“Exploited or empowered” May 17, 2007
Posted by Wednesday Girl in Empowerment, Women's Bodies, beauty, bodies, fashion, female emotions, female perfection, feminism, girl power, identity, power, sexuality.trackback
The article Resisting the Raunch Culture that Objectifies Girls, discusses the effect that risque clothing has on young girls. This clothing, which attracts male attention and leads to increased sexual activity, often results in depression and low self esteem. The writer claims that in dressing more modestly, girls will claim more power and increase self esteem as they will learn to see themselves as more than just sexual objects.
I agree that dressing in skimpy clothing can have no positive effects on young girls, but the problem can not simply be solved by telling them to wear more clothes. I think the focus should be on discussing why girls feel a need to objectify themselves and reclaiming power within themselves first before changing their outward appearance.
I think that’s a really interesting article but the part that really gets me is when the author says that parents “feel powerless to resist the objectifiction of their daughters.” Maybe I’m at the age where I can claim that I would never do this or that as a parent because, well, I’m not a parent. But who’s buying these skimpy clothes for their children? While tweens and kids have an absurd amount of disposable income, it’s the parents that are giving them money and buying the clothes. So in a sense it seems simple that parents can just refuse to buy them these clothes (though I know there’s always the leave the house in one outfit and immediately change possiblity.) Isn’t it possible for parents to teach their children a sense of style that doesn’t revolve around showing everything you’ve got (or don’t have at that age?) I know that pop culture fills our lives but parents need to teach their kids that it isn’t always what we should be admiring.
I agree that the problem is more complex than the author of this article makes it to be. If young girls everywhere see women like Britney and Paris revealing it all, they are going to want to follow. There are too few images of these idols wearing clothes and the media is responsible for influencing girls to believe that this is the way that they should dress. The picture that is shown of Paris Hilton is one of her wearing decent clothes (she’s going to court, what do you expect?, and this is the first time that I have ever seen her with her parents) compared to the hundreds or even thousands of photographs with her in skimpy clothes, the ones that we are used to seeing her in.
I think that self esteem may be tied into the reasons why young girls try to flaunt what they wish they had. It is a known fact that they are trying to compensate for something that they don’t have. At the tender (or not so tender) age of seven, a girl does not know what she wants and looks elsewhere for guidance. Unfortunately, if the most popular image that she sees happens to be Paris, then I guess we have an issue. The ironic thing is that this “sexy” look is virtually everywhere. Clothing lines make scandalous clothing for five year olds. The problem is that these types of clothes are so easily accessible. We also have to pay attention the parents (as was previously stated) for consenting to such inappropriate outfits. Young girls look on television and are inspired to be like whoever is getting the most attention. My advice is to change the people who are so influential. My bet is the rest will follow.
I would like to see how the new clothing line sell and I think that it could be a success if popular celebrities helped to endorse the products. If someone can convince Britney, Paris, Lindsay, etc. to sport the new clothing, I am sure that this problem will be fixed.
[...] 20th, 2007 · No Comments Girlpower1 links us to this article about the budding ‘modesty movement’ in America, aimed at the same [...]