Uh, Single...coffee BEFORE posting! He asked that guys hold off posting...

and let the ladies have their say first.

Don't let your enthusiasm impair your credibility!

The examples of "girl power" mentioned are just that - GIRLS.  They aren't very representative of women in society, as your post points out. They are more of a manifestation of the typical teenage rebelliousness or declaration of independance, or what have you.  Hopefully, the girls that are fans of the Aguillera-like phenomenon will grow out of this stage and become real, normal(sic), luscious, sexy, responsible, beautiful, complex, desireable, did I say "luscious"?, WOMEN.

My 12 year old niece was walking around the house singing "In a Boys Dream".  I heard her at "hike up your skirt a little more, and show your world to me."  I doubt she fully understood the song.  It was just catchy.  When I mentioned it to her dad, he wrote it off.  He thinks going to church every week will keep her strait.  I know they do not teach sex education in her school, and I also know that her parents have not discussed it with her.  It is no wonder that kids are starting to have sex so early.  They are innodated with sex everywhere they go.  No one in my area of the world talks about sex except for short 30 second sound bits on TV that preach abstinence.  By the time a child is 12, it is no big deal.  Popular music tells you how to do it.  Kids will always be curious and they will always do what you tell them not to do.  If you do not tell them anything at all, they will find out on their own.  Anyway.  I don't think I have see girl power yet.  Especially when girls are still taught that sex is bad and they are bad if they have it.  We scare young girls, we do not help them understand sex.  Then we wonder why they grow up with sexual dysfunctions.

Interesting enought, my aunt lives in West Virginia, has two daughters, and a modest income as a bank secretary.  She value education, has no TV set.    My aunt talks frankly to everyone about everything, including her kids.  She had them helping her do her taxes as some as they could add, and keep their mouths shut.  She has explained sex, love, and most everything else an adult needs to know.  Her daughters listen to country music, play instruments, have excellent grades, and are very well adjusted.

More so then most of their Urban brethren (sistren?) in my neighborhood.  They are always hanging out on the street corners yelling and screaming with their friends.  Flirting with the local boys (who have been caught stealing Net Flicks videos out of our mailboxes), and generally being idle teenagers.  When they are waiting at the bus stop, I never see them with instruments, or even a load of books for that matter.  The parents are too busy working off their 370K mortgages and trying to put gas for their Lincoln Navigator to care what there kids are up too.  Ah the world to day.  I think Girl-Power is a marketing tool invented to sell records to older men.  Me-Power is still the word of the day.

Enviroment is everything.  And not just the pretty window dressings we put up for the neighbors.

Now that I am talking like my grandfather, who is 45 years my senior, I will step down and shut up.


-- Modified on 8/28/2003 1:12:03 PM

Wow, I'm sooooo shocked that you don't adore Drew also...she is just so darned juicy! Always a smidge curvier and softer than the other ladies around her, including Lucy.

I actually really really love the Charlie's Angels movies... I haven't really considered them as role models for young women but I'm not sure what's wrong with them in that role... they are strong, powerful, confident, brilliant, beautiful... those are all good things.

Christina Aguilera however, I'm right with you on... but lord she has SUCH a voice. Hopefully one day she'll grow up and not be a "little girl," but become a woman... she would be so incredible if she did!

Now as for their dressing like hookers, well, I think there is good and bad there. I mean these days the little girls department has more slutgear than most lingerie shops... LOL It kills me!  Now would I let my child dress like that? Probably not. But what does it say that they CAN and that it's more acceptable in society? What are the repercussions? What does it mean when a woman can be raised knowing she is a sex object, recognizing that power that she has, and not afraid to use it to get what she wants?

I don't know the answers... but I do like to ponder the questions! Whether or not I agree with what anyone wears, I will say this... I'll fight for the right for a lady to have the CHOICE to dress however she likes.... THAT is what feminism is about, the freedom of choice.

Hugs*
Tamara

wait ... that doesn't even make sense!  :-/

---

Ann?

Hmmm, well, another take...

I still disagree on Charlie's Angels... strong, confident, brilliant, and beautiful in their own unique ways... I think those are all good things. 'Cept they are all too damn skinny!

BUT... regardless... I actually think that female power has LOTS to do with our sexuality. But my perspective on this is different, I do not feel that there is me, and then there is my sexuality. There is just ME, and my sexuality is all bound up in me and runs through every part of me, whether outwardly visible or not. Without my sexuality I would not be me... I'd be some other, lesser entity. That is how I feel. I feel our sexuality is an incredibly powerful force... even the denial of that sexuality is powerful!  

You don't have to deny the power of sexuality to be a feminist... actually I feel quite the contrary!

Hugs*
Tamara