An article I wrote for my high school newspaper...it's not perfect but my feminist thought began here...
“Get your groove on but leave your freak at home.” When I hear this statement around school at dance time, like most students at Murrieta Valley High, I laugh. However, I don’t laugh because I think it is ridiculous, I laugh because, to me, the “freak” has become a part of teenage culture in modern society that needs to be left in the dust forever.
Personally, I’m very misanthropic. Misanthropy is the general dislike, distrust, or hatred of the human species. Don’t get me wrong. I love certain individuals, but in general, I’m disgusted with what I see in the general population of America.
My misanthropy is fueled when I walk around campus and I look around and watch people. I see things that, for lack of a better term, disgust me completely.
I see couples making out, practically having sex, in empty hallways, with the guy’s hands gently creeping up the girl’s tight pants to come to rest on her backside. I see girls walking around with clothes that are screaming, “Hey! Objectify me!” I see guys wearing baggy jeans exposing their underwear.
Now, I’m all for freedom of expression and speech. That is not the issue. The main issue is this: As teenagers, we demand a sense of independence and respect; however, we will not gain the respect we want, if we don’t respect ourselves.
For example, I have seen, on many occasions, female students at our school wearing Playboy bunny signs, or Hooters t-shirts. I’m an extreme feminist, and I believe that women are not treated equally as they should be in society. But when I see female students wearing things like that, I get angry.
Women have had to fight against patriarchy and unequal treatment for hundreds of years. Since the passing of the U.S Constitution, women have been unequal to men. Women weren’t even given the right to vote until 1920.
Even after the Women’s Liberation movement in the ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s, women are still unequal and objectified by men. Women constantly have this image of how they should look, act, and think pushed on them by movies, music and T.V.
So ladies, think twice before you gladly accept that image that the media places upon you when you wear that short skirt and Hooters t-shirt.
Guys and girls, leave the intense physical intimacy for times when you are intensely alone. One, it’s not fair to those of us at school that don’t feel like watching the two of you attempt to quench the thirst you have for each other. Two, you are making it harder for the rest of us teens to get respect and independence, and it hinders us from breaking free of the image of what “we teens” are.
So when “you teens” are dancing and having fun at our school dances, don’t debase your fellow teenagers by dancing in an attempt to get as close to sexual intercourse as you can, and just enjoy the company of one another instead
I mostly agree, but it's harder for me to dislike girls these days for wearing revealing or suggestive clothing simply because we're kind of stuck. Yeah, we have a choice not to do it, absolutely. But there's this pressure placed on girls from a young age to be cute, then pretty, then hot, then sexy, and this idea that if we're not the above, we're not valuable. No matter what other strengths we have, there's still this attitude that being hot is kind of like the rent we pay for living on this world and we OWE it to everyone to look hot. It's tough. So I can't so much blame other girls and say, "stop objectifying yourselves!" when the rest of the world is doing that to us already.
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