The other day, a group of friends got together to talk about women making news today.
Over the past two years, women have been photographed being aggressive, ill-mannered and even dangerous on airplanes, one woman even taking off her clothes. It used to be just men who got belligerent during flights. Where are these women coming from and why? Are we seeing a trend or merely a blip?
Have you noticed the Pantless Trend? Women are being shown wearing tiny underwear (or in some cases no underwear) instead of pants. This is more revealing than the trend to wear lingerie as outerwear. ELLE Magazine called it “more subversive, shocking and extreme.” It feels a little like we are moving back to sexualizing women as has been the modus operandi as far back as we can remember. We thought we had moved on.
Many believe that the downfall of young starlets like Britney Spears came as result of sexualizing a 12-year-old. We learned from this that explicit sexualization hurts girls and women at any age. It appeared that we were winning the battle for intelligence, competence and compassion over “sexy broads.”
However, sexualization is up and going gangbusters. It is hard to miss the photographs of Kanye West’s newest partner, Bianca Censori, whose near naked wardrobe and sheer bodysuits have caught the attention of practically every photographer in the world. How much more demeaning can this get?
Why are there no women at the top of the leaderboard in politics? Why does it seem that women are being marginalized? Regardless of one’s political persuasion, it is an election year and there are no strong women’s voices speaking out – especially since many believe that the central issue that may decide the next president is a WOMAN’S right to choose.
We are not sure how and why a population of women are devolving into this abyss. It gives us pause as we ponder where the role models for young girls are today? We had so many when we came of age. How do mothers teach their daughters to be gracious and elegant and to hold their heads up high? Where do young girls find female role models? Who are their heroines?
If it is Taylor Swift, we can all admire her business acumen. But it seems that she needs to move on from whining about ex-boyfriends. Enough already, and our advice is if you do not like the guy, don’t hang around for years. So there!
Perhaps a ray of hope lies with the extraordinary success of Caitlan Clark whose leadership on the court and off put Women’s Basketball on par audience wise with Men’s Basketball. This is exciting and tells us that women can still move to the front of the pack. What was amazing was how quickly she rose from a hard-working college basketball player to the most talked about athlete in America in a matter of a month. From her, we see that societal attitudes can transform quickly.
Let us know if you agree that there seems to be disquieting atmosphere in the air. Now, more than ever, women need to work collectively to continue to be a force for positive change in today’s society.
Ciao