It seems to me that every summer women around town can be seen in less and less clothing. It's only April and I've already seen a good number of leg-and-tit parades around Centretown. Hell, I'm even guilty of it! I've even seen pubescent (and often prepubescent) girls out in public with what little they have to show hanging out. Since the advent of "Girl Power" pop music and the over-sexed images that accompanied it in the mid 90's, scantily clad youngsters have been as common a sight as dandelions on a suburban lawn. Women of all ages are partaking in this strange summer ritual of aesthetic sluttery. The question is: Are we trying to beat the heat, or capitalizing on our sexuality, using it to gain attention and power?
We could attribute the steady decline in the amount of textiles required to bridge the gap between summer clothes and underwear to the fact that each summer gets hotter and hotter, but I think that would be little more than a scapegoat to avoid admitting that we women love attention.
Why are women so scantily clad? It would seem that the progression of feminism has taken a turn. I won't say a turn for the worse. The sexually exploitive woman is a relatively new idea. One that has not been perfected, but one that could be very progressive ix executed properly. My main worry is that young women are exploiting themselves (their sexuality, their body and their knowledge) with no particular goal other than to look as good as possible; to look better than the girl next to you.
What many modern women consider empowering is what our mothers and grandmothers fought to abolish. In recent history, stares and catcalls were considered oppressive. Now, they are not only welcome, but enticed. To be a woman lusted after is to be a women empowered.
Here's a question that needs answering: Have men come to expect this? Do the straight men of the world expect constant visual stimulation? Has it gotten to the point that sexual imagery is so abundant that an attractive young women will slip under the radar is she's not dressed to fuck at all times? Not being male, I can not definitively answer this - but I would absolutely love to discuss it further.
I'll be soliciting interviews with some young to middle aged men in the near future, as I am extremely curious as to where they stand on the matter of the less-is-more fashion trend. I'm also be very interested in the lesbian perspective. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you wish to contribute your opinion, debate the issue or even discredit what I've said.
Keep your eyes peeled for a follow-up article.
Yours in short-shorts and a tank top,
Raw Knee
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