We've come a long way, baby?

I like being a woman.

But not when other members of the fairer sex dress as if fabric were nearing extinction, or make like creatures that have only one thing in mind (clue: it's not food, clothing or shelter, or even shopping). Okay, maybe they don't have that exactly in mind, but the way they cavort in front of the cameras, they put only one thing in the minds of the guys around them (and it's not cars, sports or food, or even gadgets).

One thing's for sure: if we don't want to bring out the best in men, these are the girls to imitate. And if we want to see just how much the original women's movement has regressed over the past decades, this is the way to do it.

We’re a long winter away from spring break, but the infomercials promoting “Girls Gone Wild” (GGW) have already begun. The newest rage for the week-long spring-break beach party for high school and college students is soft-core-porn videos showing girls at vacation destinations flashing the cameras or making out with each other.

The wild girls get nothing out of the exposure except, perhaps, a GGW hat, while the mostly male film crew, production staff and management are living well at the resorts and getting rich off the profits from the low-rent productions. Yet, ironically, the crews don’t have to search for girls; they have girls begging to be on-camera. The girls claim that they are having fun, that it is sexy to show off their cute little clothes and tan, buff bodies.

So this is where feminism has taken women? This type of “sexual liberation” replaces objectification? These girls grab the chance to engage in sexual games where they are just “a piece of meat”?

Sadly, guys are the ones selling the “wild girls” idea. Justin Timberlake sports one of the GGW ball caps. Brad Pitt distributed DVDs about GGW as gifts to fellow actors in a recent movie. Rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg hosted one of the GGW videos. But the girls (most of whom are drunk) are piling on (often, literally begging for the opportunity to pile onto the floor to gyrate with each other for the cameras).

In other instances, crowds at the beach apply merciless pressure as guys taunt the girls into a teasing, simulated bedroom romp. Gangs surround girls like they are a tourist attraction –– begging them to strip off their tops . . . or bottoms … or both! Ultimately, the girls who refuse are accused of being “too uptight” and encouraged to “just let go.”

Christie Hefner, daughter of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and Chairman/CEO of Playboy Enterprises, talks about today’s women feeling a “bit rebellious” and “in-your-face” about their sexuality. She thinks that contemporary women view sex “more in line” with the guys, “but in a fun way, frisky is a good word.” So, the Playboy philosophy continues its indoctrination –– women have to behave like the bad guys; otherwise, they are uptight prudes. The girls are fed the myth that impersonal promiscuity is “fun” and being “frisky” is expected and acceptable behavior (in contrast to the horror of being considered uptight or prudish).

The real story, though, is what happens to those girls who give in.

Read the rest.

Girls gone wild
By Janice Shaw Crouse