From the article:
“Feminism has been defined by its struggle for progressive freedoms. But any cage is also a potential protection. So as debate rages – this week around women’s right to the nude selfie, whether public twerking (waggling your semi-naked bottom at an audience) is a feminist act or its primate opposite, and why young women now binge-drink as determinedly and destructively as young men – the question that cannot be discussed is, which of the old repressions, if any, were in fact liberations?……..
But consider the plight of the contemporary she-teen. From age 11 she knows she’s playing to boys whose sexual norms are formed by regular exposure to hardcore porn. In the name of “feminism” she is encouraged to want sex as often and as randomly as boys do.
But this same freedom becomes an expectation; if she declines she’s a prude – uncool, un-hot. Then again, if she has sex, even monogamously, she stands to be bullied and “slut-shamed” on social media, followed for years by a cloud of such viciousness and endurance that some kids see no option but suicide…..
The sexualised selfie is inescapably narcissistic. Posting such images on social media hooks your social worth to your “like” count which – since schmaltzy sunsets, food porn, kitten photos and cleavage always get most likes – is wrong to the point of despair.
Equally disturbing, though, is the “do it, don’t do it” message to which young women are constantly subjected. No wonder they drink. This double standard is worse than the hypocritical ’60s – and worse, I think, than any repression endured by the likes of Bathsheba Everdene.”
Read more:
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/the-online-sexual-double-standard
