Per the linked article below I’ve got to admit I’ve been kind of surprised lately to see 13 to 16 year old girls in public wearing T-shirts with double entendres about what good rides they are, or how their milkshake is better than yours etc. etc.
I don’t think of myself as a prude, but I have to admit it’s a bit jarring to see these messages on teeny bopper’s shirts. I would almost think they don’t really know what these messages are saying, but decided that was just silly, and they know perfectly well what the implication of these messages are.
Why is this seen as OK by parents? Is this just girls aggressively embracing their sexuality or something less affirmative? Is this the beginning of the neo-porn era where overt sexuality by adolescents is now mainstreamed?
That sums up my issues with Third Wave Feminism, right there.
I’m not sure neo-porn is what I’d call it. It’s an unsurprising consequence of shifting cultural attitudes. Not that I’m necessarily a big fan of these things. If our culture makes sex less of a big deal, that’s probably a good thing, but at best this would be an intermediary step in that direction and I worry that some of the kids don’t quite know what they’re getting into.
I see it more as a big step toward equality; women are doing the same filthy, unattractive stuff that men have been doing for decades. Granted, a 14-year-old girl with a “[cock] tease” t-shirt picks up some irony next to a drunk (male) hillbilly whose shirt says “Show Me Your Tits,” but I think that, in reality, if you put the two in a room together, the hillbilly would be terrified and the girl would be bored.
In short, maybe I’m overly optimistic about all this, but I think that (a) the girls don’t see it as “taking a stand for equality,” and (b) maybe that’s an indicator that we’re making good progress.
Then again, I’m no Gender Studies Theorist. I have no idea what this “Third Wave Feminism” is that you speak of, Marley23.
Hijack for clarification, please: What’s so raunchy about a t-shirt that says “Everyone loves a Jewish girl”? Seems like the harmless half-brother of the “Kiss me. I’m Italian” button, to me.
Sure, but who’s “we”? The teeny boppers? I agree with jackalope about them, they’re not fighting for women’s rights. I think they’d tell you that they’re enjoying an exciting new power. Us? Certainly not. And if some given single woman’s sole contribution is sexual, why dump on that? Too many men, too many people seem to believe that women have an obligation to be pure, for some value of “pure”, that men don’t share*. If that attitude goes by the board, isn’t that progress? Note that this is separate from believing that everyone should be pure, for some value of “pure”, or not.
*Ariel Levy, for example, equates raunchy behavior with “acting like a man”.
If we had contraceptive implants - good ones, I mean - I’d be totally in favor of a major social upheaval after which sex is trivial and everyone works out their own damnation. We haven’t got them, so there’s all kinds of social good . Still, this trend will have to become vastly more widespread before it worries me, and I doubt that there are enough girls willing to wear [cock]tease shirts for the movement to acquire massive crushing power.
It is a step toward equality and I think a lot of what you say is true. But that still leaves me wondering if this is actually a good thing. It makes me think of Sex and the City: in the show, the women have libidos just like men, and while there are obvious positives to admitting that women also like sex (and after all, it’s true), at the end of the day, the equality I see presented in the show is usually “everybody can be equally shallow.” (Not to overanalyze a TV program which is not a manifesto.)
I’d try to explain what I mean with “third wave feminism,” but I’d botch it. The above is basically what I had in mind.
Anybody else see teenybopper girls in shorts or tight sweatpants with “Juicy” branded across their little bums and just every once and a while think “Diarrhea?”
As a 30 year old guy I would guess it’s not actually about sex but rather has to do with age. That is it’s an attempt by people who aren’t kids nor adults to claim adulthood for themselves, and the rights that go along with it. I’m thinking that they view sex as being one of the key things about being an adult, as well as alcohol, drugs and whatnot.
Too bad they don’t know the truth. In Calvin & Hobbes, Calvin once asked Hobbes what ‘adult situations’ were and Hobbes replied that it was stuff like paying bills and doing your taxes. He was wrong about movies, TV shows and the like but right about life.
P.S. Sometimes it seems like everyone in this culture wants to be 21 forever.
I reminded of one of the recent eps of Family Guy:
Lois: Meg, you want a shirt that says Porn Star?
Meg: No.
Lois: Well what about slut? Huh? It’s written in glitter!
Meg: No.
Lois": Ooh, her’s one that says sperm dumpster!
Meg:Well…I guess I’ll take sperm dumpster.
Same reason the others girls would wear their “damn” sweatpants (I always think that words written on the ass are strange, but “damn” seems almost like an applause sign, that is, I see it and want to say, “daaaamn girl.” In theory, I’d hope it would be a notice to the girl in question like, “hey, I’m drawing the wrong kind of attention to myself” but would most likely be, “hey, let’s call the cops on this pervert”) - irony or the deflating stereotypes.
Deflating stereotypes as, “hey, I’m idenditified with an ethnic group and appear to be a walking punchline, but look closer and you’ll see that I’m not.” Irony might also be a cover for celebrating the behavior in question, like selling the “Drunk 100%” hats (can’t remember the Spanish) in the local poor-people drug store.
Thirteen year olds walking around in “Baby Mama” shirts are too much for me though. Especially when it’s obvious that their own Baby Mama bought them. I figure the girls at the club with the “slut” shirts ((they always seem to be white. Why is that - for wet T-shirt contests?) should use a marker and put a price on it ("$40," “at least three drinks, none of which are beer,” etc.)) are old enough to figure things out for themsleves.
I can see why it might be offensive, but it’s not raunchy at all, since there no sexual element. I wonder if the OP and/or article he linked to is referring to a different shirt, since the subject seems to be “a raunchy, porn-drenched sexuality”.
The author of the article appears to be an unreconstructed 70s feminist. Reading it, I tried to imagine her finding sex of any kind pleasurable in a direct and uncomplicated way. I could not. In short, I think the author looks at this phenom through so many filters, many of them invalid, that I don’t think she understands what’s going on at all.
Most of the time, when teen girls get sexy, they’re rebelling against all the “don’t get sexy” messages they get from society. It’s really that simple.
I fail to see how a tight-shirt with a sexual message on a young girl can be viewed as anything other than objectifying that girl to men. And isn’t “objectifying women” still bad?
If not, I bet you need to get through some real mumbo-jumbo journal speak to get to the point that it’s not.
A 30 year old man sees a 16 year old girl in a slut shirt reading “Ride a Cowboy” with her thong showing and he’s thinking one thing: yippie kai yay, mother fucker!
