Kids today, with their morals and their dignity...

[ricevermicelli]

I'm having an argument with teenagers about Brittany Spears.

I hate Brittany Spears. I think her music sucks, her lyrics are appalling, and she's a total corporate creation, a Disney spinoff trying to have a life. It's hard to take her seriously, artistically, so her numerous artistic failures are irrelevant.

Various kids claim that, by being sexy, Brittany Spears is setting back the cause of women's equality. Women are apparantly not supposed to be sexy. It impedes our quest for equality to be sexy, and Brittany is over the line into trashy. Comparisons to prostitution and porn are flying (I'm trying to point out that production values on porn are lower than those on Brittany's videos and prostitutes don't get custom designer clothes or backup dancers). Women are supposed to be smart and make the world better (direct quote). No sex is involved in this project.

Problems with this stance include:
1. Who wants to be feminist if it means you never get laid?
2. We're supposed to be aiming for equal rights and equal opportunities for everyone (including the opportunity to get laid), not moral superiority over the people with Y chromosomes.
3. If our cause is so weak that one woman can impede it by strapping herself into a tube top and wiggling for the camera, our cause can't be worth much.
4. I think there is a time and place for raunchiness, tackiness and attractive writhing, and if MTV isn't such a place, where the hell is?

I've been trying to sell them on the merits of active, positive female sexuality. They aren't buying. I'm frustrated. THey should be buying. If they'd ever *had* good sex, they probably would be...

Comments

[darxus.livejournal.com]

Was that title at all inspired by Futurama ?

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

I think I saw an episode of Futurama once. So not in this case, but there may be connections.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

My primary issue with Britneys sexuality, and the using of her sexual image to sell her product (Xtina too, far more so actually, particularly if you've seen the Skechers back to school ads), is that they are aiming this over the top sexuality at very young children.

Which is where I think Britney/Xtina and their ilk, actually cross the line into a very particular form of evil darkness.

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

I have not seen these things.

There is a possibility that, even if I had, I would not be all that alarmed. My parents signed me up for dance classes at age four, and then spent the rest of my childhood warning me about ways in which I shouldn't move (very confusing set of messages, massively annoying). It feels *good* to pull those moves. While I understand that adults are disconcerted, I also think we should be encouraging girls (and boys, and human beings) to do things that feel good with their own bodies. Yeah, it's over the top and it appears very sexual, but it bothers me a hell of a lot less than ads, books, movies, television shows, etcetera that encourage children to do things specifically so that children of the opposite sex will like them better, and there are loads of those floating around.

Caveat: I am not a parent. If I was, I might have a different opinion.