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.

[cyborg]

Mixed race marriage was never illegal in the Caribbean so you're right about that.

[Campion]

Similarly, men have always been less bound by standards of virture than women.

Not in Christianity. There's no watered-down version of "Thou shalt not commit adultery" for men.

[johnb838]

THat's because the taxpayers didn't support it.

[Modernman]

Not in Christianity. There's no watered-down version of "Thou shalt not commit adultery" for men.

Sure. So what? In most Western societies, keeping a mistress has been pretty common for men and was generally ignored.

[Campion]

In most Western societies, keeping a mistress has been pretty common for men and was generally ignored.

Not by God, and not by his wife, either.

[A Ruckus of Dogs]

And if you happen to knock a woman up accidently, you would do the honorable thing and marry her so that kid can have a father, right?

[A Ruckus of Dogs]

keeping a mistress has been pretty common for men and was generally ignored

It wasn't that common and it was disapproved of.

[Modernman]

Sure, assuming she decided to keep it. Why do you ask?

[Dat Mon]

You said..."bb you said it right... at no point ever in American history has a black women been seen as virtuous and feminine."

Assuming you are right (we cant know either way)...it would be difficult to establish cause and effect considering the general attitudes displayed towards blacks back in earlier times.

What I do know is what Walter Williams has affirmed...that before the advent of liberal social engineering...the illegitemacy rate among blacks was significantly less than among whites of the same (and perhaps higher) economic level, due I asume, to the tight integration of religion into the black family and community.

[cyborg]

You are right about liberal social engineering.

[Redcloak]

A vast majority of girls are lifting their shirts in public?

The way they dress in high schools, their shirts are already 3 inches above their pants, and no imagination is required to figure out the rest of the story.

So then... Help me out here... Are these girls only 4 inches from their waists to their shoulders? Unless they're the size of a Barbie doll, there's quite a bit above that 3 inches being left to the imagination.

[Mrs.Nooseman]

I also played with Barbies,but I think that even Barbies now a days can send the wrong message,but that all depends on someones point of view,IMO.
My daughter really only played with her Barbie when her friends came over.Like I said she was more of a tomboy and would rather play with her older brothers racetrack or action figures.

Now that she is 12 her more feminine side shows.She is now more interested in things that girls her age are into,with restrictions of course.We as parents don't believe in having boyfriends and such things at this age and made it very clear to both kids.The older brother,by 5 years, sets a very good example for his younger sister.

We of course can't stop her from having a crush,but I sure as heck won't give in for her to act up on this feeling.
So far she has respected our strict rules and wishes without a problem.

The same friend ,I mentioned earlier had the same rules with her oldest,but gave in to her daughter by allowing the boy she had a crush on into her house,thinking that this doesn't constitute dating.Needless to say that the stepfather,who raised her as his own from age 2,didn't agree.She was supposed to be the role model for his to girls,out of the marriage to my friend.The older daughter is not a bad kid and she hasn't gotten pregnant or anything like that,in fact she is still a virgin.I guess what I am getting at is that this mom keeps sending the wrong message to her kids.

My husband and I set the same rules for both of our kids,despite of one being a boy and the other a girl and have stood by them.
We don't differentiate between the sexes to make sure that both are raised the same.

[Campion]

No, their tops are skin-tight.

[AnAmericanMother]

Actually, Queen Elizabeth, her dad, and his dad were pretty well behaved - got made fun of for being "bourgeois" royals. Edward VIII was more typical.

But before that, the royals were extremely naughty (some scandal even surrounded Queen Victoria, a/k/a "Mrs. Brown"). Her son Edward VII was a legendary roue, and of course George III's various sons (including Victoria's father, the egregious George IV (Prince Regent), and the Duke of Cumberland (who murdered his valet and was accused of committing incest with his sister), collectively called by the Duke of Wellington "the damndest set of millstones around the neck of a nation".

But I was thinking more of the likes of Caro Lamb or the Duchess of Devonshire, or maybe Earl Ferrers, who was hanged for murder and delivered to the dissectionists.

[opineapple]

(Maureen Down) titled her ramble, “Men Just Want Mommy”, and it is essentially the wretched rationalization of one who fought on the losing side of a war. Maureen, like so many other mindless, ungrateful feminists, thought she could have it all. She could be famously successful at work and then find a man later. ...

Why on earth would anybody want to marry a woman who was not old-fashioned? Marriage is an old-fashioned arrangement. If a woman is non-traditional there is no reason to marry her. What do you get out of marrying a radical?

Dowd's Your Mommy by Bernard Chapin

[Redcloak]

If their tops are skin tight, then how do the "vast majority" of these girls wrestle their tops up to flash their hoo-hoos? I'm having some problems with this visual.

[Campion]

If their tops are skin tight, then how do the "vast majority" of these girls wrestle their tops up to flash their hoo-hoos?

I don't mean to say that the vast majority are flashers. The vast majority are dressing immodestly. A skin-tight top with belly showing (that's what I meant by "shirts up") and low cut jeans is immodest, distracting, and not an appropriate thing to wear, at least not to school.

[Redcloak]

Unless you're Amish, showing a little midriff isn't the same as lifting your top up to expose your breasts. You're making much ado about nothing.

[Gabz]

I know what you mean about some of the Barbies sending the wrong message.......I'm very picky about what kind of clothes I buy for the doll.....I try to stick to the traditional styles, like evening gowns, like I had as a kid and stay as far away from the "slutty" stuff as possible. We're trying our best not to send her mixed messages.

It sounds like you and your husband are doing a wonderful job raising your kids. Good for you.

We only have the one and she bounces between real girlie-girl and tomboy. For Christmas she wanted a new baby doll........and hot wheels cars. LOL!

[opineapple]

"In practice, the sexual liberation of women has realized men's most predatory sexual fantasies. As women shook themselves free from the norms and conventions of sexual conduct, men did the same."

Feminism and the Unraveling of the Social Bond