Posted on 07/27/2007 7:45:54 AM PDT by rhema
Wendy Shalit is loathed by a certain kind of feminist. When as a twentysomething college graduate she published her first book, "A Return to Modesty," she was scorned by The Nation's Katha Pollitt as a "twit," a "professional virgin" who should be given the task of designing "new spandex chadors for female Olympians." Others were less civil.
Shalit, who had raised eyebrows even while at Williams College for opposing co-ed bathrooms in student dorms, has now probably put herself even further beyond the pale by marrying young, giving birth to a son, and looking radiantly happy on the jacket cover of her new book, "Girls Gone Mild."
Her skepticism about the bacchanal we call modern sex is undiminished. The book opens with a discussion of Bratz dolls (sold by MGA Entertainment), apparently aimed at ages "four-plus." "Bratz Babyz makes a 'Babyz Nite Out' doll garbed in fishnet stockings, a hot-pink micromini, and a black leather belt . . . . the baby also sports a tummy-flaunting black tank paired with a hot-pink cap. 'These Babyz demand to be lookin' good on the street, at the beach, or chillin' in the crib.'" Another of the dolls wears heavy red lipstick and bright toenail polish to match red panties. One is almost reduced to sputtering.
For the slightly older set, the "tweens" (girls between 9 and 12), Target markets thong underwear. Apparently you can find "Care Bear" thongs at some retailers and "push-up" bras at Kohl's for the first-time bra purchaser.
American popular culture seems determined to obliterate innocence even in the crib! But Shalit's critique is not so much prudish as pitying. Her deepest insights concern the new repression that has been imposed on young women. Repression? In this "liberated" age? Read on.
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
Good, we need more modest women in the world.
bump
Waiting for the libertarians to show up and tell us, “If you don’t like it, don’t buy it!” in 5....4....3....2....1....
The article included a check list which girls could gage their maturity for sex.
Included on the check list was the ability to separate sex from love.
I wonder if she'll sleep with me.
I ought to read this book. She sounds like a woman after my own heart. Raising 3 daughters to be modest was never hard for me because my husband and I drilled in them that only girls that don’t respect themselves dress like ‘that’ and they are far too good for that, etc etc...It worked. No cleavage or thongs showing in this family for all the world to see...yippee! Self-respecting women are REFRESHING! :)
I don’t think her husband would like that very much.
It's sad to me that the implications of the word "prude" have become so negative. The word originates from the French word prudefemme, which means "worthy or respectable woman".
The word "prude" itself means, according to the dictionary, "a person who is excessively proper or modest in speech, conduct, dress, etc."
What the heck does "excessively modest" mean? Does it mean "insufficiently slutty"? ..."lacking in whoredom"?
Conservative women everywhere should stop being afraid of the word, and stand up and shout, "I'm a prude!"
Husbands can be removed.
>>The article made my blood boil. The article included a check list which girls could gage [sic] their maturity for sex. Included on the check list was the ability to separate sex from love.<<
Actually, I think that the ability to distinguish between mere sex and true love is a very good indicator of maturity.
“Magazines like Cosmo and Seventeen, cultural bellwethers, advise young women to “keep your heart under wraps.” The very worst thing a woman can do, apparently, is to express a desire for some sort of emotional connection or (gasp) commitment from her sexual partner. That amounts to being “boring and clingy,” declare the magazines.”
It sounds like the aticles in these magazines are written by horny young men.
The “feminist” movement and the sexual revolution are NOT in women’s favor - they are in men’s favor. These cultural changes gave men what they are wired for (sex without commitment), and have told women that their inate wiring is wrong.
Carolyn
Expecting women and men to regard sex as nothing more than a physical act, like shaking hands, shows spiritual blindness. It’s also revolting.
What kind of person is intimate with people they don’t love?
You’re exactly right, but women did it to themselves. They self destructed.
Must have touched a nerve, did I? Typical dipwit libertarian response, anyhow.
My favorite stat: Of 1000 young women polled, 996 said that they would be honored if their future husband chose to remain a virgin until marriage. The other four voted "indifferent."
God's laws are designed for our happiness, not to restrict true freedom.
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