Kristin,
Thanks so much for your insight, commentary and link to this incredible article. I agree that this is absolutely an identity issue, a self-esteem issue, and a cultural issue. I feel very strongly that as women we have the ability and the responsibility - to ourselves, our children, our families and, truly, our society, to find a way into our own sexuality and self-esteem without it looking quite the way it does inso many of the shallow-minded portrayals in the media...
I also have faith in men; as I've mentioned, I know many of them who genuinely respect and care for women. They want to love and be loved just as women do; they want "real" relationships. They too, as young boys (and I have two young sons who are being swept up in their own way) are vulnerable to the airbrushing and surgically enhanced female forms; are forming their notions of beauty, sexuality and relationships as a result of much of this type of imagery.
Without their self-esteem in tact, a woman feels horribly inadequate compared with the images she sees in magazines and on television and her computer screen. We need to continue to value the positive attributes of sexuality including: creating a relationship, bonding, maturing, pleasuring ourselves and our partner, relaxing, connecting, committing and exploring. By taking these intrinsic aspects of sexuality away and reducing it to bodies and body parts, we all end up missing out on so many precious moments and settle for far less than we really need and desire.
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Kristin,
April 16, 2009 - 1:22pmThanks so much for your insight, commentary and link to this incredible article. I agree that this is absolutely an identity issue, a self-esteem issue, and a cultural issue. I feel very strongly that as women we have the ability and the responsibility - to ourselves, our children, our families and, truly, our society, to find a way into our own sexuality and self-esteem without it looking quite the way it does inso many of the shallow-minded portrayals in the media...
I also have faith in men; as I've mentioned, I know many of them who genuinely respect and care for women. They want to love and be loved just as women do; they want "real" relationships. They too, as young boys (and I have two young sons who are being swept up in their own way) are vulnerable to the airbrushing and surgically enhanced female forms; are forming their notions of beauty, sexuality and relationships as a result of much of this type of imagery.
Without their self-esteem in tact, a woman feels horribly inadequate compared with the images she sees in magazines and on television and her computer screen. We need to continue to value the positive attributes of sexuality including: creating a relationship, bonding, maturing, pleasuring ourselves and our partner, relaxing, connecting, committing and exploring. By taking these intrinsic aspects of sexuality away and reducing it to bodies and body parts, we all end up missing out on so many precious moments and settle for far less than we really need and desire.
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