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My local paper ran a picture with Rachel Ray and Jessica Simpson. The tag line on the bottom read something like " Jessica Simpson and Rachel Ray take a break after meeting to solve world hunger, the economic crisis, cure cancer and stop global warming.'"
While any and all of those things are admirable, and I do know that the local paper was being facetious, it still struck me as funny.
So I googled Rachel and Jess and this is the clip I found.
If you watched the whole thing you might have to have a injection of something to counteract the sweetness of it all, but beyond that there are just so many things that I find disturbing about it!
First Jessica walks off towards the audience completely the wrong way. While the sweet little girl is crying in Rachel's arms about actually meeting her 'role model' Jessica.
Role model? Really? Wrong-way Finnigan would be a better role model!
And the first thing she says to Jess is " You are my everything."
To which Jess replies, something vapid- " Just keep on keepin' on."
What? That's a catch phrase from waaay back in the 70's! Keep on doing what, exactly?
Being blond?
Being able to skate and chew gum while tossing long blonde curls around?
Being able to maintain that cute little body?
How about being able to walk with grace on heels- something which Jessica is still working on evidently.
The young girls room is plastered with posters of Jessica, posing.
Can anyone say 'objectified'? I am a child of the 70's new women's movement and all that- but I was hoping that we had gotten past the need for making 'pretty' something to strive for.
I thought maybe SMART would be something a young woman might aspire to instead.
'Graceful' would be up there too, maybe 'independent'.
Now my daughters say I am being just an old curmudgeon, that I am jealous of Jessica Simpson and her blinding good looks.
That ain't so. I could turn a head or two in my day- and I think there are a whole lot of women out there that are good-looking AND smart. ( And not in politics I might add)
All I'm saying is if you are going to use your sweet as sugar, pretty as a day in May brand of niceness, use it to inspire girls like that for a reason.
Maybe you can't really solve world hunger or cancer, but at least be serious about trying.
6 comments:
As a child of the seventies who ran ramps (modeled) as a way of making money for college, I too am appalled at young women today. You're so right, what happened to wanting to be smart and independent and an interesting woman? Where did it go?
I am not saying that they have to stop wearing makeup and start looking like a description coined by that great midtwentieth century populist, Mr. Fred Sanford, "the little outhouse on the prairie." All I'm saying is that why can't they try to be just slightly intellectually curious.
Maybe it has to do with the denigration of liberal arts, or glorifying beauty pagents for five year olds, or the media turning nitwits like Paris Hilton and Jessica Simpson into roll models. But somehow we have made a serious wrong turn with young women and I don't know how to get it back.
As a child of the seventies who ran ramps (modeled) as a way of making money for college, I too am appalled at young women today. You're so right, what happened to wanting to be smart and independent and an interesting woman? Where did it go?
I am not saying that they have to stop wearing makeup and start looking like a description coined by that great midtwentieth century populist, Mr. Fred Sanford, "the little outhouse on the prairie." All I'm saying is that why can't they try to be just slightly intellectually curious.
Maybe it has to do with the denigration of liberal arts, or glorifying beauty pagents for five year olds, or the media turning nitwits like Paris Hilton and Jessica Simpson into roll models. But somehow we have made a serious wrong turn with young women and I don't know how to get it back.
I think this is a duplicate
Another thought. All young people have to rebel. The more tied they are to their mothers, the stronger the rebellion. It really is part of growing up. How better to rebel against an independent, intellectual mother, than to try and be a Jessica Simpson wannabe. Problem is, when they've closed off all of their options and they're thirty. Life is not quite the same.
Back in the day, there was a book all of my friends and I read, it was called "The Woman's Room," It should be required reading for all young women.
It might also be instructive for them to understand, that you and I did not start the women's movement, our mothers did. They did for reasons they will, unfortunately, come to understand.
This probably isn't a rant I should get started on.......but can't resist. My take on this would be many girls of today don't have to DO for anything because their parents provide it all for them. Because of that they have no sense about needing to take provide for themselves. Hence, the believe they can afford to be cute dingbats. Wait until the real world hits them in the face..... but for now they think being successful does mean being mirrors of Jessica and Paris.
Just letting those two names roll off my fingertips as "role models" makes me cringe.
Ohhh...let me tell you...trying to raise a teenage girl today is tough. I have to remind my daughter a lot that taking care of oneself so that they are healthy is the secret to beauty, that learning is something she needs to never stop doing and that a personality is an absolute must in life.
It's amazing to me the number of kids these days that have the personality of a stick. They are so wrapped up in all of their little electronic gadgets that I don't think a lot of them actually interact with people much. Texting someone you are in the same room with? R.e.a.l.l.y??? Give me a break!
And even their cutsie little 'family' shows have them being bombarded with overly dramatic d.r.a.m.a created by selfish, but gorgeous and dressed to the nines teenage girls.
I guess that makes me sound like a kumudgen too? LOL
Isn't Jessica the dumb blond that didn't know tuna was "Chicken of the Sea"? Yep, what a role model.
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