Two kids in their early teens are having a great time shooting some kind of video on their mobile phones at Junction Station . They’re at that age (say 13?) when the boy is often smaller than the girl. He has not yet hit puberty, while she is resplendent in her new womanly body (albiet with puppy fat) and is wearing little black shorts so tight her butt cheeks are wobbling out the bottom of the legs. This seems to be a source of great hilarity to them.
They’ve got the phone in the corner of the waiting room and as I watch, she leans face against the wall, waggles her bottom at the camera and peers provocatively over her shoulder. He dances up behind her and pats her bottom so that her butt cheeks wobble wildly. They both giggle and rush back to see the result on the phone.
I’m a bit shocked by what I see as the whole sexist objectification of this.
Was it for this that my feminist forebears marched and struggled?
But, you know, this could be just some kind of ironic meme-making that someone of my advanced years is not going to get – ridiculous rather than lubricious.
I hope so anyway.
The whole thing reminds me of the time I saw a young woman at my station wandering around with her shirt undone so that her bra showed. I siddled up and whispered that her bra was showing only to have her smile tolerantly and tell me that it was intended to be so. I felt old that day and I do today.
Is it time to accept that I’m out of date and just give up the ideological stage to so that another generation can have their turn at strutting and fretting upon it, I wonder?
Different values, not necessarily related to age or being ‘out of date’.
Feminists can say it is each woman’s right to wear whatever she(they) wants or behave without constraints, but hopefully, or unfortunately, the ultimate consequences will enable these young women to see the results may not always be amusing or alluring to themselves or others.
Interesting just women have commented so far.
Catherine – was it irksome because she was wearing a bra at all, in defiance of past feminist norms?
Jane – one thing about getting older is the perspective on norms – norms aren’t normal nor do they persist over time. The best bit is we can ignore them and invent our own. My new normal is recapturing an old one – no bra at all in the maximum possible number of circumstances.
Maybe those tweens are sex playing? It’s developmental so no need to worry about them. The young woman with the bra showing, that’s more irksome!