I was driving to yoga this morning and there is this major intersection on my way to Hollywood right over the Hollywood Freeway. Thousands of thousands of people drive this route every day, as it is the ONLY way to get from The Valley to Hollywood. At this intersection are three giant billboards, one of which has rotating screens to advertise three shows at once. I usually ignore them because I am focusing on trying not to be killed by drugged up LA drivers on their cel phones. This morning I glanced up and saw ads for these these shows all at once. It was a T&A overload. Obviously the CW network owns these billboards. And right now there are TV shows which treat women as trophies, prizes, and
I asked myself, "What has happened?" Why is that generation of women so eager to be part of this objectification and exploitation? Is there no other way for these young women to feel appreciated? Is my generation as pathetic? Who is watching and supporting all this crap? I admit that I have been sucked into American Idol(talk about exploitation!), but at least it is in part about exploiting talent.
I had just been thinking how wonderful it is to finally have a woman running for president. What would our founding fathers have thought? Then I see that crap.
Beauty should be admired and celebrated. I see at least one tree every day that makes me stop in awe, and the beautiful effect of the golden sunshine on the lavender hills is breathtaking. And today I practiced yoga with the most beautiful pregnant women and one gorgeous 3 month old boy. I feel lucky that I see beauty in so many things, including beautiful young people. Not only am I fascinated with why there is such a fixation on the "women as trophies or objects" thing, but also with the idea that there is some kind of social psychology here. Is it an underlying fear that a society of powerful women is scary, and there is a subconscious need to keep them in the safely established gender roles? Or is this younger generation just so shallow? Both?
Living here, I am surrounded with such superficial poop all the time, and I have gotten so over it. But now I am thinking, "What if I have a girl? How am I going to keep her adjusted with all that around her?" It was hard enough for me growing up with 80s commercials for diet soda and suntan lotion and Elle MacPherson. All that is nothing compared to now. Is it going to get worse? What if I do have a daughter and she ends up wanting to be in an exploiting girl band? God, I can't even deal.
What do you think? Am I just being overly analytical?
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2 comments:
David and I have had this conversation many times. He is afraid of the same things and wonders what we can do to raise a smart independent thinker. I think that when you raise girls to be confident in themselves, and teach them early about making decisions, and they have a strong father figure in their lives, they are less likely to look to men for their own self worth.
I'll get back to you in 16 years with this experiment.
I think our mothers and their mothers were faced with some of these similar issues...the idea of this kind of change in our society and for women doesn't seem appetizing and appears to be down right awful. And we may never understand it, just like they probably never did. But we'll accept some things and oppose others. The only constant is change...so I guess we have to roll with it and do our best to find the positive role models amongst the bad ones and teach our girls to be free thinkers and strong willed. To be proud of themselves and to cherish family aand good values. Whatever "good values" may be for you and yours :-)
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