As my dear friend Helen said on the message board we frequent:
The American public voted for a man with turnip mush for brains twice. Young girls look up to rich, entitled, slow-witted princesses named 'Paris', 'Lindsay' and 'Britney'. Meanwhile, more people than ever think the earth was created in six days, The Wholly Babble is a work of non-fiction dictated to random, beardy, earthly secretaries by a giant, inexplicably angry sky pixie that is the boss of the world and that evolution is a big Communist plot or something. Does that answer your question?
She is so right. It seems to me that in the past 6 years since 9/11, America has just gotten dumber, more violent, and more committed to oppression via religion. I've come to the point in my life where I'm fairly certain there is no god, and if there is, piss-poor job its doing. What god would allow this kind of dumbfuckery in the world? Besides, if this so-called "god" would see my gay friends sent to "hell" and me in the kitchen barefoot and pregnant for the rest of my days, then I don't want to believe in it anyway. I think that we're in a seriously dangerous time, and as dangerous as it is for grown-ups, well, for once I say think of the children. Especially little girls.
THESE ARE THEIR ROLE MODELS, PEOPLE.
I mean, come on, take a long hard look at these hot messes. What stuns me is how completely and utterly...average these girls are when you strip them of their makeup and clothes. When you take away the smoke and mirrors, and preconceived notions, they are three young women who are in serious trouble. What keeps me from feeling sorry for them is their complete disregard for the safety and well-being of others and their disgusting sense of entitlement. Britney drives with her kids on her lap and fills their lungs with cigarette smoke all day, Paris has probably given the herp to 3/4 of Los Angeles, and Lindsay has endangered countless people's lives with her coke'n whiskey joyrides. On top of all that, these girls are hopelessly fucking stupid. They're shallow and insipid, and what's worse, they encourage people to be just as shallow and insipid as they are.
I think about my childhood and young teen years, and while being smart came with its share of teasing, I had a lot of great role models. The musicians I listened to coming of age were smart ladies like Tori Amos and Shirley Manson. The television shows I watched were smartly written dramas like My So-Called Life. I mean, sure there was a fair share of crap, but I never felt like I had to flash my girlparts at people for validation. The interwebs and digital cameras have not helped. As soon as something "wholesome" (and god awful, but hey) like High School Musical comes along, nearly instantly nude photos of an underage Vanessa Hutchens are all over the intarweb in a matter of seconds. Where is the Tori Amos for these girls? Where is the Claire Danes? Where are the smart, sexy, CLASSY women for these girls to look up to? In the 90's, for every Courtney Love there were at least a few PJ Harveys.
And don't even get me started on the dumb bints from The Hills. Just don't. Don't get me going on Laguna Beach. This is where the age gap comes in. It baffles me to no end that women MY AGE watch this show. I do not understand how anyone could look at those girls and say "OMG THEY R SO KEWL!!11". No. No, they're not cool. They're spoiled, entitled, and vapid. There is nothing I envy about those girls, except maybe their money. I think of all the things I would do with it besides be a shallow, self-absorbed retard.
It makes me really angry that smart girls aren't getting their due. It pisses me off that for every Tina Fey there are a thousand Lindsay Lohans. Let Lindsay be reminded that it was Tina Fey's brilliant script that got her where she was, not her stupid antics. At the same time though, the utter schadenfreude that people are experiencing watching the decline of these women is unsettling. It smacks of misogyny and this idea that men are allowed to be thuggish and crass while women are expected to be receptacles for sperm and something pretty to be seen and not heard. But that's another post for another day.
I rally all my smart girls around me. We're needed in this world.
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Love this entry. It's so right on and pretty much echoes my thoughts of late.
Oh, man. I love how you wrote about this. I worked with kids for three summers at a camp and plan on getting into teaching because of the experience. I totally agree with you about the awful role models, especially for the girls. It's so disgusting. Wouldn't our great-grandmothers and grandmothers be so shocked to see that half of America's women have taken so many steps backwards in the feminist movement? There's much more honor in staying at home and cooking, cleaning and taking care of children than what these young jailbirds are doing these days. Please don't give up, though. Young girls don't really want to live like the moron magazine cover girls. They just need to know that there is more to offer in this world and it's up to the good role models and mentors to teach them. There is so little the public can control in regards to the media, but if we all focus on our own communities, we can change things. Smart will always be cool. Being good will always be cool. Nobody can tell you differently.
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