What Has the Feminist Movement Done to Modesty -- And American Girls?

Human Events Online ^ | Feb. 16, 2005 | Linda Chavez

[MisterRepublican]

If you watch a lot of cable television, you've probably seen the ads, especially late at night or early in the morning. The "Girls Gone Wild" videos promise to show you coeds behaving badly on the beach during Spring Break or getting down and dirty at Mardi Gras. The formula is simple: find a group of nubile young things drunk out of their heads and induce them to pull up their T-shirts or pull down their shorts and expose themselves to anyone willing to fork over $19.95 for the privilege. The most recent incarnation features gangster rapper Snoop Dogg hawking fresh, young flesh.

Call me old-fashioned, but I just can't imagine what these girls were thinking when they agreed to "show off their assets," as one knock-off video boasts. These young women aren't pros -- they are not part of the pornographic underworld -- but ordinary teens and twenty-somethings who one day will be wives and mothers. One young girl, who was 17 at the time she allowed herself to be photographed topless, has already sued the producers of "The Guy Game," a video game featuring females in various stages of undress. Her suit claims she did not give a "valid or enforceable consent or release" for photos to be used by the video game makers. "Plaintiff is still a teenager and wishes to attend college, develop her career and be active in her community and church." Good luck.

What is most shocking about this phenomenon is that we're not all that shocked by it. Modesty used to be considered a natural female attribute. No more. Just take a look around next time you're at the mall.

[the invisib1e hand]

actions have consequences. bear them. (pun intended).

[Dashing Dasher]

I agree - many young woman have lost all sense of decency and with that goes their self esteem. The downward spiral continues ....

What are their parents teaching them?
Why would anyone think this was a good idea?
How low will they go?

I am hoping the rebound towards moral values reaches these women.

[mlc9852]

Anyone who has seen MTV or many of the tv shows on now knows young girls are affected by the media. No surprise there. It's just sad that one day most of them will regret their behavior. Our culture continues to deteriorate.

[Boardwalk]

Well, I'm sure that it's still the same as when I was in high school. The girls had individual, private showers, because of modesty, while the boys showered in a big herd.

[68skylark]

This article illustrates "the fallacy of the idealized past." Chavez pines for an imagined past of female modesty, chastity and purity -- a past which she compares unfavorably to the grubby present-day. It's a very common flaw of the left and the right.

In fact, the past was more sordid, grubby and immodest than anything we can now imagine.

[SedVictaCatoni]

I just can't imagine what these girls were thinking

As she said in the first paragraph, they were "drunk out of their heads". Where's the mystery?

[HamiltonJay]

Ladies, please keep this proverb in mind... it is as true today as the day it was written.

Like a gold ring in a pig's snout is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion.

[Dashing Dasher]

Missing your point....

Modesty imposed on them in HS makes them lift their shirts for a camera?

[Awestruck]

Female modesty was forced into the closet in the 60's... every attempt for it to see the light of day since then has been publically ridiculed and its devotees labled "prudes"...

[maica]

I hadn't been in the halls of a public high school for about 10 years when circumstances bought me there last year. I was jolted by the contrast between the way girls were dressing and the way boys were dressing. The school was a suburban very middle class high achieving institution.

The girls dressed like streetcorner sex trade workers did (again ten years ago.) I can't imagine how far hookers have gone in attire in these intervening years.

But the boys --- they were covered from head to toe in supersized baggy tops and pants. Are the girls becoming the aggressors in school? Are the boys feeling diminished and 'hiding'? It would seem that Laura Bush's message that it is time to focus on the needs of boys is long overdue, if this outward expression of 'self-esteem' is any indication.

[MonroeDNA]

Expect your post to be ignored. The church ladies are in a tizzie.

[maica]

In fact, the past was more sordid, grubby and immodest than anything we can now imagine.
%%%%%%


Examples??

[keats5]

This weekend I attended my daughter's gymnastics meet. I sat in front of a mother who was telling a woman beside he that she wished her daughter (approx 10 years old) would get her naval pierced. She thought it wold look "darling."

I think some kids are simply not taught modesty. It's not hard. We just need to parent our young.

I have a beautiful daughter, and I've taught her to be modest. She actually enjoys being known for her long, spiraling old fashioned skirts, and refuses to wear shorter skirts unless they're skorts, which keep her covered.

It started when she was young, and we taught her to keep her knees together and her feet on the floor when she wore skirts, because "ladies did not show their underware." Since she's a gymnast, I tell her to wear pants if she thinks she might be tempted to do her flips, even if she's just hanging out with her family.

[twas]

Feminists used to decry the sexual exploitation of women by men.

Feminists have succeeded in "empowering" women to take control of their sexuality.

The result is that now women are free to exploit their own sexuality.

We're pretty much right back where we started when feminists where decrying "exploitation" only now they don't have the men to bash.

YOU GO GIRL!

[pawdoggie]

This article illustrates "the fallacy of the idealized past." Chavez pines for an imagined past of female modesty, chastity and purity -- a past which she compares unfavorably to the grubby present-day. It's a very common flaw of the left and the right. In fact, the past was more sordid, grubby and immodest than anything we can now imagine.

Not reading your history is a common failing of the ignorant. In fact, women in this country had an incredible sense of modesty (often criticized by the Hugh Hefner's of our land) from the earliest days of our Republic right up until the 1920's. This may explain why sexual assault was virtually unheard of, and why (in public at least) women were treated with a seemingly exaggerated courtesy and respect, right up until the the middle of the 20th Century.

[cinives]

Not in my school they didn't. It was one long tunnel of showerheads, and the gym teacher stood there to ensure that ALL took showers. Yuck.

[ChocChipCookie]

How far back in the past are we talking about? The 1940's or the Roman Empire?