Neo-Feminism

Articles about the youthful generation that is degenerating today seem to fuel my disgust towards them, especially the girls. When I was in high school and if I heard of anyone getting pregnant, I brushed it off as, “That was their own fault, as well as the guy’s.” How can anyone be so stupid to get pregnant when there was so much information about how NOT to get pregnant?

I see it happening now to the female students I teach. I like to naively think that fifteen-year-old girls are not sexually active, but when you see and hear about freshmen girls getting pregnant, you can only imagine the same fate for some sophomores. But it all goes deeper than getting pregnant. I’m more disgusted with the way girls dress. They come into class wearing mid-riff baring tops and low-rise jeans and skirts with thong underwear peeking through. They think it’s cute and cool. The first thing that goes on in my mind is, “Do you have any self-respect?”

Comparing my values and morals with that of the girls today would be futile. According to them, I was raised in the dark ages. If I were to start lecturing these girls about how they dress, how they carry themselves, and the value of self-respect, my lecture would go in one ear and out the other. They justify their actions as "girl power" and the power of femininity. I hate that mantra. To them, it's the license to do whatever they want. To me, "girl power" is an identity of one's own femininity and how it is defined within that person's scope and ability. Now, I’m not a very political person, but I am grateful for the improvements that the women’s liberation movement in the 1960s has made in order to better every woman’s chances of equal opportunity. I am not obligated to any feminist organization for that right, but as a woman and teacher, I do have a responsibility to perpetuate a positive image of my identity, my profession, and most of all--to myself. I would never want to be misconceived as an irresponsible, daft, and licentious person. But believe it or not, that's what girls strive for: irresponsibility, so they are never accountable; a daft image so they are not intimidating; and a licentious persona because they think it's sexy. All this adds to "cute." Girls today don't understand their identity as individuals who can do so much with the world if only they used their minds, not their bodies. There is so much more to being a powerful woman than just tits and ass.

I don't want to point fingers, but I blame the media for all this. Girls today are the driving force of pop culture, and everything appears to be marketed toward them. Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Mariah Carey are the so-called role models today, but the images these women portray are only mixed messages to growing girls. I walked into Rave (it's a trendy clothing store for girls) while I was at the mall one Sunday afternoon, and it's shocking to see 6th or 7th graders buying thongs. As they walked out of the store, I noticed their low-rise jeans and their slightly mid-riff "Girls Rule" T-shirts. What will they be like in high school when their bodies start to develop? What kind of clothes will they wear then? For Pete's sake, where are their mothers!? Oh, silly me... it was their mothers who gave them their allowance so they can go buy those clothes.

“Clothes do not make the man,” as the saying goes, but it is the first thing that people notice. The way a person dresses is always not a true depiction of what they are on the inside, and maybe some of these girls with low-cut blouses and mid-riff tops are intelligent and aware of their own worth, but the message they convey with their inappropriate clothes would always be misinterpreted, and with that comes the misrepresentation of who they are.

I can always warn them of that, but experience is a greater teacher.