Growing up, I can’t think of any women that I admired more than…*looks down with shame*…the Spice Girls. Now that I think back, I have no idea why I was so desirous of their skimpy clothes and mountain-high platforms. The only explanation that I can think of is society’s blowing up of the music group’s relevance. Girls of course want to emulate women who are talked about, paid extraordinary well and, most importantly, able to stand out in this world of important men. So the questions remain: who are the women that Western society chooses to stand out and stand up as role models? Who is often recognized and who is always ignored? Who is presented to young girls on television, radio and newspapers?
A quick look on Facebook will give you the sad answer to those questions. Margaret Atwood, an important feminist author, has close to 40,000 fans. Kim Kardashian (contribution to mankind unknown) has close to 5,000,000. Megan Fox, star of two movies about alien cars, has close to a staggering 22,000,000! It seems that a woman’s worthiness of recognition falls on a hierarchy of “sexiness” and not real, tangible achievements. It’s not about who deserves to be recognized; it’s about who looks best on the cover of a magazine, frolicking on the beach in a swimsuit.
You really can’t blame the young girls these days who pose in their underwear for pictures that they post online for any males to gawk at. It really is our fault for assuring them that their asses and their tits define their relevance. The longer we keep bowing down to the types of Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, and whoever comes tomorrow; our girls will want to emulate them. Of course, many will grow up, look back and laugh at their old role models (like I’m doing right now), but, be aware, many will give up their hopes of respectable careers for the search of shallow and temporal beauty.
