Female youth is prized in our culture
Our patriarchal society demands that women strive to achieve
yet maintain a form that resembles a young girl. Our bodies must look young,
wrinkle, and blemish-free, a blank slate for a man to claim.
Instead of accepting women as they are, most men and even some
women, scrutinize and discard them as never good enough, never young enough, and never beautiful enough. And the more women
strive to conform, the more they give up control.
Do strong, opinionated women intimidate weak, insecure men? Yes, I still see it when I talk to some over sixty-ish men, and even younger.
Me: "Oh? What makes you say that?"
Old man: "Just look at them! It would be easier if the wife just obeyed him and didn't make him angry by arguing with him. A woman's job is to take care of the family. Men needs to be in charge to make decisions. Women are too emotional."
Me: "Really!?"
Old man: "Do you obey your husband?"
Me: "Fat chance!" I laughed.
When instead of a mature woman, a 35-year-old actress is playing the role of the mother of a 30-year-old man in movies, what does it teach young teenagers? It teaches them to judge women by their looks alone. When people comment on older women’s posts on social sites, sadly, most of the comments are about how they look and not about what they stand for or achieve.
Female youth is prized in our culture because it doesn't
represent too much of a threat. Insecure men are intimidated by strong, wise, mature women. Women are trained into thinking there is something
fundamentally wrong with getting older and are coerced into spending money,
energy, and power investing in 'slowing the signs of aging'.
The truth is that as women grow and mature, they gain wisdom
and they're more of a force to be reckoned with. They see more, know more, feel
more, and they put up with a lot less bullshit.
Just think about what would happen if all the women in the world
started loving themselves even more with every year that passed, including each
fat roll and wrinkle they gain as they move forward in time. Can you imagine
how much more secure and powerful women would become as they grow older?
I think you are right, there is a lot of focus on how women look more than what they have achieved.
ReplyDeleteWithin the media a woman's age is mentioned, what she is wearing, whether she has her make up on etc.
Yes, and the media scrutinizes women for botched cosmetic surgeries that women wouldn't even go through if the media wouldn't scrutinize every wrinkle, belly fat, and cellulite of women over 30.
DeleteYes I agree with you. Despite all the "politically correct" and "gender neutral" crap being glorified, half-dressed, voluptuous girls are still used by advertisers to sell everything from toothpaste to mortgage loans!
ReplyDeleteExactly! Objectifying women has been the tool of advertisers and the media for a long time. It's been burned into our brains that women must be young and beautiful
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