their interests. We gave them a starting sentence. Quietly, they had to swap the sentence between their group to complete the story. Each person had only 30 seconds to write at a time. We had a group of three girls that are very into pop performances/boy bands/Miley. Their topic was about waking up and finding themselves on a stage in front of a crowd of screaming fans. As they came to the front of the class to share, they started out describing how they felt and used descriptive adjectives, which was huge for this group of girls. Then, the next line they read out loud caused me to choke on my water: "We performed Wrecking Ball. Everyone stared." Immediately I said, "Uh, yeah-you think!" Two other girls in our class says, "Gross!" A few boys chime in, "Ew! Miley!"
Tonight as I was thinking about my school day, I realized that those girls could have chosen any song or artist to write about or use as an example. Instead, they used Miley. And Wrecking Ball. Face palm to my head. Is this the best role model they could come up with? Is this the girl that they are idolizing? If so, what are they idolizing about her? I can't figure it out.
During indoor recess, my kids love to play on our new laptops and make videos. That has turned into a hilarious activity that leaves me laughing at the end of the day at their videos. As I was flipping through to see what they had recorded today day, I notice that one of those little girls was "performing" in one of the videos she made during indoor recess. In the video, she says, "Look. I'm Miley!" She proceeds to stick out her tongue to the side, throw up the deuces, and sticks her butt out. Face palm to my head again. (Reminder: delete said video immediately.)
What have I realized? I need to introduce my girls to some legit role models. Meredith and I were talking the other day about how girls face such a stronger sex appeal opposition today than when we did at their age. When we were in middle school, our biggest concern was if my mom was going to buy me that new sweater at A&E or if were going to be dropped off at the mall for a while to go to a movie and hang around. We all looked ridiculously awkward and...awful. I didn't know what a flat iron was or how to manage my thick mane of mine. Boobs and butt by the time I was in 7th grade? I didn't know what to do with those things! In today's world, Meredith said she doesn't notice that really being an issue with her middle school girls on a regular basis. She said it is more about who is having sex (or who hasn't had sex yet), who you are hooking up with that weekend, and passing boys around.
Excuse me? I wasn't even sure what a penis looked like at that age. It still frightens me.
Rashida Jones wrote a flippin' fabulous article in January's Glamour mag titled "Major Don't: The Pornification of Everything." As I laid in bed one Saturday night, catching up on my beauty mags, with a glass of wine, I approached this article with caution. With Hollywood being pretty liberal and all about "She's just expressing herself" crap, I was not sure what view Jones was going to present in this article. However, it was a fresh breath of air. "If 1994 was the year of O.J.'s White Bronco, 2013 was the Year of the Very Visible Vagina." Amen. Since when did bending over and licking yourself(or other humans or props) in public become ok and sexual? Pretty sure that if I lick a foam finger in front of Newbie in the middle of our favorite Mexican restaurant, he would laugh his rear off and ask what the heck was I doing...or he would bolt and head for the door. I would be willing to bet that he would not be cuddling up next to me, encouraging this behavior. There is a huge difference between showing that you are sexy and selling sex. Most celebrity women today sell sex. What example is this setting for our daughters and future generation of girls? Selling sex gets you attention. What happened to sexiness being confident in your new jeans and sweater? Where is sexiness when you busted your tail and beat your 3 mile run record? What about sexiness in a pair of jeans, boots, t-shirt and hat? Or, here is something crazy: what happened to sexiness using your smarts and wit? Flashing the vagina, boob pasties, and leaving nothing to the imagination-- Hollywood is right on track. But, can we not pull back the reins and throw a shirt on that goes below the belly button along with a pair of shorts that that reach at least your wrist? Morals...you there?
If this is warping our children's minds, can we just imagine what it is doing to women? Yes, we are intelligent enough to try to draw the line between being sexy and selling sex. We can say, "I'm no Miley, thank the good Lord." But, I would be lying if I said that her and other sexual celebrities haven't played with my mind and made me feel like I didn't measure up being sexy enough. However, I do have enough sense to bounce back, find my grind, and move on. Our only hope is to instill in our daughters that the message Hollywood sends out is not ok. Limit their viewing. Show them other role models that demonstrate beautiful confidence from their inner-self, things that they have accomplished and made a positive difference. Nothing positive comes from a public vagina.
This reminds me of the time Newbie and I were watching a football game. As a cheerleader came up on the tv before the game went to commercial, the cheerleader bent over and the camera got a nice little view of her backside and bloomers. Nice waxing by the way. Newbie paused it and played it over and over, amazing that they sports affiliate would broadcast this on public television (or so he says)...
Which brings me to this point: as for men--what is this doing for their image of women? A friend of mine lived in India for a while. She said that while she lived over there, men would approach her and automatically try to grab her boob or butt. She said that men in India were so accustomed to seeing American women project themselves in such a sexual manner--they thought that how all American women wanted to be treated. Does this bother you? Does this change your view of sexuality or what is sexy? I would hope you--men--would look past this image of being projected and promote pure beautify, confidence, and sexiness. Tell us what you value in a woman.
2014--cheers to no more visible vaginas. Hasn't your mama told you less is more?
No comments:
Post a Comment