Here’s
a tale of two females, Ariana Grande and me.
This
morning, I really wanted to wear a dress to work. I shaved my legs, looked
through my closet and put on one of my many options. Then I promptly took it
off again.
Why?
Because somehow, someway, even though I haven’t put the thing on for a good
year at this point, and I know I haven’t gotten any taller, the stupid thing
was too short to wear to one’s place of business. For that matter, that entire
section of my wardrobe seemed comprised of dresses that were too fancy or too
flirtatious.
So
I chose a different option even though I didn’t particularly want to. It was
the professional, mature and truly feminist thing to do. After all, I’m at work
to get work done, not to flirt.
Somewhere
on the other end of the spectrum is Ariana Grande, who recently went
into a snit and posted the longest Twitter rant ever. Here’s how it
started, improper capitalization and all:
“being
‘empowered’….. is not the same as being a ‘b*tch’…
HAVING
SOMETHING TO SAY….. is not the same as HAVING A BAD ATTITUDE….
What
I meant when I said what I said about not being Sean’s ex is that I am tired of
living in a world where women are mostly referred to as a man’s past, present
or future PROPERTY / POSSESSION. I… do not. belong. to anyone. but myself. and neither
do you.”
Fast-forwarding
a bit, she continues with, “I come from a long bloodline of female activists,
my aunt Judy was the first Italian american female president of the national
press club in Washington DC. I think she would have been proud of me for
speaking up about something that has been bothering me personally for so long.”
Grande
quotes Gloria Steinem about how men and women are treated differently when
society knows they’re having sex, then goes back to throwing her own two cents
into the ring. “I know y’all already know this but the double standard and
misogyny are still ever present. I can’t wait to live in a world where people
are not valued by who they’re dating / married to / attached to, having sex
with (or not) / seen with…. But by their value as an individual.”
It
goes on from there, but let me stop Ms. Ariana Grande, since I can only take so
much mindless hypocrisy at a time. Her current smash hit “One Last Time” says
she’s “got nothing here without” some boy, who she incidentally cheated on and
is now trying to convince back into bed even though he has a new girlfriend who’s
really good to him.
Then
there’s her previous song, “Love Me Harder,” where she tells some bad boy that
she’ll “take the pleasure… with the pain,” while he describes – rather vividly –
what he’s going to do to her if she can just ignore the fact that he’s treated
previous women like trash.
And
let’s not forget her constant demand for sexual attention, including but not
limited to walking around in provocative outfits, writhing around in bed on her
music videos, and generally behaving like her greatest asset isn’t even her
impressive voice; it’s her legal-but-doesn’t-look-legal appeal to the twisted
fantasies of the opposite gender.
In
other words, she’s walking one walk and talking the same talk except for
moments where she feels personally attacked for doing so. Then she’s all about feminist
empowerment instead of widespread sexual attention.
She
says she can’t wait for a world where women are treated like they have value
other than their fluttering, mascara-coated lashes, their pouty glossed-up
lips, their bared cleavage and their legs stretched to full display by high
heels… while she coats on the mascara, pouts up her lips and bares all either
visually or through her graphic lyrics.
With
that kind of public figure portraying women the way she does, sometimes I have
to wonder why I don’t just put on that unprofessionally short dress after all.
It doesn’t seem like it’s going to make a difference.
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