girls

[july_juniper]

maybe i shouldn't have read Smashed and Female Chauvanist Pigs consecutively. the first book being about a girls getting drunk all the time and what she did, or did not learn from it. the second being about the culture of women today with all it's skankiness. i seriously did not realize the connection of these two books until i overheard a

Comments

[light_of_mind]

it's hard to tell what the root of this problem is - whether females dumb themselves down because of the cultural emphasis on their physique and de-emphasis on the mind, or if there are other explanations that need to be found and considered and explored.
i don't necessarily think that dressing provocatively or sleeping with multiple partners always translates to skankiness, but i also wish that women could find more sincere and unique ways to get attention. being provocative sexually is only empowering if it's coming from a very comfortable and natural space, and not out of emptiness or self-consciousness or the void of losing control.
the female body is powerful, sensual, and evocative, and i think that will be true for the rest of time and that advertisers will continue to manipulate this fact as long as it keeps working and making money.
the key is to try as hard as we can to identify the reality of our personal lives and selves and the exxaggerations of the media, and be able to discern between the two enough to know who we are regardless of the messages that try so hard to shape us.
certain gender messages are inevitable as we grow up, but i really think that limiting exposure to destructive and alienating forms of mass media is one of the healthiest things we can do for our spirits.
this is where my love of independent film and subversive art comes in, but i won't go on forever.