Why females aren't taken seriously

Post Reply New Topic

Now, I'm 51 years old and I've lived long enough to see trends and how things end up. I've always had a wish that women in general would eventually value themselves more and see themselves in a better way than just sex objects. After all the women's lib marches in the 70's, Gloria Steinhem, the right to vote, the list goes on..... BUT STILL, when I drop my son off at school, what do I see?? Young girls not even yet 15 years old with shorts up their arses, low cut blouses that would even embarrass a prostitute (no insult to those who actually make a living this way). They sexualize themselves in school snapshots, on facebook, etc...
Do they think that their vaginas are the sum total of themselves? Is it the media? the fashion industry? Who is to blame??! !
My son is in honors classes and there are a "minority" of females in his classes. Yet they have far too many cheerleaders to where they have grueling competitions to even be considered for entry into this extracurricular activity. There is a minimal number of females in math clubs, school newspaper club, anything that requires a brain and NOT a vagina seems to be lacking enrollment! WHAT IS HAPPENING TO OUR GIRLS IN THIS COUNTRY??? What's going on here? It's the year 2012 and yet females are meaner to each other than ever before. Have we made any progress at all??

They dress like that out of their own free will. It really is no different than 15 year old boys lifting weights to gain muscle.

First of all, what they choose to wear should be largely irrelevant.

I come from a place where wearing whatever you want is perfectly normal (plus it's too hot to wear much else), and dressing like that does not mean that you are a "sl*t" or "wh*re" or whatever else because there is no cultural association with dressing that way and prostitution. To this day, I do not understand the judgemental thinking that comes pre-packaged here due to dressing like that.

As far as it comes to the media and whatnot, school is largely a popularity contest when it comes to social factors. Nowdays, who gets the most attention wins the popularity contest and when these girls are acting in a sexual manner, they are getting then attention they crave and the popularity that comes with it.

The media pushed that image on these girls mercilessly too, and that doesn't help. These girls are at a stage where they probably have not formed critical thinking skills yet, and so they accept it without question. The media, the dieting and the beauty industries make millions off this and encouraging girls telling them that they are not good enough the way they are, that is how they sell products. (look in any well known magazine aimed at teenage girls or young women)

They also set them up with a mentality that they were never be good enough so they have to keep buying that crap in order to be good enough. It results in Body dysmorphic disorder and eating disorders. At very least, it results in disordered eating which 90% of females between the age of 13-25 have participated in at some point.

They are told they need all of this to "fit in" and so they do so. Often it means they will continue to struggle with at least one and sometimes more of these issues throughout their lifetimes. (more profit for those industries)

@Kjas- whore is sometimes used the same way as the word slut. Not saying it should be,just how the meaning use used differently than it is supposed to sometimes.

In the OP it mentioned less girls in honors class and other things like that, that is not usually true. There is a gap in schools between guys grades and girls, boys are falling behind slightly overall.

At my school their were mainly girls in newspaper club and things like that, one experience does not tell the whole story.

They do it because of peer pressure and/or for attention there also seems this thing where not wearing much clothes is seen as 'liberating' and if you do cover up you are seen as frumpy or boring.

Mother nature. The biological imperative. Boys posture, brag and show off their status symbols, girls flaunt their anatomical assets.

Who is going to take a 15 year old girl seriously, anyways? Sheesh. You'll note that their teachers and school administrators aren't dressed that way. When it comes time to get professional jobs those girls will buy clothes that reflect their maturity, but at the age the OP is describing they are dressed frivolously for a frivolous time in their lives.

That's the only thing that really bothers me about that.

I always felt frumpy and boring because I never "showed skin". It's unfair.

But I guess this distinction between "liberated" and "boring" is something else the media aims at. Because if you notice that dressing in a "boring" way is bad, you'll try to go to the other end.


As long as the world is run by money and men, this won't change.

I'd rather lift weights to gain muscle than wear short shorts up my ass, any day.

I was about to agree with whoever said it was due to instinct, but I wonder if ASD women are less likely to dress like that? My impression is "yes," and if that's the case then that argues for it being a cultural thing. I suspect it's probably a mix of both, though -- some instinct and some cultural permissiveness/proscription.

In either case, if I had a daughter (I don't have kids at all) and she was dressing like that, or wanting to dress like that, it would bug the hell out of me. Yesterday, at Target I saw a checker who looked about my age (40), who had on a very, very low-cut top, and it was kind of pathetic. It made me think that she'd relied on her looks for most of her life and didn't develop any other ways to be valuable in the world. (But maybe she never had the chance, who knows.)

I'm also shocked by the way that young girls are dressed these days. They give off signals that they want to have sex. They can't see beyond popular culture. I liked the 80s when young girls didn't feel the need to dress like that. I guess that their parents have tried to talk to them, many times. Maybe their parents just don't care. I feel even more uneasy about my birth order when I see girls dressed like that. That stuff is always in your face, as well. Sexism is still alive and well.

Edited due to bad grammar and choice of words.

Last edited by CockneyRebel on 20 Apr 2012, 8:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Actually, this really is a sign of female liberation. Women can afford to wear revealing clothes because the defense "she was wearing a very short skirt your honor, I couldn't help myself" no longer holds up in court. Back when the world was really run by men -- I mean, even more than it still is the case -- women wore very modest clothes, especially married women who no longer needed to attract male suitors. Until the late Middle Ages, it was even customary for married women to hide their hair under a scarf or bonnet (hence the German saying "unter die Haube kommen").

I take women seriously

In countries where sexism is rampant, girls and women wear burqas, niqabs and hijabs, and basically walk around like beekeepers. Revealing clothing is not a sign of a sexist society, it is a sign that women are free to dress in any way they want and enjoy a great deal of legal protection, which allows them to safely enter into an arms race of sex appeal.

No man forces women to dress that way. On the contrary; in strictly male-dominated societies, women are forced to dress extremely modest and puritanical. Those girls are simply trying to keep up with the female competition.

I agree with everything the OP said. It makes me sick to see young girls walking around in skimpy clothes. I really hate it when I see girls who aren't even teenagers yet wearing a bikini at the pool. Heck, I've even seen toddlers wearing bikinis! And don't even get me started on those beauty pageants for children...

my mom has put my 2 year old sister in a bikini... I don't see what is so bad about it. At lunch sometimes (for example spaghetti) my mom will have all the babies take their shirts off so they don't stain them (daycare). Oh SH*T!! !

My sister looked really cute in it, had a bunch of frills and stuff.