The Naked Truth

I just watched the movie "Selling Innocence" on the Lifetime network. Okay, so Lifetime can be cheesy, but in this case it was awesome. There is a scene in the movie where he main character, Mia, is with her boyfriend, kissing in his car. He tries to take it a little further and she becomes angry. She sums up the ultimate female quandry nicely: "If I dress like this [short skirts, low-cut tops] and put out, that makes me a slut. But if I don't, then I'm an evil tease."

It sounds strange when put so bluntly, but that is exactly what our culture has done to women. Every little girl grows up knowing that sex sells. The biggest compliment a high school girl can get is to be called 'sexy'. But playing up that angle automatically makes her a "slut" who will obviously do anything with anybody. I hate to break it to the male world, but a girl's clothes don't tell all that much about the person inside. Yes, some "easy" girls dress that way. Some don't. It's like everything else; everyone is different.

I was raised to believe that I live in a free country, but the mental and emotional bondage I am forced, as a female, to wear restricts that freedom. Every morning, getting dressed creates a conflict within myself. I was raised in a strict Christian home where modesty was everything and I personally feel self-conscious in overly skimpy clothing.

But I am an 18-year-old girl who wants the approval of her friends and, yes, guys. And wearing "revealing" clothing gets that approval -- along with catcalls, lingering stares at my chest and frustrating come-on lines. So I have to make a choice: do I have the confidence in my body to wear this shirt? Do I have the emotional confidence to deal with the assumptions that go along with it? Usually, I decide it isn't worth the compliments.

I have heard the lectures about women tempting men and understand where they are coming from, but assuming that all men are depraved sex monsters is an insult to many men. I'm not naive; trust me, I know how the male mind works. I also know that most men aren't driven into a sexual frenzy by the mere sight of a shoulderblade and if they are, they need help.

The other ones who need help, are the women who perpetrate this insanity. Whenever I turn on the TV to watch music videos I am assailed by images of barely-dressed women gyrating across the screen. What message is that sending to the little girls who watch it? I don't want my little cousin to grow up believing that she has to live in a string bikini to be liked. And I don't want to waste my time worrying about the conclusions men will draw about me, based on my clothing choices. America is a free country; why can't I wear what I want?

"A woman has a right to walk around naked

and not be raped or murdered."

-- Dr. Marcella Fierro, Chief Medical Examiner (VA)