Thursday, October 21, 2010

How good does a female athlete have to be before we just call her an athlete? ~Author Unknown

If you know anything about me, besides the fact that I have an almost impossible time keeping my mouth shut, you know that I love live theater, especially musical theater. I've seen more musicals than I can count, many of them more than once. I've seen A Chorus Line three times, The Phantom of the Opera four times (once with Michael Crawford, whose performance moved me to tears) and Cats probably eight or nine times, although one performance was so bad I left at intermission.

So it will come as no surprise that I love the tv program Glee. High school glee club students breaking out in song and dance, just like the old Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney movies.

All the actors who play the students are incredibly talented singers and their performances often makes the hair on my arms stand up straight and my skin tingle with goosebumps.

As I am also certain you have surmised, I am an old school feminist. I think women should be treated equally in all manner and form as men, i.e. be evaluated socially, politically, publicly and privately on their character, capabilities, merits and performance instead of their gender. We need an end to the mentality that women are property, which deprives us of reproductive freedom (we're too stupid or ignorant to make the decision for ourselves) and contributes to the incidences of domestic violence (emotional and physical), sexual harassment and sexual assault.

So, you can imagine my grave disappointment when I saw the article on GQ.com titled 'Glee' Gone Wild, with full blown photos, of members of the Glee cast stripped down to panties, bras, cropped sweaters, knee high socks and hooker heels. It's stuff like this that just chaps my ass.

Glee in GQ


Now, I know these women are not teenagers. They just play the roles of teenagers in a television series. But this show attracts and is watched by many pre-teens and teens. What does this say to our pre-teen and teen girls and boys? I think it screams, Talent is not enough!

God forbid any smart, talented woman ~ you, me, our sisters, our daughters, our granddaughters or someone famous ~ keep their clothes on. God forbid they merely be respected and admired for their intellect or talent alone. It's a good thing they're pretty. What else have they got going for them?

Rant done....

2 comments:

Desperately Seeking Gina said...

You're so right, though. I'm afraid that if I ever do have children, and they're girls- how can I ever teach and foster good self-esteen, self-respect, and self-love with society heading in that direction??

Terri said...

You know, I think it's worse today than it was when I was raising my sons. I don't envy parents raising children now. There are so many more challenges. But, I think you'd do a fine job Gina.