I have sworn to avoid at all costs being one of those middle aged people bitching about kids today. I have a theory (among many) that the day you get old is the day you start privileging your own youth over the youth that is happening right now. Despite all that, I cannot help but ponder these kids today.
Do you all remember those righteous feminist singers from the 90s, Salt 'n' Pepa? Do you remember how they were going to go out, get laid, do it on their terms, and if you didn't like it, well, too bad:
If I wanna take a guy
Home with me tonight
It's none of your business
If she wanna be a freak and
Sell it on the weekend
It's none of your business
Where are their god-daughters?
I think it probably started about ten years ago with Poor Britney (in my world, she is always Poor Britney). Poor Britney's mother let her make a video in which she vamped around in a slutty school girl outfit, moaning and writhing. But, she swore to her own virginity again and again. Youthful sexuality, in other words, was co-opted and fetishized by, corporate media.
Here's my theory in a nutshell: the hardest thing about being a young woman or a girl is that it is implied in nearly every societal aspect that you are in charge of the sex that happens. In the natural order of things, boys are led around by their dicks and girls keep them in check. The girl's number two job, by the way, is to be sexy for the boys.
So back when I was one of those young women, it was inspiring and empowering to see these hot women talking about doing it and doing it because they wanted to NOT because some guy talked them into it. Do young women have those kinds of role models now? Or is it always crap like Katy Perry kissing a girl, which I'd like to rename "I Kissed a Girl Because the Straight Boys Think That's Hot"
We seem to be regressing into a pop culture in which female sexuality is defined by the boys. That sucks. I blame George Bush (why not)? Here's a little Salt 'n' Pepa:
