Man or miniskirt

I'm not suggesting I should ever dispense fashion advice – clearly I have none to offer (especially on a campus already up to its visible panty line with Uggs). However, after reading the Washington Post’s article “Goodbye to Girlhood” it strikes me that personal fashion statements are not only propagating scantily-clad campus trends. They are also rapidly seeping over into the real world to pollute the standards of a younger generation and possibly threaten the future of our traditional societal structure.\nThe article depicts young girls obsessing over their body images after being bombarded with media saturated in sexualized images of women. So what do fifth graders obsessed with magazine articles titled “Get a Fierce Body Fast” and a new wave of eating disorder patients that are as young as 5 or 6 years old have to do with the fashion statements of college students? Everything. \nLike it or not, college students are role models, and what’s more important than preaching about respect and holding only the highest standards is an examination of our economical position as a highly catered to demographic. What we deem acceptable becomes trend-setting gold, and like any business would, television, magazines, Internet sites and clothing designers cater to our tastes as much as possible, unknowingly creating a cycle that overwhelms girls as young as 5 years old with our sexual tastes. It leaves them with heightened rates of eating disorders, low self-esteem and depression, already “three of the most common mental health problems of girls and women.”\nIt’s about respect, but, before you even dare to think I’m a feminist, perish the thought! I’m more deeply concerned with how this cycle of women objectifying themselves affects boys and young men. If this system is raising girls to equate a so-called quality guy with one whose only criteria for interest in them revolves around low-cut jeans and “eye candy” panties, then our society is breeding men who aren’t even worth the spandex tights worn to attract their kind. \nThough as college women, we have no shortage of wonderful role models for ourselves, (the first woman president of Harvard, the first woman Speaker of the House, the first woman as a serious contender for the presidency, and for the sake of bipartisanism, a powerful woman secretary of state) but do men? \nIf K-Fed and Justin Timberlake suggest anything to young boys it’s that sculpted abs are serious criteria for determining a man’s worth in society and to women.\nSadly, this system creates pseudo-men who could never handle, much less provide for such women who wield power as well as command respect. And while surely prominent women leaders had their share of past fashion disasters, I highly doubt that the miniskirt/thong combination was ever considered when courting the kind of “provider” that has been pivotal in America’s traditional family system.\nSo when it’s time to replace those over-worn spandex (it’s last season anyway) ask yourself what its worth. Is it worth creating a system where women only command attention as sexual images and men sink to the low standards we hold them to? Think again.