Earlier this week I noticed an article continuously popping up on my Facebook Newsfeed written by a fellow Odyssey writer entitled, "To Girls Wearing 'Cheeky' Bathing Suit Bottoms, Please Stop." The article essentially said that women who choose to wear swimsuit bottoms that show off a little butt cheek are doing so solely for the purpose of gaining male attention and were embarrassing women as a whole.
Since launching, the article has received massive amounts of hate from women who were offended that their bathing suit preferences were being labeled as "slutty". To me, the article wasn't so much offensive and "self-righteous" (as a few commenters put it), but almost heart-breaking that the hyper-sexualization of women's bodies has gone so far that even we as women are starting to judge each other based on something as silly as a passing fashion trend.
The hyper-sexualization of women is quickly spiraling out of control. Women are constantly shamed for how they look. If we dress in clothes and bathing suits that fully cover our bodies, then we are labeled as "prudes" or "unfashionable", but if we keep up with trends that happen to show off a little more skin, we are labeled as "sluts" and told that we are "looking for male attention".
Even the makeup we wear invites people to judge us on how "sexual" we are. Heavy eyeliner and lipstick mean you get around, a clean face means you don't care about your appearance.
It's 2017 for God's sake and we just can't win.
It's bad enough that men are weighing it on how we can and can't look and what we can and can't do with our bodies, but to have fellow women shaming us for enjoying a fun, summery fashion trend such as cheeky bathing suit bottoms? The situation is absolutely terrible.
Men are allowed to dress how they want and do their hair how they want and go to the gym when they want and decide whether or not to shave and I have NEVER heard someone say to a man, "Oh you're only doing that so girls will be interested in you".
Sure, we all like to look nice when we go out, but it's completely unfair to assume that every layer of makeup a woman puts on or every slinky dress she wears to a night at the bar is done solely for the purpose of attracting a man. Personally, as a woman, the way I choose to dress and the way I choose to do my hair or makeup is purely for my own confidence. If a cute guy out and about happens to find me attractive then that's a great ego boost, but nothing I do when preparing to leave my apartment is done in the hopes of garnering male attention.
And maybe some women do try to look a certain way to impress men. But who cares?! It's THEIR body and it's THEIR choice how they want to look and who they want to look good for.
Telling a woman that's it's "ruining women's dignity" to wear a certain kind of bikini to the beach is just a way to tear other women down and we get that crap so much from men, do we honestly need to be doing it to each other?
Women are people, not sexual objects as we are taught to believe from too young of an age. This is a problem that CAN be fixed, but in order to keep building women up and fighting stereotypes, we have to stop tearing each other down.
