Sunday, August 3, 2008

"I kissed a girl, and I liked it!"


For those of you that don't keep up with the times, don't panic at my title. I am referring to Katy Perry's new song, "I kissed a girl", that Billboard listed as the #1 single of the week. It is the song of the summer of 2008. In today's day and age, a catchy beat and a hot chick panting lyrics like, "I kissed a girl and I like it, the taste of her cherry chap stick."... is pretty much a fail-safe hit. I like the song, it is really cute and I like singing along with it. It also happens to be just one of the many things in the media today that has me wondering just where it is that woman's lib and the sexual movement has brought us over the past 4o or so years. I want to clearly state that I have absolutely no prejudice towards gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender, or what. ever. ....on the contrary, I don't care in the slightest what your sexual preference is or is not, so long as it does not exploit anyone. I also love most genres of music and listen to anything from Stevie Nicks and U2 to Steve Earl and Garth Brooks. New country, old country or top 40, so long as it has a good beat and doesn't say the word "umbrella" more than a dozen times, I'll listen to anything. Btw, a month ago I had the chance to watch Jewel sing live and a capella. She was out of this world. I secretly have a girl-crush on her, but that is another story. Anyways, on to The Woman's Lib. thing....

Dr. Laura calls me a "shack up honey" or an "unpaid whore" due to my bad ass "out-of-wedlock" behavior so I am hardly going to go and get all preachy on you. A few months ago I was talking to a fifteen year old girl at my barn and was shocked to hear at what is really going on in high school today and how things have progressed in the decade (or nearly) since I was there myself. I wonder whether shows like "Girls Gone Wild" have played a part in this trend and what long term effects this loose lifestyle will have on the youth of today. While I certainly appreciate that I owe my freedom and liberty to the Woman's Lib., I think that at some point the pendulum swung to far to the other side and we are now objectifying ourselves.
I'll admit that I've played the field enough to get pretty good at the game but I never lost my self respect in the process. How many of these "wild girls" will grow up to be emotionally and physically healthy, respectable young women. I am sure that we have all had a 'slutty' friend or two and some of us are guilty of living vicariously through them but most of us have also recognized that most of those women are unhappy, lacking in self confidence and no longer feel worthy of a healthy relationship. Cougars are rarely happy people. Yesterday's walk down memory lane had me thinking about all of the above. Whatever happened to dating? As in, going to the movies, holding hands and maybe neckin' a little. Each generation worries about the moral integraty of the next. Do you remember the scandal over Madonna's "Like a Virgin"? There was even a time when Elvis' swinging hips were considered vulgar. *sigh* Elvis....Times change. I get it.

1 comment:

  1. "... so long as it has a good beat and doesn't say the word "umbrella" more than a dozen times..."

    I'm on board with that one! I don't understand why that song was soooo popular. Drove me frickin nuts.
    Have to agree with the rest of your post too. Not sure how this will effect young girls but I can see that a lot of them will be troubled women. It gets labelled as "empowering" and "expressive" when, IMO, it is the male advertising exploiting young women and trying to pass it off as the females choice.

    ReplyDelete